Two rounds of supply shopping yesterday scored me some rudimentary tools of the trade. Some rummaging unearthed a couple of pocketknives I forgot I had. Armed with the basic essentials and a few cheap pink pencil erasers, I sat down to attempt my "first carve": a very simple little sketch I named "FLeFLCKR".
I probably don't need to mention how the first attempt went. It turns out that "simple" doesn't mean the same thing in carving on rubber that it means in line drawings. This is why I started with cheap-o blocks of rubber. I want to make my mistakes on those, and that worked out quite well for round one. Don't worry -- I've got my eye on some plumber's gasket for my next supply run. I've heard that's one of the best media in the biz.
Thankfully, I catch on fast when I want to. Round two turned out much, much better, yielding a printable image that looks like I wanted it to. Well, close enough anyway. I'll need to carve a sturdier version before I send it out on the trail. Despite my best efforts, I still undercut some of the important detail a little, so I imagine the stamp will chew itself apart under heavy use. I'll probably make some LTCs with this one and maybe take it around as a personal traveler. We'll see.
I was going to post a photo of the stamped image, but such "spoilers" seem to be frowned upon amongst the letterboxing set. Ah well. Guess you'll just have to come get it from me in person if you want to see. Or get into a trade after I figger out how to make the cards.
Next carve'll have to be a signature stamp. Either that or I'll be using FLeFLKR junior here when I go hunting (hopefully) tomorrow. Fun stuff!
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