So, here goes!
Materials
First thing you'll need to get is the materials. One thing I like about eraser carving is it's simplicity. All you need, really, is just an eraser, and something to cut/carve the eraser with.
Erasers
Penknife
Yup, that's all you need. (Ok, you need inkpads or paint to actually use the stamp too! More on that in the inking section below.)
But of course, if you want to go deeper into it... there's more.
For one, there are different types of erasers. Erasers can differ in their material and hardness, giving a different carving experience and end product. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have much of a choice since size is another important criteria. And the biggest (and well, cheapest), erasers are those 'flag' erasers pictured above. Perhaps next time if I manage to get decent sized erasers of other materials to carve... I'll do another guide on picking types of erasers.
Of course, using an art knife is much easier to work with as compared to using a penknife. For one, art knifes have a round handle, making them much easier to hold.
Here's the art knifes I have. I've got a really cheap, CKS cutter. That's the one with a white cap. That was the first art knife I got. The build of the knife itself is pretty decent... but the same can't be said of the blade. I've only carved 15 erasers so far, using this knife for about 12 or 13 of them, and recently I went to use the blade only to discover that the pointy end has gotten a nick!!! And I did not drop the knife! Gosh. That was fast. I can't carve properly with a blade with dull point.
The top one with a weird bendy blade is the NT cutter SW-G. Yes, that thing actually swivels. 360 degrees. Freely. It's supposed to make it easy to carve curves, and that was why I got it. The head is supposed to swivel freely as you make the curved cuts... but unfortunately, I couldn't really get the hang of it, and it didn't swivel even when I was cutting carves. Maybe it's because I'm cutting into eraser, and I carve rather deep in, making it hard for that thing to swivel around. Plus my erasers are really small... *shrugs* I guess they didn't make this product with puny eraser cutting in mind. :X
The 3rd art knife from the top is another NT cutter. The model D-400 this time. It's pretty similar to the CKS cutter, except that it was a wider blade. It's the one that I'm using currently. Let's hope the blades are of better quality.
The one is an X-Acto knife. It seems to be a pretty popular brand in the US. I don't use this one much though, because of the blade angle for this model. I was looking at all the knifes in the art store and merely got something that was different from my other selections. Only after trying it at home did I realise that I needed a 30 degree point blade for eraser carving, and not a 45 degree blade as in this X-Acto X5204 that I bought. After looking it up now, I realised they call this a 'stencil knife set'. Hmm. I'll like to try their Z-series knife next time. Next time! When I go to the art store again! This blade #4 as they call it, is also thicker than the other 45 degree blades I got too. I can't find the thickness, but it's thicker than the usual 0.38mm blades used by the CKS and NT cutters. That's probably good durability wise, but not so good for making small eraser carvings - it's hard to carve out small details with this. That's not to say it's useless though. I use this blade when I have larger regions that I want to carve out.
Here's a look at all the blades.
The 45 degrees blade on top, and 30 degrees blade below.
Stacking the blades together for comparison. Both of the blades are from the NT cutters. They are BDA-200P (45 degrees), BDC-200P (30 degrees).
I also got a cheap wood carving set from the bookstore... but I can't really use them on my erasers. These aren't very sharp, and they are way too big for my puny erasers.
Of course, you must have noticed it by now. Pretty much all of the photos are taken on this green background. That's a cutting base, so I don't damage my table. The cutting base doesn't actually resists cuts. Instead, it's pretty thick so you can't cut through it onto the surface below. It's also kinda soft, so your blade can actually cut into the material instead of breaking off/chipping. I got an A4 sized one from my local bookstore for SGD $5.80 (I didn't remove the price tag behind :P).
A quick search on Amazon and the first product I see is this self-healing cutting mat. Hmm... looks similar to mine... is mine self healing as well? o.o
Anyway, there's a ton of other cheaper options available (both on Amazon and in your local bookstore) for those of us who can't afford to fork out $36 for a cutting mat, self healing or not. For the even poorer folks, just get some cardboard instead. Like the backing from a used foolscap pad. We're not actually cutting through the eraser, so the blade shouldn't be hitting the mat/cardboard/whatever too much. I do find it easier to stand the eraser up and cut vertically down when cutting away the sides though, so that's where a table protecter would come in useful. Another practical use is that it makes cleaning up easier. I just have to pick up the mat and sweep the eraser bits into my dustbin.
Drawing
So now that we have our materials ready, it's time to draw your design on the eraser! You can use a pencil to draw the designs, but you can't really erase the image off, plus the pencil marks is really light. I usually do a rough sketch in pencil, then go over in ballpoint pen. If I get it wrong, I can still 'erase' off the image with ethanol. That works better when the lines are only just recently drawn though.
I drew this mug in pencil first, then drew in pen. I left this as-is for about a whole week though, before I started working on it and decided that this drawing was totally ugly.
