Carving & Collaging
We had two exciting events in September - stamp carving and “collage your own deck of cards”!
Let me start with this…can you guess how much a magazine costs these days?!
Collage Your Own Deck of Cards
This was our colorful set-up for our “Collage Your Own Deck of Cards” event!
If you guessed $4 or anything under $10 - nope, you’re still living in the early 2000s! I was so surprised to find out that a magazine, just a regular old magazine from the grocery store, costs anywhere from $12-18 dollars. How wild is that! In a way, I think that’s a good thing - to prevent over-consumption and waste of paper. But for my collaging class, it meant I had to get creative with solutions - searching around town for magazines, ordering some collaging supplies online, and even biting the bullet and buying some new magazines from the store. During the workshop, someone pointed out that this made collaging really hard to do on your own - it’s cost-prohibitive. She really appreciated the group-setting not only because it was more fun, but also possible.
It was fun to see everyone’s different collaging styles - some people planned their decks out in advance, some people piled up all the materials they planned to use before they started, and some people just went card by card, collaging as they went! In the future, I’m planning to host a “Collage Your 2026 Vision Board” event before the New Year’s - so stay tuned for that one!
This month, we also hosted our Stamp Carving Workshop at Ground Coffee Shop!
Do you want to know the secret about stamp carving?!
Keep scrolling!
In my opinion, the big secret about stamp carving or linocut artwork is that you don’t have to be good at drawing. The drawing part is totally optional! I personally enjoy drawing, but if it’s not your thing, that’s completely fine. In stamp carving or printmaking, you start with an original drawing (or an image) and use tracing paper to go over it. That way, you can easily transfer your design to your carving block, which leaves the graphite from the pencil. Of course you can draw directly on the block if you prefer, but it’s less forgiving if you need to erase anything.
Stamp Carving
Ground Coffee Shop, Hood River, Oregon
That said, carving itself is very much an art form. It takes focus, technique and an artistic eye to decide what to carve away and what to leave - which will greatly affect the final print! Sometimes, makers will intentionally leave “noise” on their block. Noise is created when the background or parts of a block have not been completely carved away, leaving marks from the carving strokes. I think a bit of noise shows the handmade quality, texture of the subject, and motion (for example, imagine if you drew some quotation marks behind a runner’s shoe to show motion).
From feedback I’ve received, most people want to leave class with something that is usable or that they’re proud of and can display - not something they are just going to throw away or something that’s going to end up in the junk drawer or bin. All I can say is, I thought everyone’s stamps were very impressive.
If you’ve read this far, I just want to say thanks for being here! I am overwhelmed with gratitude at how much support and interest there are in craft nights in the community. I am working on building my schedule for the next couple months. If you’re not already subscribed to our newsletter, you can sign up here. Hope to see you at one of our events soon!!
P.S. If you have any magazines or newspapers lying around that you don’t want anymore and you’re looking for a place to donate them - I would be happy to come collect them or I’d recommend donating to the Hood River Library (where there is a “free” book shelf on the lower floor)!