A distelfink?

What is a distelfink?  To be honest I didn't know either until a couple of years ago.  See I grew up in southern Pennsylvania, in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. As a typical teenager, I didn't appreciate anything from the area. That was until I moved for college, and realized that nowhere else would I ever eat a delicious fausnacht, or other local treats.

As I got older, I began to appreciate some of the pretty folk art of the area, especially the symbols and such used in hex signs. A lot of the drawings look similar to Scandinavian and other European folk art as well. One of my favorite symbols were the fancy, ornate birds seen throughout many of the designs. After lots of google-hopping, I found out these birds were referred to as distelfinks.

For a long time I've been meaning to make my own modern version of a distelfink. A few weeks back I felt inspired and doodled one, then decided I'd make it into a carved stamp/block.



This was only the second carving I've done, so I am really pleased with how well I was able to maintain the curves and such.  Also, I REALLY love the Speedy Stamp material. I have some other carving materials, but so far this one is my favorite.



Here is my original doodle, the carving, and a sample printing. As you can see a few details didn't make it into the carving. However, I think as I improve my carving skills, I'll be able to manage such small dots and such eventually.

Block Printing and Stamping

One of the many arts and crafts I want to do more with is carving my own stamps and block prints. I just really like the feel of carving away at something and watching a design or shape slowly unfold. Unfortunately for my Mama, I discovered that love at the age of 3, using a nail file to dig swirls into the nice wood furniture....  oops!

Several months back I did a little simple carving, using a cheap carving material based off a little doodle I had made YEARS back. Here is my little carving:

I found out that using the cheaper carving material is a little frustrating for smaller details. I'm sure for large designs its fine, but I did buy some nicer carving material for future work.

After finishing the carving, I did a test stamp of him onto a piece of bristol board using some regular stamp ink.

 I think he came out pretty good for my first try.  I have all sorts of designs in mind to carve. In fact, maybe I'll work on one over the weekend. . .