20

I was reflecting this morning that today would have marked the 20th anniversary of my reopening Stampeaz. We almost made it to that milestone! I had some fun things planned for celebrating the day that won't happen now, but that's okay. Many wonderful things happened along the way. 

I met some of the most wonderful and amazing people because of Stampeaz - both in person and online and I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how much I appreciate all of you. Sharing the adventures of art, carving, letterboxing and the quest for a better carving material  enriched my life. 

Thank you!

It's the End of an Era

Most of you have probably already read in one place or another that I had a house fire. The good news is  Piper and I made it out safely. The bad news is my house will need to be completely gutted, sealed and rebuilt. For such a small fire that was so quickly contained, the devastation is unbelievable. 

They tell me all this will take somewhere between 10 and 15 months to complete. So, for at least the next year, I have no way to stock, pack and send out orders for Stampeaz. In any event, all the Stampeaz inventory was covered with soot and had to be removed from the house before any remediation could occur. All my personal belongings leave the premises beginning tomorrow. 

Four intrepid souls showed up at my house yesterday to empty the basement of all Stampeaz stuff, since it isn't covered by insurance and could not be included in the cleaning and restoring. I'm very glad that this part of my world isn't simply going to a landfill, which would have been the alternative and would have totally broken my heart. I hope they find a way to share the wealth with other lovers of printmaking in all its forms. 

There are still 60 sheets of Tan-Z Kut (54 x 12 x 1/4 inch) in the garage. They have escaped most of the soot and smoke damage. If you are in the area and have a truck, come and get them. They, like all the rest of the Stampeaz stuff is free for any who dare come to the site of devastation. (The garage isn't bad at all, compared to the rest of the house...) 

(Baloo welcoming the first shipment of Tan-Z Kut!)

The story? So many things went right, for all that went wrong. My alarm clock went off, as usual, but instead of getting up immediately and heading out of the house with Piper, we lazed around for an extra ten minutes and I was just wondering what I'd made for dinner the night before, since I smelled something funny. Mere seconds later, every smoke alarm in the house started screaming. I opened the bedroom door and followed the smell down the hall, through the laundry room and to the basement door and when I looked down the stairs I could only see smoke. 

I closed the basement door, closed the laundry room door and dragged Piper out the front door with me and closed that door, too. The fire chief told me that those three things kept my house from burning to rubble, so I still have a structure for them to gut and restore. 

Piper and I stood on the front lawn for about four hours, while ten fire trucks full of first responders battled the fire on, of all things, First Responders Day. I'll never forget that date again. 

I've closed down the Stampeaz website, but I will still be hanging around here. I even have a series of mushrooming pictures I had prepared for a post, before, well... before. Give me a little while to regroup. It's been a rough few days here.

Sorry about the rambling post. There are so many interruptions right now that it's hard to gather my thoughts into a single, somewhat coherent pile.  

Fingers Crossed

I think Stampeaz.com is back up and running as it should be. I think... I hope... 

The site is browsable, searchable and otherwise visible. I will only be fully confident again when a real customer out in the great wide world actually has a successful purchase experience going through PayPal. Fingers (and eyes after all the screen gazing) crossed. 

And speaking of crossed eyes, I may need to join Piper for a nap! This stuff is exhausting. 

I got to work on my very own puzzle mystery! 

:)

Technical Difficulties

Well, I'm taking a short vacation and visiting my family, so the kind folks hosting the Stampeaz website took the opportunity to change some of the code behind the scenes and something broke. 

Yes, Piper and I are grimacing about the whole thing. 

Connectivity out here in the woods is a little spotty, so it may take me a couple days to get things up and running again. Your patience is much appreciated!

Thank you!

What's Been Happening?

As most of you know, I've been away and helping out at the family homestead while my brother was recovering from surgery. For some reason, this round was harder than the last one, but he's doing well and is back on his feet (if not quite up to his usual speed). 

