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. :)

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.

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.

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?

Memorial Day and Gratitude

Memorial Day always finds me thinking of the sacrifices that have been made by so many brave souls.  Sacrifices that have secured cherished freedoms and opportunities that I hope I never take for granted or fail to appreciate. Baloo and I walk to the war memorial, read the names of those who died in defense of those freedoms and spend some time in quiet contemplation and gratitude.  It's a priceless gift they have given me. 

I am also very grateful for the customers who have stuck with me through many iterations of product development, a web site crash and rebuild, a pandemic and an amazing amount of family stuff that has thrown me off my game a bit. Thank you for that. I'm trying to get things back on a more even keel now and am learning how to set up sales in the new site. If all works as I think it should, Tan-Z Kut will be on sale through Monday. 

And to top off the news, I have (finally) gotten the modified Speedball cutters back into inventory. I'm sure Kirbert (and maybe a few others) thought I had been abducted by aliens or something. 

The Last Pieces of the Puzzle

Were you wondering when the last pieces of the puzzle would finally be put into place? Well, I think we're finally there. You can see that there are a lot of little parts that had to be sorted out and, while they looked a lot alike, they were actually different species. Not a perfect metaphor, but it was a fun way to think about progress. 

A funny thing happened on the way to the testing phase, though. I had asked a few intrepid souls who needed to order things anyway to put the new site through its paces to see what they might think of it. I only wanted a couple of people to test it, because there are always bumps and wrinkles when moving anything from building to testing to production. So, I turned the site on and told my few testers it was live for them to play with yesterday afternoon. 

What happened next was a big surprise for me. One of my testers got a little enthusiastic and posted on Facebook that the site was live! You can sort of imagine the chaos that ensued. There were, indeed, some bumps and wrinkles and I had to scramble a bit to get my hosting site to fix synchronization problems, figure out why a number of things weren't working quite as I was told they should and otherwise learn the administration side of the site under pressure. But, in the end, I think everybody's going to get what they wanted and, while I still have the iron handy for any persistent wrinkly spots, things are going really quite well. They'd have to be or I wouldn't be posting this, would I??  :)

If you want to see what you think, you can try it yourself (https://stampeaz.com) and let me know how everything works for you!!

Counting Crows - and an Update

Crows, ravens and magpies have often been considered birds that are prophetic, depending on how many you see at one time. There are a number of old nursery rhymes and poems to unravel their messages. 

When I see one crow, I always look around to find another one because it's supposed to be an omen of sorrow to see a single crow. Happily, they're social birds, so there's almost always another one in the area. I also always think of my grandmother, since she had a lot of superstitions that guided her life. :)

My favorite version of the old rhyme goes like this: 

One for sorrow, 

Two for mirth,

Three for a wedding, 

Four for a birth. 

(these four were wondering how to get at the ripening grapes)

Five for silver, 

Six for gold, 

Seven for a secret not to be told. 

Eight for Heaven, 

Nine for Hell, 

And ten is for the Devil's own self!

Since the collective noun for a group of ten or more crows is called a "murder", I suppose thinking of that number as the embodiment of evil isn't too much of a stretch. 

Every night, a flock of crows gathers along the beach to await a favorable wind (or the dying down of the wind as the sun sets) to help them fly across to the island in the middle of the bay where they have a rookery. They frequently get a little raucous and it's always enjoyable to see them stream across toward their home. 

Speaking of counting, the inventory is finished and entered into the new database and I only have a few more pieces of the new Stampeaz website to put in place before going live with it.  The biggest piece is that I'm still wrestling with finding the best solution for the shipping part of the site. Other than that, it's a bunch of little things (of course, those little things always take longer than I expect). 

So, it will be soon! Very soon! 

Thanks to all of you for your patience and you can still let me know if you need something in the meantime! 

A Cheery, Cherry-Faced Progress Report

Baloo wanted to make me take a much-needed data entry break and go out on what should have been a lovely walk in the woods. Reality kicked in when we were completely beset by swarms of deer flies and horse flies and no amount of bug dope seemed to help repel the vicious little biters. The good news is that I got to be introduced to the cherry-faced meadowhawk along our way (what a great name for these winged wonders!). 

