A few weeks ago I found myself totally riveted by Filth Wizardry's blog post on stamping, using plasticine to make amazing prints. I used to love stamping as a child. And who didn't? Ink, paper, and magic. I loved that breathless anticipation as I waited to see what would emerge when I lifted my hand.
As far as crafts go, printing and stamping have that blend of stillness (as you press down and wait for the ink to set) and instantaneousness that just appeals to little kids. We spent a whole happy afternoon making many different kinds of stamps while little A. cooperatively napped.
Do check out the link above, as well as this one from Floating Ink - I love her handcarved stamps! Have any of you carved your own stamps? I'd love to carve stamps like these someday.
Here are photos of our session. There was stamping with erasers and plasticine and wiki stix, using toothpicks, cutters, sharp pencils, and so forth to carve our designs.
(Hmm....I seem to have a thing for birds right now, don't I?! I tried them in every way - molded as well as in low and high relief.)
In the end I think that it was beeswax, (which we collect stray bits of in a jar on our windowsill) which made for the most durable stamps.
My kids have also made prints with potatoes and lotus root at school. Lotus root was particularly beautiful. What else can you think of to stamp and print with?
Now the fun part: a little giveaway to celebrate autumn, since it seems to finally be cooling down in Japan.
These sweet little stamps are not handcrafted, though they do look like it. There's a little autumn-themed stationery set too. Comment below and tell me one craft you'd love to learn, to enter the giveaway. For an extra entry, join Origami Mommy on Facebook, so I can start putting blog updates on there. You can also tweet about this giveaway - just be sure to let me know. I'll pick a winner at random two weeks from now, on Friday November 5th at 8 PM EST!
