Spring Break Boredom Buster: Eraser Stamps

Posted on Monday, March 27, 2023 by Grae

Let me turn your attention for a moment to an object so ordinarily ubiquitous that it’s become a part of the everyday furniture of scholastic life, so omnipresent, one might argue, that we often forget about its integral presence (in other words: magic ✨). Both sturdy and flexible, solid yet easily disintegrated, often a lovely matte shade of pink, but found in all the colors that exist, perhaps in some that do not or could have been, this overwhelmingly plain object is none other than the humble eraser, that chunky three-dimensional parallelogram or rectangular prism that offers its users the ability to unwrite what has been written, to unmark what has been marked, to change and adapt and shift and correct—to err, as is human, a transformational gift which might be its own kind of divinity (as I said: magic 🔮).

Beyond these metaphysical and mystical qualities, did you know that spongey hunk collecting dust and debris at the bottom of your backpack or in the far corner of your desk can enact yet another kind of metamorphosis, can be carved and cut away (erased, you might say) to reveal a unique image or imprint, a signature or seal, your literal mark on the world? This is the wonder that are *~💫Eraser Stamps💫~*, a low-cost and totally trendy (also adorable) entry point to relief printing and printmaking. While relief printing has been around for centuries, the eraser as the printing medium is a relatively new and contemporary phenomenon, though the underlying mechanism remains the same: a block of rubber—in this case, an eraser—is carved with a design subtractively, which means portions of the eraser are carved away to reveal a raised design that is then applied with ink and pressed to paper.

A white eraser carved with an curved abstract design, suggestive of three leaves, waves, sails, or goose bodies connected to one another. The carved eraser stamp sits on top of a white piece of paper, and the abstract design is stamped in lilac ink all over the page.

Materials

All you’ll need to perform this magical conjuring yourself are

  1. an eraser  — I used Paper💕Mate’s classic wedged White Pearl erasers as well as Pentel’s Hi-Polymer rectangular erasers, but really any eraser in any color will do. This craft is perfect for reusing or repurposing old grubby erasers. 
  2. a sharp cutting or carving implement — I used an X-Acto knife to carve out my stamps, but in retrospect, I think a more specialized carving tool called a lino cutter would have helped me carve more precisely and safely. I suppose a sharp kitchen or paring knife would also work. Please be careful with any sharp object and remember to always cut or move the blade in the direction AWAY from your body!!! This is an especially important rule to remember when carving, as any extra force put on or behind the blade to help carve increases the risk for serious injury. So please, please practice blade safety! 🤓🔪
  3. an ink pad
  4. pencil or pen — The pencil/pen is for practicing your design before drawing or stenciling it onto the eraser, though you can also carve your design directly onto the eraser without any kind of stencil. You can also transfer a drawn design onto the eraser with a piece of lined notebook paper (because it tends to be thinner and thus more transparent than printer paper) or more specialized tracing or graphite paper.
  5. paper or cardstock — what you’ll showcase your spectacular stamp(s) on!

Optional clean-up items: paper towels or wet wipes (for the ink); a trash can or vacuum cleaner (for the eraser shavings that will come off as you carve)

Materials for making an eraser stamp are arranged on a white sketchbook page: a lilac ink pad, two white rectangular erasers, a mechanical pencil, a sheet of graphite paper, and an x-acto knife.

Directions

After gathering your materials, you’ll need to create a design to carve into your stamp. For one of my stamps, I chose to make a little goose family. 🦢

A piece of white printer paper and a piece of lined notebook paper are arranged next to an uncarved white eraser on top of a larger white sketchbook page. On the printer and notebook papers, a doodle of three geese is repeated. The three geese bodies are connected to one another and increase in size from left to right, suggesting a baby goose with two parents.

After practicing your design and getting it how you like it, you’ll need to draw or transfer it onto your eraser to begin carving. You can use more specialized tracing or graphite paper to transfer your design, but I found that going over my design a couple of times with pencil on notebook paper and then pressing this bolded line-drawing onto the surface of my eraser worked really well.