The bad news is that Baloo decided, while I was concentrating on trying to get a good picture of this striking dragonfly, he would foil the pesky flies by jumping into the mucky pond beside which this red beauty lives and hunts. Needless to say, stinky dog had to have a bath before he was allowed back into the house! 

Oh! You mean you don't care about my canine cleansing conundrums and what you really wanted to see was the promised progress report? Okay, here goes! 

All the different products that I carry at Stampeaz are now officially entered into the database. This is huge progress! A whirlwind inventory will need to be done before the site goes live, since some of the counts will be different from what I pulled out of the old database (I've sold some things since the crash), but that's a manageable task that should be done anyway, just to make sure everything's correct. 

Other than that, I still need to figure out the shipping and customer account parts of the new platform. From the research I have done so far, it looks like I may have to do something similar to what I did with the old store for postage, since I use the least expensive priority mail method I can for each order. My only option for accurate shipping is to use standard flat rate, which would be more expensive for my customers. So, folks may just have to put up with me creating the best estimate I can and refunding money that I don't need for shipping an order. Who knows? I may yet find a plug-in or add-on that allows me to do what I want, but it looks like I make things too complicated for that (no surprise there!).   

It's Coming Together - Slowly

It was getting a little quiet on the blog front again, wasn't it? There has been a lot going on with the Stampeaz site rebuild, so it's time for another update. I can't pretend it's terribly interesting reading, but people have asked for it. You have been warned.  

The pieces are starting to create a picture that looks like it might eventually make some sense. As you can see, there are still big chunks missing, but it's beginning to look like it's really going to come together. So, what does that mean, exactly? 

All the carving materials and kits, most of the carving tools and several lines of ink pads and inkers have been entered into the new database. Today, I'm working on more of the inks, inkers and markers. I have set myself a deadline for getting it all finished and, if I manage to figure out how to deal with shipping costs, I just might come close to making that deadline. It's  possible I will have to use the same shipping refund workaround that I did in the old store, where I simply refunded any shipping overcharge. This is only an issue since I use regional flat rate mail, which varies in cost depending on how far away from me a customer is and I can't know how much postage will be until I actually create the label at the post office's web site, but we'll see if I can come up with a better methodology. I just don't like people to have to pay more than is necessary for postage. 

This data entry process has brought home to me just how many different things have been added to the store over the years, as people requested them. There is a surprising amount of stuff in the basement! So, I confess that I might cheat a little bit on the deadline thing - I am trying to get the most important and most popular inventory entered first and some things that don't get as much love from my customers may straggle into the store after it's up and running. That means that if you don't see something that you think should be there, don't panic. Let me know and I will take care of it. :)

How has Baloo been faring during all of this? He has been amazingly patient as I continue my extreme preoccupation with all things computer. His human is unusually boring these days, but he's still insisting that we get outside for several walks every day, so he's right on top of his job. When it's time for me to move (or feed him) he keeps jogging my elbow, making data entry impossible -- and I have to keep him from putting his chin on the keyboard to do his very own database manipulations. He is helping. 

Previews of Coming Attractions...

I was going to do a completely different kind of post tonight, but I decided it might be fun to share a little about how the website rebuild is coming along, since several people have asked for progress reports. 

I've been taking lots of pictures of carving blocks, kits and tools to put up in the shiny new Stampeaz store. So far, I have all the carving blocks and linoleum blocks entered in the new database and am ready to start on the various carving kits. 

After that, it's on to the tool section. Here's the picture I'm thinking about using as a category teaser for the Carving Tools part of the store. 

I've been trying to reorganize things so they'll be more streamlined and (I hope) easier to find than they were in the old site. So, good thoughts and crossed fingers are much appreciated as I learn a whole new way of doing things. 

