Makers Mark Stamp

In this assignment, we were told to come up with an original mark/stamp design to put on every project that we make throughout the duration of this class. Once we came up with our idea we then had to form and carve our stamp.

Aesthetically, I wanted this stamp to be simple, but not so simple that it was unrecognizable and that someone else would think of the same thing. While it seems that my stamp design is rather unremarkable I would disagree because to me, it represents some of the things that I do as an artist. I like to play with lines and shapes, specifically doodles as you will most likely see in later projects, and I like to create designs with shapes that are pleasing to my eye, so that's what I did with this stamp. It had to be kept simple just because of its small stature but it's still personal to me. I started rolling out a length of clay and tapping one of the ends to make it flat. I then started to very gently pinch the edges of the flattened end, and also slightly tap the edges onto the table to make the end more of a square shape. I then smoothed out the length of the stamp to make it smooth and easy to hold. Once I was done creating the body of the stamp, I waited until it was leather-hard to carve my design.

When I was originally designing my stamp and thinking of how I was going to make it I figured that I was going to add clay to the top using the scratch and slip method, however soon after starting that process I realized that the pieces of clay I was trying to work with were far too small and delicate for me to handle. In the end, I found out that it was just easier to carve out the design,  which saved me quite a large headache too. I think my finished product is quite successful, I mean it gets the job done.  If I had a chance to redo this project, however,  I would carve out my design deeper, I think it can be a little difficult to see sometimes, especially with the glaze that often fills the stamp mark.