Close-up of a piece of lined notebook paper on which a doodle of three connected geese is drawn three times. In the bottom left repetition of the doodle, the three geese bodies are abstracted slightly and look similar to the letter s when it is capitalized in cursive. Next to this bottom left doodle is an uncarved white eraser with a mirror image of the three abstracted geese bodies lightly transferred in pencil.

You might need to darken your transferred design a bit so you have a clearer idea of the boundaries to carve around.

Close-up of a white rectangular eraser with an abstracted design marked in the center of the eraser with pencil. The abstracted design looks like three connected geese bodies and heads arranged by size with the largest goose body/head appearing on the left and the smallest goose body/head on the right.

Once your design is on your eraser, or if you’re free-handing your design, you’re ready to start carving!  Like we learned from the tortoise in the classic fable, a slow and steady pace is best while you’re carving, so put on some of your favorite tunes and just 🐢💓~*vibe*~💓🐢.

Three images illustrating a white eraser being slowly carved with an X-Acto knife.

Three images illustrating a white eraser being slowly carved with an X-Acto knife.

Once you’re done carving out your design, you’re ready to apply ink to your stamp and experience the blissful astonishment of transformation. 🎇

Four stamps carved from white erasers and colored with ink are arranged in a vertical line on the left side of a white piece of paper: a stamp of angled lines suggesting a wave or mountain colored in rose gold ink; a stamp of a little cottage colored in black ink; a stamp of three connected abstract curved shapes colored in lilac ink; and a stamp of three connected goose bodies/heads colored in green ink. On the right side of the photo, each inked stamp has been pressed to the page to illustrate the carved design.

And the enchantment doesn’t have to stop there! You could add fine details with your pen or pencil, to make your designs even more bewitching or endearing.

Four stamps carved from white erasers and colored with ink are arranged in a vertical line on the left side of a white piece of paper: a stamp of angled lines suggesting a wave or mountain colored in rose gold ink; a stamp of a little cottage colored in black ink; a stamp of three connected abstract curved shapes colored in lilac ink; and a stamp of three connected goose bodies/heads colored in green ink. On the right side of the photo, each inked stamp has been pressed to the page to illustrate the carved design. These inked designs are further embellished with black pen to suggest the shape of rose gold mountains with a sun rising behind; a black cottage with a bush out front and smoke rising from the chimney; a lilac goose family with their faces and beaks turned to the left; and a green goose family with their faces and beaks turned to the right.

PostScript: The Quirks of Relief Printing

The (magic 🌟) trick with relief printing is to remember as well as envision the difference between positive and negative space in your design. The negative space is the portion of the eraser that you will carve away, which will show up as the absence of ink on the page, or the color of the paper you’re printing on. The positive space in relief printing is the portion of the eraser that will remain uncarved or unremoved, the portion that appears raised next to the removed or carved away areas. This raised positive space is what you will deposit ink on before pressing the stamp to your paper and will form the main shape(s) of your design.

For example, consider the following close-up photo of my little cottage stamp:

Close-up of white eraser carved with a design suggestive of a cottage. The raised portion of the carved design is inked with black ink.

The black glossy portion is the positive space of the stamp, the main design that will be inked on paper when the stamp is turned over and pressed down. The negative spaces of this stamp are the four non-inked white areas located on the stamp’s top left, left middle, top middle, and bottom right of the stamp. Here’s another photo to illustrate the differences between the design’s positive and negative spaces: 

Close-up of white eraser carved with a design suggestive of a cottage. The raised portion of the carved design is inked with black ink and highlighted by two gold arrows connected to two labels that read “positive space.” The four areas of negative space in the design are outlined in pink dotted lines. There are also three pink labels with the words “negative space” written in them, arranged next to the areas outlined with the pink dotted lines.
The negative spaces of this eraser stamp’s design are outlined in pink dotted lines while the positive space is indicated by two golden arrows.

Along with thinking through and practicing with the positive and negative spaces of your design, it’s also super important to remember that the design on your stamp will print a mirror or reverse image onto your paper, as is illustrated in the following photo:

A carved eraser stamp and the inked design compared side by side, to illustrate how the design carved onto the stamp will print a mirror image. On the left side of the page, a white eraser is carved with a design suggestive of a cottage, and the raised portion of the carved design is inked with black ink. On the right side of the page, this carved cottage design is stamped onto the page in black ink in reverse.