There's a lot of catching up to do! I had to close down the shipping end of Stampeaz while I was away, and a few people placed orders and have been waiting patiently for their carving and printing supplies to be sent their way.  I've been slicing Tan-Z Kut, packing up orders and generally catching up on all the things that have been waiting for me here at home.  I believe that most of the backlog will be out the door tomorrow. There are a couple orders that might need a little additional attention, but they'll be on their merry way soon, too. 

So, I finally took a minute to sit down and think about the blog again. I thought a good reboot might be a few spectacular trail camera captures of bald eagles. 

There is a pair of these majestic birds hanging around the family land and I hope that means they'll be nesting nearby.

As usual, clicking on the pictures will enlarge them. 

I particularly liked this one - that wingspan is quite something and I'm just glad that intense predatory focus is not trained on me! 

Happy belated New Year! I hope it brings you health, happiness, peace and prosperity.  

Duck Back Riding

Things have been hectic and I haven't taken time to sit down and prepare pictures for the blog. I have been taking them, though, and finally got a few ready to post. Stories and pictures will probably be out of sequence, at least some of the time, for a while. 

I loved the mother merganser giving her little ducklings a ride. They were concerned when Piper and I wandered out to the boat launch to see who might be around. 

Piper also likes to get a drink and take a little swim when we walk that way, so I guess mother merganser had reason to move the youngsters away from us. 

They're awfully cute floating fluff balls, aren't they? They have grown nearly as big as their parents now, but still hang out and go fishing together. 

They got far enough away that they started paddling around on their own again.

Then, mom gave them a lesson in how to go fishing for breakfast. 

My brother continues to improve and I was able to come back home two days before the local art show to get a few prints into frames and mats and ready to display. 

Now, I need to start catching up on things like cutting and preparing Tan-Z and Firm Kut and doing an ink order for Stampeaz. Not to mention, culling through more pictures to find good ones for the blog. :)

Happy Independence Day!

This year, there won't be any fireworks or air shows in my Independence Day celebration post (or any of my Independence Day celebrations, for that matter). 

 

This year, there will be much quieter celebrations with little Piper, who thinks loud noises are very, very scary.

Piper will get to gnaw on a new marrow bone to distract her from all the booms and we'll be listening to music down in the relatively sound-deadened basement while I tackle a few chores (like slicing up some Tan-Z Kut and breaking down boxes). 

We'll take some nice walks early in the day - before the lights and explosions begin, making it a good day all the way around. 

But, America's birthday simply couldn't be allowed to pass without at least a small commemoration here on the blog!  We have a wonderful country filled with amazing beauty and founded on excellent principles. We're very fortunate. 

Happy Independence Day! She's a grand old flag - forever in peace may she wave.

Introducing VersaFine Clair (and Other Ink News)

As promised, I have the new inks checked in, photographed and up on the Stampeaz site.  

Sadly, some of the inks that I have loved for years are being discontinued, so I went searching for possible replacements. I think I found one. I wanted something that would work with finely detailed images, dry quickly, be light fast, and fade resistant. Also, I wanted the pads to have matching inkers available, so they could be refreshed easily, rather than needing to be replaced when they started to lose their juiciness.

VersaFine Clair seems to have most of the advantages of our beloved VersaFine originals, with the added benefit of inkers to match the pads. I always found it frustrating that VersaFine only made refills available in Onyx Black and Vintage Sepia.  I plan to keep carrying the original VersaFine pads and inkers as long as they’re available to me (my supplier seems to be phasing out the standard sized pads, but I can still get the minis).

Some of the Clair ink names are a little obscure, but I have pictures of each pad and inker, so you can get a pretty good idea by selecting them from the drop-down menu. (For example, the orange pad below is called, “Summertime” and one of the reds is known as, "Glamorous".)

I'm going to keep looking for new ink possibilities, and I hope that these will be useful - I'm looking forward to giving them a try.

Happy Birthday to Stampeaz!

Eighteen years! I can hardly believe it. It has been quite an adventure.

How will we celebrate?  Well, first Tan-Z Kut is on sale for the day.  But wait! There's more!

