12th/13th century teardrop stamps,  Projects - Block Printing,  romanesque teardrop stamp

Another 12th/13th century inspired block printing stamp finished! – Romanesque teardrop stamp .2

2017-12 - Racaire - 12th century - 13th century stamp - bird stamp - medieval block printing patterns - SCA - garb projects - romanesque teardrop stampWell, it seems like the creative powers are still flowing as cutting my second romanesque inspired teardrop stamp for my new 12th/13th century block printing project didn’t take very long. 🙂

Like the first “teardrop stamp with Arabic letters”, this second “teardrop stamp with birds” was also inspired by an extant printed fabric from the Romanesque era. Actually this two stamps are inspired by the printed pattern on just one piece of fabric from the 12th/13th century. And now, that I made this second stamp, I am finally able to reproduce the extant pattern which inspired me. Btw. you can read more about my first teardrop stamp (with the Arabic letters) here:  First 12th/13th century inspired block printing stamp finished! – Romanesque teardrop stamp .1

I am normally not a big fan of birds but I found the simple beauty of the overall pattern quite appealing. And now that the stamp is cut I can’t wait to try it out:

2017-12 - Racaire - 12th century - 13th century stamp - bird stamp - medieval block printing patterns - SCA - garb projects - romanesque teardrop stamp

But well, this is not the only picture which I have for you today – enjoy! 😀

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As you can see at the picture above, I used a simple sharpie/marker to pre-draw the outlines for my linoleum cuts. Unfortunately, due to the angle of the photo, my linoleum cuts where not really visible on the picture above. Therefore I took one more picture of the same piece from another angle to give you an idea of how I am working out the details on my linoleum block:

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…and underneath you can see the finished and already mounted linoleum cut / stamp:

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 Btw. for this stamp with the birds as well as for the first stamp with the Arabic letters I used a linoleum block from speedball which my husband found on Amazon. It is one sided with a “natural mash” on the back side, a little bit cheaper and comes in a bigger size than the double sided one which I normally get at Hobby Lobby. Well, as cost can be an argument when you need a bigger amount of a certain thing for ones projects, I agreed to at least give it a try.

And now that I tried it, I can report back: I was not really happy with this light grey, one-sided Speedball linoleum block from Amazon. First it is harder to cut than the double sided linoleum from Hobby Lobby and furthermore, which is much worse, this linoleum is not as smooth and even tends to crumble along the cut edge from time to time. Therefore, besides a short warning not to get it, I will not mention this linoleum pad anymore.

…and then I got to try some of this pink stuff for stamp cutting when I stopped by a printing class at the most recent Christmas tournament in our neighbor Kingdom Midrealm. This “easy carve” pink colored block will definitely not become of my favorites. As soft as it is, it gave nearly no resistance when I tried to cut it. I actually think that this lack of resistance makes it quite difficult to cut with the quite sharp linoleum cutters and might even make it dangerous as you can’t really control your cuts.

However, there is still a linoleum block at Hobby Lobby with which I really like to work. Next time, when I get more of my favorite linoleum, I will try to give you a better description of it and see from which company it is… 🙂   

I hope you enjoyed todays posting and stay tuned – I am already working on my third romanesque teardrop stamp… 😀

Best regards Racaire

More about this project: Romanesque Teardrop Stamp