Two posts in two days... we may be going for a record here

I just wanted to update two things...
first these are the total number of stampettes so far.

I found that if I was relatively careful I could use the piece I cut out as a different stamp, which is nice for my sloppy "rustic" ways.  I did that with the triangles I cut out of the wagon wheel and with the wine glass that I cut out of a narrow left over piece.

I have backed most of the bigger stampettes with a third layer, as I did with the one I cut through too vigorously, and it does improve the stamping.  So I think I will stop now for a while and see how well they last.

THE JOURNAL

I had a couple of off list questions about what I was stamping these samples in.  (Surprises me that people read this as much, I am sure as it does you).

I found this big old Record book from 2013 in the "Library" that I created for the building that I live in.  I found people were tossing out decent books when they moved etc. so I scrounged some shelving and now we have a place where your books can live til someone else wants to read them.  It is interesting what shows up... why anyone would think that people want a 1964 book on calculus is a mystery to me... but if they have interesting pages I dissect them and keep the pages I like.   SO, earlier this year, some one left this:

and I just couldn't let it sit there unused.  SO I use it as a "studio journal".  I took a class from Sharon B. ages ago called An Artists Studio Journal, a Designer Workhorse and I loved it.  It looks like she isn't teaching it much anymore, but it made me think differently about how things marinate together in my mind.  So this is the current iteration of the Journal.  I slam everything in here, tear outs from the Times, printouts of things... articles and pictures that I love online, notes from friends, trash from the street and samples of inks and things I use.  I have several of these which I have used over the years since taking the class and they are wonderful brain stimulators. 

This one was obviously not designed to be stuffed, so I cut out hunks of pages as I go so it will sort of close...

and things hang out of pages, and sometimes neatness rules, but that is rare...

everything from Zen Master musings to David Bowie lyrics to new pen tryouts...  

Works with how my brain works and every time I open it or do something in it I think how lucky I was to have Sharon teach that class!!!!!!!

*** Added later: I just ran spellcheck on this post. It didn't like the word wagon combined with wheel.  I knew it would not like stampettes because I think I made that up.  But it also didn't like stimulators????? oh dear.  is my grasp on English going? 

Maybe I invented this...

I am absolutely not sure ... In any case, for a non- OCD person like me, it is a great idea.

I just made these.  I hate perfection in stamps or in stencils or in anything that looks "manufactured" so I tend to make my own stamps etc.  Cutting them takes time, and mine are always a little rough.  What I did here, which is MUCH faster than "real" stamp carving is to stick together, using the sticky backs, two Sticky Back Foam Sheets... when stuck together they looked like this:

and then I used my smallest Xacto blade and cut patterns, having drawn them first with a Sharpie.

In one I got a little enthusiastic with the Xacto and cut through both layers in a couple of places, so on that one I cut another square from a third Foam Sheet and stuck that to the back to hold it together.

I actually like this better, as it is a bit firmer when it prints so I may well do it to the others too.  Main thing is ... they print!!!

Will they last forever? probably not but they will be "rustic" which I love and quite inexpensive and fast to make.  I am loving the ease of making a bunch quickly. 12  sheets of sticky back foam are about $8 on Amazon and I made about a dozen squares and a few long thin stamps from 2 sheets. 

FUN!!

MOMA to see Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty...

But on the way there was this:

 It is a walkway between two blocks in the 50's and I have always loved the soaring space with the street out there...

And once there I saw this....

More about Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty is here. You can see the hand of the artist and his fingerprints in some of the prints, it is an amazing show.