I will soon be introducing a different line of inks to the store and I will need to make room for all the beautiful new colors (sadly, I can't keep everything). So, I have decided that I will be replacing these VersaMagic inks with the new kids. For the rest of the month of February, these inks will be on sale. They're great matte finish chalk inks. 

Many thanks to all of you for a great eighteen years of Stampeaz! You're the best!!

A Whole New Thing

I've been busy trying to do some good things for Stampeaz.  I will tell you about the second one when I know that it's actually going to happen as planned, but the first I can tell you about now. 

I had attempted (unsuccessfully) to set up gift certificates in the store in the past, but recently a customer asked if they were available yet, and I figured it was about time to revisit that problem and conquer it. So, I set about trying again and I do believe I have emerged from the fray victorious!  

Gift Certificates went live a couple days ago and, of course, I couldn't leave the listing naked, so a new icon was carved for the occasion.

The image was finished this afternoon, and I did a couple of test prints of it. I think it will work (at least until a better idea comes along).

While the teal ink is a better match for the Stampeaz logo, I think the darker blue one wins the contrast and readability award.

So, here's the final image for the gift certificate category in the shop. 

If you get one of the gift certificates and notice anything wonky anywhere in the process, please be sure to let me know. Otherwise, with fingers crossed, I release it out into the Stampeaz multiverse (whatever that might be). ;-)

Bear Battered Bird Board

In the unbearable bear post earlier in the week, I mentioned the bird-feeding board just outside the barn - the one that the bear had torn down, even though there wasn't a speck of food left on it for him to eat. I guess it still smelled like birds, seeds and maybe even squirrels and chipmunks. 

Here are a couple of the visitors to the board. In this instance, we have a downy woodpecker and a chickadee.

Well, really, a couple of chickadees. They swoop in, grab a seed or peanut and fly off to hide it or eat it before coming back for another, so it's more like a flying parade than a single chickadee visitor. We have a piebald chickadee that's very distinctive and is almost always the first to come claim a snack (before coming back several times for more).

The birds make short work of cleaning up the board every time we put something on it and they're so enthusiastic about their handouts during the winter months that we have to make sure to close the door on our way into the barn so they don't follow us and get trapped as we gather treats for them. They don't seem to understand how to follow us out back out nearly as well. 

Some of the birds who visit the banquet board have posed as carving subjects for me. You may have even received one on your Stampeaz invoice. :)
 

Happy/Sad Anniversary Sale

Today would have marked ten years with Baloo. His memory walks with me every day and often causes me to laugh and cry - sometimes at the same time. I still frequently call his name (with a smile) when I accidentally drop something on the kitchen floor that I know he would have loved and we all laugh about the dead-things we notice along the roadside that he would have been thrilled to sniff. My brother thinks of him every time he empties a yogurt container (Baloo often walked around with a white stripe around his muzzle from trying to get every last bit he could). He was well loved and is still deeply missed.

 

Today is the tenth anniversary of the day he came to live with me and tomorrow is the first anniversary of his crossing the Rainbow Bridge (and yes, there are tears in my eyes as I type). So, since I can't commemorate the day by giving him a special treat, I'll share one with you in his honor. Today and tomorrow, all Tan-Z Kut (including the already discounted Grade B) is on sale for 10% off.

Hug the ones you love - furry ones included! I'd give a lot to hug that sweet boy again. :)

Well, Poo...!

Last night, while doing a test packing and postage estimate for a customer, I discovered that the post office has pulled the rug out from under us.  Regional flat rate priority mail is no longer available. This means that I won't be able to pass along postage savings because there won't be any.

I'm not charging the full retail rate on the stampeaz.com site, because I get a little commercial discount and I'm continuing to pass that along, but it's not as good as the regional rates. I'm really disappointed (and I'm sure you are, too)! 

The good news for the day is that I still have a box of bits and bobs to share with anyone who tells me they want some included with their package. 