So, if you’re drawing onto or carving into your eraser directly without a stencil to guide you, you’ll have to consider how the carved image will appear when flipped. This visual sorcery is why some printmaking artists elect to stencil or transfer their design onto their eraser or printing block: this step allows an artist to manipulate the design before carving so that the image will print according to the artist’s preferred orientation. There’s a lot of visual-spatial thinking and envisioning to the relief printmaking process. After all, any magic requires some kind of energy transfer or offering.🌠

Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that it is perfectly acceptable and understandable to make mistakes while you’re sorting everything out! I sure did and still ended up with some gems. In the immortal words of cool-girl astrologer Chani Nicholas, life is short! have fun! 🌞

 

Basketball Is for Everyone

Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2023 by Karena

I’ve noticed a particular reaction when I mention my interest in NBA basketball – surprise. Is it because I’m built like the opposite of a basketball player? It’s true, my height better qualifies me to be the person who rushes to the floor with a towel after a player has fallen and left a sweat stain.

Maybe it’s because I’m not a man, which excludes me from the boisterous sports fan stereotype. Maybe I look more like the type to go home after work and curl up with a good book (I do, during halftime). In any case, I’m here to speak my truth: I love watching basketball. More than I love a lot of things. Continue reading “Basketball Is for Everyone”

Library Spotlight: Southern Boone County Public Library

Posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 by Megan

We asked our patrons to share what they love about their library! We received some wonderful comments and each month we will feature quotes from our patrons and library staff, highlighting the things that make their buildings so special. This month Eric S. is our guest staff member from the Southern Boone County Public Library in Ashland.

"Our librarians are extremely kind." - Jessica

Continue reading “Library Spotlight: Southern Boone County Public Library”

Live for the Applause?

Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 by Dana

 

This year for Winter Reading, we are thinking of our community. We want to take time to take care of ourselves and each other through service. If you’re looking to feed your creativity and help make something awesome, think about volunteering at a local theatre.

Community theatres are always ready to get more people involved in every capacity. The obvious things are acting and directing, but there are so many other ways to contribute! Continue reading “Live for the Applause?”

Becoming Your Own Producer

Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 by Karena

What do Steve Lacy, Billie Eilish, and Clairo have in common?

They’re three huge names in music and songwriting, with several international tours and viral hits between them. But before the big stages, they were recording and producing music in their bedrooms – and you can, too. Continue reading “Becoming Your Own Producer”

Library Spotlight: Holts Summit Public Library

Posted on Monday, December 12, 2022 by Megan

In August, we asked our patrons to share what they love about their library! We received some wonderful comments, and each month we will feature quotes from our patrons and library staff, highlighting the things that make their buildings so special. This month, Lisa G. is our guest staff member from the Holts Summit Public Library.

The chairs are so cool! There are lots of places to sit down and read while waiting for siblings to get books. And they are so comfy! (the chairs, not the siblings) Holts Summit Library Patron quote

Continue reading “Library Spotlight: Holts Summit Public Library”

Brace for the Book Flood!

Posted on Thursday, December 8, 2022 by Dana

Jólabókaflóðið is coming!

If you don’t happen to be one of the 314,000 people in the entire world who speak Icelandic, we’re talking about the Yule Book Flood.

Maybe you’ve seen the meme on social media about the tradition of Jolabokaflod, pronounced YO-la-bok-a-flud. People exchange books on Christmas Eve and spend the night reading and drinking hot chocolate. Sounds magical, right?

The practice dates back to World War II, when there were restrictions on what could be imported for gifts. The restrictions on paper were not as strict, so books became the Christmas present of choice. And Icelanders have honored the tradition ever since. Continue reading “Brace for the Book Flood!”

Library Spotlight: Callaway County Public Library in Fulton

Posted on Wednesday, November 9, 2022 by Megan

In August we asked our patrons to share what they love about their library! We received some wonderful comments and each month we will feature quotes from our patrons and library staff, highlighting the things that make their buildings so special. This month Beth B. is our guest staff member from the Callaway County Public Library in Fulton.

The staff is the best! Very kind and helpful. Callaway County Public Library Patron

Continue reading “Library Spotlight: Callaway County Public Library in Fulton”