Baloo has been surprisingly patient, as I slog through learning about creating menus and categories and as I try to pull descriptions and information about products out of the old database to enter all the information into the new one. Of course, he also makes me take regular breaks to go out for walks and get some fresh air.  He's thoughtful that way. :)

More of the Pieces

No, I hadn't forgotten the puzzle I left hanging. I just had to step back for a while and decide some things. Things like whether or not I was going to try and resurrect the Stampeaz site or just let it go. 

This particular puzzle is of the type that is more difficult to do if you focus on the subject matter rather than the background. It's a fitting metaphor.

So, now that I have looked at the big picture and studied how the background might work, I'm starting to look more closely at how all the pieces are going to come together to form something that's worth looking at. 

Thanks to everyone for your patience and support while I worked through the decision of whether to start over again. Many thanks to those who offered suggestions and help of one kind or another. Now, since I have decided to try and put the pieces back together, I'll ask that you bear with the process just a little longer as I work through starting from the very beginning (again - my first try didn't work). It's a daunting task, but now that I've gotten over the angst of the crash, I'm ready to keep on sorting the bits and pieces and get this puzzle finished! 

Also, I want to apologize -- some of you have left comments for me on earlier posts and I honestly didn't know about them until just a couple minutes ago. I used to get notified when someone had made a comment, but now some of them seem to get hidden in a moderation limbo land until I release them. I didn't change any settings or intentionally ignore anyone - I just didn't know anyone had said anything. Thanks for commenting and checking in on the blog -- I appreciate it! And now I know where to go look for them! :)

Howling!

After an enticing taste of springtime weather, we had a setback and woke up a couple mornings ago to a stiff wind and blowing snow. It absolutely plastered white spots to Baloo's coat so that he looked a little like an inverted dalmation. 

Baloo had something pretty sharp to say about it all. Mornings have been pretty chilly, but it did clear off this afternoon and I took a break to go outside and trim the big hydrangea bush in the back yard while Baloo ate snow and looked for stray bird seeds.  

Thank you to those who have been sending in orders during this transitional period. I've been using PayPal's invoice system and it seems to be working as a mildly clumsy substitute while Stampeaz is in the process of rising from the ashes. Just send me an email (admin @ stampeaz . com -- without the spaces, of course), if you need anything. 

Stay safe and healthy, everyone!

Sorting...

Guess what I've been working on today? :)

I'll be adding some Speedball cutters to the box I'm sending to Kirbert for modification, too. He'll have quite a few to do, so don't hold your breath for their appearance in the store... 

Kits and Kaboodles

It's taken me long enough, but I finally put together some carving kits with Tan-Z Kut. 

First, the simpler, beginner's kit with two different carving materials, a handle and cutters. 

Then, the deluxe carving kit with bigger pieces of Tan-Z and Speedy Carve, mounting foam and a fuller range of tools. 

I also added another kit to inventory that I thought looked interesting. I only got a couple of them, so we'll see how they go before I stock very many of them. 

Next up? I think I'll try to sort through the last couple boxes of Staedtler cutters and get the ones that need work sent off to Kirbert for modification. (I think I hear cheering!)  :)

Tansy vs Tan-Z

Yes, indeed. 

There's tansy the flower and there's Tan-Z, the brand new carving material at Stampeaz.com. 

This is the flower. Tansy is frequently used as a natural insect repellent (ants don't care for it, from what I understand) and it's also a natural dye plant used in coloring textiles. It has had a number of medicinal uses in the past, but there are far more safe and effective remedies for the ailments it used to treat, so I won't enumerate them here.

This, on the other hand, is a garage full of Tan-Z. Complete with a very attentive watchdog supervising the unloading process as the skids come off the truck and line up in the garage. 

I have unwrapped one of the skids and the material looks exactly as it should. It's been cut and stacked just as I asked and now the fun begins. I get to haul a sheet to the basement for cutting every time I walk through the garage or head downstairs.  Baloo gets to continue in his official watchdog capacity as he observes the whole production, from hauling down the stairs and cutting to packaging and taking out for the mail carrier to collect. He already thinks I'm a little odd and this will reinforce his assessment. I make his meals, though, so he's tolerant of my many eccentricities. 