Always look on the bright side of life.... Ti doo ti doo ti doo ti doo... (Yes, that's right,  I'm singing that as I type. And all my slightly twisted friends out there probably get the reference.) ;-)

What Day is It?

So, do you know what day it is? It's an anniversary day. I like to celebrate anniversary days. I'll let you think about it for a minute while I tell you the other news.

In keeping with my resolution to post tutorials on the Stampeaz site, I put up another one today. I had enough questions about what to do if you had already carved your block and still needed to sand it to get better ink adherence. It's called, But I Already Carved. 

Okay, back to the original question.... Seventeen years ago, I purchased Stampeaz and opened it up for business again on this day that year. There have been some rocky times (like the big site crash), but it's been great to be a part of this wonderful carving community. In honor of the anniversary and to celebrate seventeen amazing years, Tan-Z Kut is on sale today. And, if you order, don't forget to ask for some of the bits and bobs that I still have hanging around on the packing table.

New Year's Resolutions

 Let's see how well I do! 

Something I have been wanting to do on the new Stampeaz site is publish some tutorials, tips and tricks for carving and printing. I just published the first one, so we'll see how well I keep my resolution and whether people find it at all useful.  I have plans for several more already and we'll see where I go from there.  

The first installment is a quick tutorial on how I prepare a block before transferring an image or carving. I like to use the sanding method and it's really, really easy to do. So, if you're interested, the post is on the Stampeaz site in the blog section here.

Here's the before and after picture to try and entice you... :)

 

Carving Stuff

Procrastination has ended (at least for one specific goal). I have finally started working on possible designs and carves for my Christmas card this year - and also invoice images! I'm not sure this is going to be the winner, but it's what I've been chipping away at for the last couple of days.

I know, I know! I carved a deer in the snow a couple years ago, but this image called out to me. I'm going to have to put it aside for a day or two to see if my opinion of it will improve with a little distance. 

Also, remember way back in August when I told you that I had scraps and bits of odds and ends that I would include in your package if you asked? Well, I still have some, have found more experiments and have created some new ones. This is what the pile looks like at the moment, as it sits on the packing table awaiting requests.

There is quite a variety of bits and pieces including PZ Kut (yes, really), Firm Kut, OZ Kut, Tan-Z Kut and a number of things that were experiments that I never had full runs made of.  As you can see, some of these have images already on them that I decided I was never going to carve, but a quick acetone scrub would fix that (or flipping the block over and using the other side). These are great for inchies, hitchhikers, fleas, bits of text and other small carvings. So, if I'm sending something your way anyway, just let me know you want a handful of extra odds and ends and I will make it so. 

Culinary Capers

I am finally out of quarantine, caught up on a couple of Stampeaz orders that came in while I was down with the evil plague (thank you for your patience!!) and have gotten busy with some of the garden's bounty. 

My brother and I planted two different kinds of basil this year and, while it had sort of a slow start, it finally caught on to the whole growing and flourishing concept and gave us a pretty good harvest.

Quite a lot of the basil has been used for fresh caprese salads, featuring home grown tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and balsamic vinegar. However, we were falling behind with the basil consumption and something had to be done!

Pesto to the rescue! Sadly, my whole family suffers from pine nut induced dysgeusia syndrome, so we can't use the traditional recipe, but toasted walnuts are a very credible substitute and are delicious in their own right. So, here are my before and after pictures.

 

A two ounce container is about perfect for making one of my pizzas or a lovely side dish of pasta (we can break out more than one, if we need to dress a full pasta dinner!). 

I also had a little basil left over and I'm trying an experiment. I read somewhere that you could simply blend it with plain olive oil and freeze it. I made a few containers of that, too, just to see - sometimes you want plain basil instead of pesto - I'm thinking Thai food here.... I'll let you know how it goes.

Gone Fishing

This will be another one of the Pond Life series. Remember, about a week ago, I said I'd had a good photo night at Pyatt Lake (which is really a sort of large, shallow marshy area with deeper sections)? That was the night I hatched the idea about putting extra carving block bits into customer packages - and if you missed that post, I still have some (https://stampeaz.blogspot.com/2022/08/an-odd-notion.html). Just let me know if you'd like to have a little extra included with your order. 