In comes the ethanol.
The image is now slightly lighter. It didn't work well because the ink has seeped into the eraser pretty deeply after such a long time.
I drew again... you can see the new line has that shiny sheen to it... and it's a lot darker than the 'erased' lines. The difference is a lot more obvious than from the photo.
I erased the new lines again with ethanol. Now you can see how much lighter the lines has become when the ethanol is applied shortly after the drawing is done.
And the newly drawn lines are way, way darker.
If you have a drawing done already (or have a printed drawing), you can transfer the image over using carbon paper. Or mimic the carbon paper effect by shading the back of your image with a pencil, then going over the lines of your drawing after placing the shaded side on the eraser. The pencil lead will transfer over onto the eraser, after which you can go over the lines in pen.
Carving
Finally. The actual carving part! Here are some tips to help you carve your designs.
Have stable hands, and try to do an entire stroke in one go. Cut as close as possible to your design. It's hard to edit curves later on, and still have the curve look smooth. For straight lines it's still not that hard.
Don't undercut your designs, as that will make the stamp very unstable. Especially so when you have intricate designs. The eraser may just break off when you are carving!
In order to make sure you don't undercut, always know the knife at an angle, with the design that you are keeping under the knife so that the designs will always angle out. It's hard to see where you're cutting since you're blocked by the knife. It takes some guts to cut close to your designs... if you want to leave some berth to cut in more detail later, leave a berth all around so you can do the 'refinement' in one cut, otherwise the final design might look jerky.
I find it easier to turn the eraser around so that the design is always on my right side (since I'm a right hander.) That means turning the eraser on every stroke though, which can become a little tedious at times. Also, if I'm making small, circular cuts, I'll hold my blade at a fixed angle and spot, and turn the eraser instead.
Make V-shaped groves on the eraser when cutting.
Also, it's important to vary how deep you cut in relation to the design line spacing. If there's more space in between the designs, it's ok to cut deeper (but not TOO deep! You don't want to go through the eraser, or compromise the integrity of the eraser.)
However, if the lines are very close apart, make the cuts more shallow. This means that you have to vary the depth of the cut even within a single stroke.
Otherwise, it could lead to your stamp being unstable, or it may even break off!
Inking
Hurrah! So you've got your stamp carved out, and are ready for your first inking!
I use the stamp pads from artline, they come in 5 colors - black, blue, purple, red and green. They also sell blank stamp pads. I was thinking of adding yellow ink from my old printer refills to it, but I've not tried it yet. (Can't find the printer ink when I needed it, tsk!)
That's the Artline stamp pads.
I've also gotten some other stamp pads from the art store and some fancy stationary shop. The multi color water color stamp pad is from the fancy shop. That made in Japan item came with a fancy price tag too... it costed something like 12 bucks... >< In comparison, the Ink it up stamp pads I got from the art store were less than 2 bucks each! That's even cheaper than the Artline stamp pads (was around 4-5 bucks each)! I regret not going to the art store earlier! They had a ton of different colors (I got gold, silver, and bronze) and they even had scented stamp pads too.
Of course, if you don't want to buy an ink pad, simply using paint (watercolor or acrylic, they all work. Oil paints might be too thick to ink properly, and they take really long to dry) would work too. Ink pads are more convenient of course, since you don't have to mix up your paint colors (or even squeeze it out of the tube) each time. Then again, since you can mix colors as you wish with paint, you have a lot of room for customisation. You can even use brushes to color part of your stamp to make it multi color (a whole lot cheaper too)!
I tried coloring my stamps with markers, then inking it. Didn't work well though, it pretty much all dried up by the time I could ink it. There was only a faint mark on the paper.
Which ever option you pick, just remember to wash your eraser stamp before and after stamping! Especially so when switching ink colors. An initial wash (with ethanol would be good) to get rid of the pen marks before inking is recommended, least you end up with a 'stamp' of your design on your stamp pad. Of course, washing off (with ethanol or water) in between stamping with different colors will help to keep your stamp pads clean and prevent cross contamination mixing of colors. It's also a good idea to get rid of any left over rubber bits on the stamp to prevent dirtying your stamp pad, or affecting your stamp picture (left over bits may create undesirable dots in your stamp picture).
When inking, make sure that your entire design is covered. You may want to rock the stamp gently from side to side to ensure that the entire stamp is inked. But beware! Getting too much ink on your stamp will results in lines thicker than what you actually carved, and some small details may not show up! (In other words, it'll look ugly.) So ink in moderation!
After your initial test ink... you can 'edit' your stamp by carving out unwanted parts etc until the design is to your liking. Just keep in mind, you can only take away, but can't put back! Plus, there's not 'undo' button in real life :P, so if you've carved away too much eraser... well, better luck next time.
Ok! That's all for now folks! Hope this guide was helpful. Have fun making your own eraser stamps!
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