So, the new material is finally available. Check it out!  At this point, the pictures of the Tan-Z are terrible, but I had to take a the pictures last night so I could get them on the site today. I'll fix them in a day or so, when I've caught my breath a bit. 

In the Meantime...

I did say to stay tuned, didn't I?

If you're running out of carving material and feeling a little bit anxious about it, I may have a short term solution for you. I had not planned to sell the second, larger gray test sheet I was sent along with the tan one (most of which went out to my intrepid testers).  I thought it would be better to wait until the actual tan material arrived, since some people had trouble with the gray color and image contrast and some people had a little trouble with the thinness of the test material. 

That being said, I just sliced it up and am making it available. Since I'm feeling a bit nutty, I called it Crazy Gray-Z and I don't expect it will be around for long, as there isn't very much of it. But, it may rescue a few of you from carving withdrawal syndrome! I sliced it into two different sizes: 10 x 6 and 4 x 6. 

They Say Patience is a Virtue.

I don't have a picture that adequately portrays the level of frustration I'm feeling at the moment. Baloo's look of eye-rolling, you've-got-to-be-kidding disbelief comes as close as I could find.

Delays. 

It seems that the extrusion machine at the Tan-Z Kut factory broke down and all production ceased - they neglected to communicate this little difficulty to me, so I didn't learn of it until I called to find out what in the world had happened to the shipment I was anxiously awaiting. 

What this means is that the shiny, new, tan material we've all been anticipating so enthusiastically will not be arriving until sometime around the middle of July. 

Yes, I know. 

I've said that.... 

.....and that, too. 

So, in the meantime, I'm going to try and get a little bit creative for those of you who are running out of material to carve with. 

Stay tuned.

I'm really sorry about the delays to the previously scheduled programming!

Besides, I always thought that Patience was a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.
(Hmmmm.... maybe that's why Baloo is rolling his eyes.)

Tan Material Sample Results Round #4

Unless the two extra folks I sent samples to (who weren't in the official Merry Band of Testers) send back information and/or images, I think this is the last sample post you'll be subjected to for a while. 

Once again, thanks to nosox, Wise Wanderer and Open Space for their very helpful suggestions with respect to questions to help all the testers in their analysis and evaluation of this new material. It created a perfect springboard for thinking about material qualities and getting similar pieces of information from a wide variety of carvers. 

Also, even if you aren't interested in the actual results of the sample test, the carves are definitely worth an admiring look. 

What, if anything, did you to do prep the block before transferring your image?

One treated one side with acetone and left the other untreated on one of her carves (noted in the scans), one lightly sanded her text carving and did not prep the other, one did a very helpful side-by-side comparison of how sanding or not sanding the material affected the transfer outcome. 

What type of transfer did you use?

There was a wide variety: heat, wintergreen oil, acetone/laser jet print, and wax paper.

Did it take a transfer well?

Is the transfer clear and high contrast, showing detail well?

Does the transfer stay on the material without smearing or sliding?

All transfer methods worked reasonably well to very well, except for the wintergreen oil transfer onto one of the blocks that was not sanded. 

Many thanks to BaliWho for doing a test of prep and transfer methods. From the left, sanded with heat transfer, not sanded with heat transfer, sanded with wintergreen transfer and not sanded with wintergreen transfer. It's pretty obvious that the sanding really helps the transfer process with this side-by-side comparison. 

What tool(s) did you use?

Staedtler #1 V - modified and unmodified gouges, x-acto knives, unmodified Speedball #1, #2, #3 and #5 cutters, and a pinched .25 Speedball #1 cutter. 

Using properly sharpened tools, does the cut path have clean edges?
Is the consistency of the block smooth or grainy?

Edges were clean and the material was smooth for all three testers. 

