SEPTEMBER 18TH 1999

For the last couple of years I've toyed with the idea of carving my own rubber stamps, but my attempts have been pretty appalling. However in the last few months, after reading John Held JR's rubber stamp book and a copy of Eraser Carvers Quarterly, I decided to give carving rubber a go.

My first stamp was a fairly crude self portrait that, as luck would have it, if you half closed your eyes, kind of vaguely resembled me. As this stamp turned out ok I tried my hand at a more complicated image, that of Bob, the BLAH mascot. Bob first appeared on the cover of issue one of BLAH and so I've grown rather attached to the little fella. I carved the image using a scalpel and a block of Uncle Walters Carving Block. It took me hours, and I made a right mess. But here he is. I'm sure more experienced carvers use special tools but my trusty scalpel did me fine. Over the coming months, as I carve more stamps, I will document this activity here.