Heat Carving

Since the designs keeping me awake at night are large in scale and require more knowledge about block printing than I currently have, I decided to put design & block construction aside to play with a little detail. Using this Creative Textile Tool.

Last night while watching Toddlers & Tiaras (I know. Shoot me) I pulled this gadget out and plugged it in. While waiting for it to warm up, I learned a little about what it can do. Sort of a cross between a soldering iron and a wood burning tool, this tool can be used to emboss velvet, transfer laser-print images onto fabric, fabric applique, seam pressing, stencil cutting and more.

Since my drawing skills are limited to simple geometric shapes and badly proportioned interpretations, I thought I'd stick to the basics - circles and lines. The first thing I did was grab a large foam dot and melt some little dots into it. Stamped the results on scrap. Smiled. Little effort for a fun effect.

Lines heat carved into craft foam are not smooth and clean like those made with a blade. Pulling the heat tool through the foam leaves a tattered, kind of jaggy edge that's kind of interesting.

My next remarkable work of art was a square filled with radiating circles and lines. Don't be jealous of my
skillz. As lame as it looks, the stamped results were fun and inspirational. The cuts were deep enough not to fill with paint when rolled. I flipped it over. The cuts went down to the adhesive, but not through it. Which means the element won't fall apart when mounted onto Plexi.

I've gained a new respect for craft foam in the last days. I have no idea how or what it's made of and hope that when I find out, the knowledge won't accompany a wave of guilt. This cool material can be heated with something as simple as a 75 watt bulb or heat embossing tool, then pressed into just about any textured surface you can think of. Once it cools, the texture remains until heated again. Buttons. Coins. Rubber bands. Corrugated cardboard. This journey just keeps getting cooler every day.

First Block Print

I managed to test the new block last night and man was it fun. Women Nicole & Sara had just finished glazing so they watched, handed me supplies (like a surgeon) and photographed the process.

For paint, I used on-hand Martha Stewart multi-surface craft paint in Arrowhead, a dark steel gray. I poured out a thickish line of paint and rolled it out with a foam brayer. The single layer foam stamp was thick enough for a mostly clean application. Once I develop better technique, I'll learn how to avoid paint on the Plexi, which is easily wiped off, but adds labor and invites misprints and waste.

This Plexi is part of the sheet given to me by my neighbor. It probably came from some home store and is 1/32" thick. It has less flex than the thinner Plexi I found at Hobby Lobby and  might be better for large scale blocks - less flex. Or not. I cut it by scoring it a couple of times with a blade, then breaking the cut on the edge of the table.

We had Egyptian cotton four sack towels on hand, so I gave one a quick press and smoothed it on the production table. This soft, thin fabric is not the upholstery weight cotton or linen I envision, but was fine for experimentation. In the end, I'll have a cool towel. Maybe with a fabric binding.

I didn't remember that my rolling pin (which has only seen action once in its entire life) was at the studio, so I used the palms of my hands to press my first block. The drawback to this method is that you don't know you've applied uneven pressure until you lift the stamp. There were a few areas where the paint did not fully transfer, so I realigned the stamp (harder than it sounds) and pressed out those areas. Since this is craft acrylic and not printers ink, my impression had a thin, vintage appearance. Actual fabric ink would result in a bolder, more opaque application.

See the depth of color on the top impression? I got the idea to layer a metallic gray drop shadow over the original print. Fail. I just looks like a misprint. Layering requires more pattern knowledge than I have right now. I'll focus on getting clean, repeatable results then worry about design.

Orange as the color of the day was unplanned, but does photograph well. The plates have been around since day one. The jacket matched my sweater. Driven by some subconscious design force, I chose Martha Stewart's Geranium for my next stamp color. I also switched rollers. I don't know where I found this little foam roller but I'd like to find more. The soft foam absorbed more paint, rolled more smoothly and applied more evenly.
 

When I started this experiment, I was pretty sure that one layer of craft foam was too shallow to create a good stamp. Unless the results on thicker home decor fabrics proves me wrong, one layer works. I'm liking craft foam. It's inexpensive,  readily available, cuts easily, makes a decent stamp and damaged sections can easily be replaced.

Now that I know I can use it, I can get creative with how. I recently found out that craft foam, which includes flip flops, garden keeling pads and plumbers foam insulation, can also be heat embossed. Heated foam will take the impression of anything pressed against into it. Buttons. Crumpled paper. Rubber bands. Coins. Vintage printing blocks. This opens up a world of design possibilities.

Stamp Construction

I just spent the last hour laying out, cutting and mounting my first block.  I Photoshopped an image I found online, turning it into this simple black and white. One copy was taped beneath a sheet of  Plexiglas and set aside. The second was placed over a sheet of carbon paper and the foam side of a full sheet of adhesive back craft foam. Then I traced the whole thing with ball point pen.

 The carbon transfer was too light to photograph but dark enough to see, so I retraced the lines with ball point and cut away the extra foam. My cutting mat was the May 2012 issue of Money Magazine. I don't know why I get this publication. I don't have money and rarely sit still long enough to read a magazine. Either way, it was small enough to fit on my desk and spin, which turned out to be useful.

Using an Exacto knife with a newish blade, I cut along the lines and through the paper back. My first cut, the little curly on the top right was awkward and yielded a seriously back-beveled stamp. You can see it in the 4th image. Stamps with inward beveled edges are weak and won't leave a strong impression. Holding and spinning the foam with the blade pressed into the magazine gave me cleaner cuts and made it easier to follow the curves. However, my edges were still beveled.

On the fourth cut, I angled the blade toward the image and ended up with a really nice edge with a slight outward bevel. Now the pressure placed on the plexi back will transfer to all surfaces of the front of the stamp, resulting in a clean impression.

I peeled off the paper back and placed each section on the Plexiglas pattern. This is so cool - I'm making my first print block. I showed The Women in the studio and they said "Really? How come we didn't think of this!" We've had several such epiphanies in the last years.

Here's the mounted stamp. I wasn't particular about the details, this is a rough prototype good enough to test the concept. I'll need to re-carve all of the sections marked with an x. The cool thing about craft foam material is that when you screw up a section, you just cut another one. First print sample, coming soon.