Many thanks to Baliwho for some very helpful side-by-side comparisons. She carved what she calls the "Vampire Zombie Clown Molly", even though the transfer was problematic for her, just to test the inking qualities after the carve (above and beyond the call!). Clearly, sanded worked way better. And, by the way, I loved the Euchre carving - I used to play that game with my family when I was a child. Lots of memories there. The largest carving in this group is Rachael Ray at about 1.5 x 2 inches. 

Does the gouge or knife slip during shallow cuts or when ending cuts?

One said she slipped a little using extra pressure on cleanup cuts and thought that it was a matter of adjusting to the fact that it doesn't take as much pressure as the material she's been using, one slipped a few times, but also felt it could be adjusted to, one had some trouble with slipping as she felt her tools got duller and she needed to use more pressure on her cuts.

Does the material release easily from the block as you finish each cut?
One had a few straggling pieces, but thought it was more her carving style than the material, one thought it released easily, one had a lot of trouble at the end of cuts, especially with her x-acto knife. 

How would you rate the level of pressure it takes to move the tool through the material? 

One said it was soft and easy to carve, requiring very little pressure to move the tool through the block, noting it was much easier on the hands when working on a large, detailed image or doing a lot of carves in a row. One thought that pressure was not an issue and that the material was firmer than Speedy Carve and about the same as OZ. One said it feels just as firm as OZ but takes far less pressure to carve. 

Many thanks to The V's who carved with Staedtler modified and unmodified #1 V gouges, an x-acto knife and Speedball unmodified #2 and #3 gouges and thought this material dulled her tools more rapidly than OZ or PZ Kut. (I think it's very cool her new signature is carved on this stuff!) The larger "Insomnia" image had acetone preparation on the left of the block. "Insomnia" is about 2.5 x 3.5 inches and the new signature carve is about 1.25 x 2 inches.

Rate the ability to make fine straight lines.

One said it was a "dream" compared to Speedy Carve and easy to shave along the second side of a line to get nice, thin detail. One said it was easy to get fine lines and details. One said "very good". 

Can you imagine this block at about .25 inches thick? If so, do you think it would be firm enough to hold fine details, or squishy such that stray background marks would show if the stamp were not mounted?

This group had no concern about the squish factor.

Did you try tools with different levels of sharpness and did it make a difference if you did? 

One said the material seemed to dull her tools and it became harder to carve as they lost their edge. One didn't try different levels of sharpness. One said her tools were at all different levels of sharpness and she noticed no difference. 

What type of ink(s) did you try?

All three of these testers tried lots of different inks. 

Many thanks to kudichan who tested the limits on fine lines and text with a modified Staedtler #1 V gouge, modified Speedball #1 and a pinched (.25) Speedball cutter. She thought the material was smooth and easy to carve and that ink transferred better if the image was thoroughly sanded before carving. The reclining woman is about 1.75 x 3 inches and the text carving is about 1 x 2.5 inches.  

Does the carving hold the ink smoothly and evenly?
Do large positive spaces hold and transfer ink well?

One was very pleased with inking results, saying that it was the best she'd experienced since PZ Kut, especially if the carving was cold - she even froze one of her images and it worked well with all inks except one that was frozen, itself. One said that inking went pretty well on both sanded and unsanded material, with dye ink being a little less evenly distributed and that sanding made more of a difference in image transfer than in inking and printing. One had some issues with printing partly due to the slight curvature of the sample block and she also thought that sanding really helped for good coverage. 

Other observations and comments: 

One noted that black StazOn ink didn't seem to dry as quickly on this material after printing. 

One said that the surface was smooth - like butter, but that it needed more pressure to carve deeply. She rated it as, "Just like OZ, without the pain", saying that she got quickly fatigued while carving OZ and didn't experience that at all with this new material. 

One held high hopes of this becoming her new and everlasting favorite material, but wondered a little about the drier consistency holding up in the wild. 

One really liked the material overall and would use it over Speedball pink, with some concern with respect to blade carving and the dulling of tools. 

