Making a Positive Out of a Negative Project by Christen Olivarez
Any avid rubber stamper knows that there are just some stamps you have to have. Sure, you have no idea how you’re going to use them, but they still wind up in your shopping cart. Then they sit on your art table gathering dust. That’s how it was when I bought this “reverse” stamp by Dina Wakley. All of the other designs from their collection were stamped right away, but there were just a couple I didn’t know quite what to do with. After talking with several employees here, I realized that both stamps had large areas of negative space. Our President, Kellene Giloff, urged me to find an interesting way to spotlight the negative space.
I typically use stamps for texture, so the larger sections of solid color were throwing me off until I began playing around with the stamps. I started by inking Reversed Grunge Growth; then I pressed the honeycomb stamp from Christine Adolph’s Collage Cube onto the solid section. To finish, I stamped Reversed Grunge Growth onto paper. The honeycomb texture added a nice effect, making it appear as if I added my own collaged layer. Next, I again inked Reversed Grunge Growth, but this time stamped a self-inking 7gypsies circle stamp randomly onto the solid space. When I stamped Reversed Grunge Growth, the circles appeared in the negative space, creating a nice, textured look. Finally, I simply used the space to journal on.
About the Artist: Christen Olivarez is the Director of Publishing for Stampington & Company and editor-in-chief of Somerset Studio, Somerset Life, Mingle, HandCrafted, and Artists’ Café. Interests: art, slow food, writing, books, yarn, authentic living Follow Christen on Her Blog: thedeliberatelife.typepad.com |
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Any avid rubber stamper knows that there are just some stamps you have to have. Sure, you have no idea how you’re going to use them, but they still wind up in your shopping cart. Then they sit on your art table gathering dust. That’s how it was when I bought this “reverse” stamp by Dina Wakley. All of the other designs from their collection were stamped right away, but there were just a couple I didn’t know quite what to do with. After talking with several employees here, I realized that both stamps had large areas of negative space. Our President, Kellene Giloff, urged me to find an interesting way to spotlight the negative space.
I typically use stamps for texture, so the larger sections of solid color were throwing me off until I began playing around with the stamps. I started by inking Reversed Grunge Growth; then I pressed the honeycomb stamp from Christine Adolph’s Collage Cube onto the solid section. To finish, I stamped Reversed Grunge Growth onto paper. The honeycomb texture added a nice effect, making it appear as if I added my own collaged layer. Next, I again inked Reversed Grunge Growth, but this time stamped a self-inking 7gypsies circle stamp randomly onto the solid space. When I stamped Reversed Grunge Growth, the circles appeared in the negative space, creating a nice, textured look. Finally, I simply used the space to journal on.
About the Artist: Christen Olivarez is the Director of Publishing for Stampington & Company and editor-in-chief of Somerset Studio, Somerset Life, Mingle, HandCrafted, and Artists’ Café. Interests: art, slow food, writing, books, yarn, authentic living Follow Christen on Her Blog: thedeliberatelife.typepad.com |
You will also ? this publication: | |||