Anyway, back to my story.  As I approached the observation deck, I noticed a couple of sandhill cranes out hunting for fish or frogs out in the lake. 

I tiptoed partway onto the deck very stealthily and got a picture.

Then, I carefully edged my way out a little farther for a better view. They continued their fishing expedition undisturbed by my presence.

I'm not entirely sure what gave me away, but they got a bit agitated and started bugling and clacking their very distinctive call.

I didn't want to disturb their dinner hour, so I quietly backed away, as one of them did a marvelous rendition of the dance of the ruffled feathers. As soon as I was at what they considered a safe distance, they resumed their search for dining delicacies and I continued on my walk to the other observation deck about a half mile away.

When I got out to the second platform, I noticed this great blue heron perched on a dead tree in the middle of the lake, not too far from where I stood. It looked me over, but didn't seem too fussed about my presence.

After a while, a golden eagle swooped in and perched near where the cranes had been snacking and the uproar was something to hear! They both took off and flew from the threat and I managed to catch a picture of one as it rose above the undergrowth and then looped back toward me.

It settled in a tree right in front of me and just a little to the left of the heron, who observed the proceedings with interest.

It was fun to watch the crane gracefully fold its huge self into a neat, compact package to and wait for the danger to pass.

It stayed for a while, allowing me to enjoy its company, before flying into the twilight to join its mate, which had perched much farther away from where the eagle landed. (I could see the eagle, but couldn't get a good picture because it landed in a very well camouflaged area to watch for its own dining opportunities. It would have looked like a dark blob amongst the leaves.)

After the crane flew off, I watched the heron for a while longer, before heading down the trail for home. 

All in all, a very nice sunset walk. It could only have been made more perfect by the presence of a large black dog quietly watching by my side. But, you all know that's true!

An Odd Notion...

I was walking around Pyatt Lake taking pictures and thinking about things, as I often do. (Good picture night tonight, by the way...) And I had an idea.

Over time, I have collected quite a pile of carving material odds and ends. There are pieces from very small to reasonably large with quite a few that would work well for people who like to do inchies, micro boxes, hitchhikers, or other small images. I will never, ever be able to work my way through all these pieces of material, given the rate that I am generating them as opposed to how often I carve that size. 

Therefore, if you want to take pot luck and ask for a fistful of miscellaneous bits and pieces to be added to your order (at no extra cost to either of us, since I'm shipping something already), or if you know a deserving soul who can't afford to buy any material, let me know. 

Some of these blocks are from many years ago and come from ideas, samples or tests that  I have put aside and will never revisit. For example, if you are someone who uses acetone and can clean off the surface of a block that has something dubious transferred to it already, there are pieces of Tan-Z Kut, PZ Kut, OZ Kut, MZ Kut (I think) and other materials that only I ever got to play with. There's no reason for me to continue to let this pile keep growing and I like the idea of getting it into the hands of people who will actually carve it into something interesting. 

What do you think?

Sparrow Me the Details

It's officially the first day of Summer. Appropriate, I suppose, as a heat wave is hitting this area. Since it's going to be toasty upstairs and outside today, I may take advantage of the cooler temperatures in the basement to get a little Stampeaz work done. The packing area is a disaster and needs to be cleared out and I need to place a Speedball order, too. 

But first, I'm going to sing the praises of this little brown bird. A casual glance would only show you a plain sparrow without a lot of pizazz. That would be misleading.

Not only does it have some pretty interesting plumage, with stripes, speckles and a bold spot on its breast, when it fills that breast with air, something spectacular happens. 

  

The music! This tiny operatic performer will belt out its tune for hours, staking territory and charming all within hearing distance (which is quite some way). 

It's called a Song Sparrow for a very good reason. During my childhood, we always said that we could tell the song sparrow's tune because it ties a knot at the end. Listen for it and perhaps you'll hear the twist in the melody. 

Happy Summer!