Finally, I just really want to thank all the intrepid testers for the amazing work they did, the fast turnaround times and the willingness to answer any other questions I had about their experiences with this material. It's been great to get such excellent feedback and have so much helpful information to move this quest for the perfect carving medium a little further down the road. 

Well, okay, maybe not finally. I do have one more thing to say. I pulled the trigger today and ordered a great big pile of this stuff and will be spending the next few weeks reorganizing and cleaning out my garage. I've got to find someplace for all the pallets to land, once it gets here. Yikes!

Modified Speedball Cutters

This post is long overdue.  What with moving and all, I sort of forgot about these until someone mentioned that they heard I had them.  So I went hunting, located them and took some pictures... finally!

These are Speedball Cutters that Kirbert has modified the same way that he modified the old Staedtler ones (yes, I have unearthed those, too, and will see if Kirbert still wants to modify them for me).  

This is the #1 miniaturized cutter.  The top of the cutting end has been ground down to allow for a much better view of exactly what (and where) you're cutting and a smaller tip to get into those really hard to reach places.  Do not confuse this with the so-called .5 blades that some people pinch - these have not been squeezed to narrow the valley of the blade, just made a lot more versatile for fine work. 

This is the #1 reversed cutter.  Look at how the top of the V is angled back from the point. This is a fine blade for getting into tight inside corners.  Shallow cuts are a must with this cutter, but it is a real help when carving letters.  I had to get used to this angled blade - it's easy for me to bury in the carving block if I don't keep my cuts shallow enough.  

This is the #2 miniaturized cutter.   Just like the #1 mini, the top of the V has been ground down to give better control and visibility - just with a slightly larger tip.  

Finally, this is a #4 miniaturized.  Once again, the top has been ground down to give a shallower, squared edge for removing larger areas, while still allowing the visibility needed to control how close you want to get to the image lines.  

I have a limited number of these to begin with, but if they look like they're going to be popular, I'll get another batch sent off to Kirbert for modification.  I sort of wanted to see what people were most interested in before getting too many of any one modification made, so I'll be watching how it goes.  

Spoiler Alert - April Stampeaz Invoice Image

I posted the Stampeaz invoice image for March on the blog last month and the response was very positive.  By way of warning, I am going to palaver on for a bit so that you can think again about whether or not you want to see the image or be surprised, just in case you place an order in April.  

This month's invoice image will once again be printed on an enclosed piece of card stock for a couple of reasons.  First, regular computer paper is porous enough that it's hard to get a good print of this particular carving with it, so I opted for a nice, smooth cover stock and Versafine Onyx Black ink for good coverage and the way it works with fine detail. Second, the carving is large enough that it won't easily fit on the page with orders that have a longer list of little items like carving nibs, inkers, small pads and such.  

As for the carving's subject, there's a wonderful landmark out at the end of the peninsula where I live. It's a lighthouse that functioned for over 70 years and is now a piece of history offering visitors a small glimpse of what life might have been like for a lighthouse keeper. People can even apply to be a temporary keeper of the lighthouse and Baloo and I have met folks out on the walking trails who plan family vacations around keeper duties every year.

A lot of effort has gone into maintaining and restoring the building, with the help of a strong community of supporters who work hard to preserve the history and landmarks in the area. There are a number of other significant and interesting projects quite close by.  

In addition, the lighthouse sits at the 45th parallel, complete with a marker to celebrate the fact. On a more somber note, there is also a war memorial honoring those who gave their lives in service. I am always humbled as I read their names and remember their sacrifice. Baloo and I always stop for a few moments whenever we go that way.  

It's a place well worth visiting and if you do, perhaps you'll meet Baloo and me as we walk through the woods or along the beach.  Keep your eyes open for a big, black dog with golden eyes.  :)

Okay, I think I have gone on long enough to give you a chance to retreat (or take a nap). Here's what you'll find in your package, if you place an order in April.  

Oh!  I know someone will ask - this was carved on Stampeaz OZ Kut primarily using a #1 and #2 gouge, with occasional Testor's knife cuts, particularly around the light, itself.