Task 4: Potato Printing

To get myself away from a computer screen, I decided to try the potato stamp assignment this week. It has been awhile since I have done any hands on projects so I was looking forward to getting crafty. All was going well and my stamps were looking amazing when I realized I jumped into the assignment without fully thinking it through and had not reversed the letters. So, I sliced off my newly created words and started the process again. The second attempt took about an hour (20 minutes longer than the first) to complete and the finished product was not as cleanly cut as my original backwards letters. The prints on one of the potatoes did not fully show as I was hasty and did not evenly reslice the potato.

I choose to make a stamp of my youngest son’s name, Quaid, as it was 5 letters. The letters within his name were challenging to make as the Q, A and D all had counters that needed to be cut out.  The size of potatoes in my pantry limited how large I could make the letters  and this made it challenging to make them large enough so that the hairline of the letter was thick enough to not break. Although I used two sides of the same potato, the spacing and height of my lettering did not match perfectly.    In retrospect, I should have used better carving tools than my kitchen paring knife to cut out my letters as it would have made it more precise.

In the video, Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film (2012), Paul Collier spoke of the extra consideration and planning required when working with the letterpress because when you make a mistake you have to take it all apart and start over. The same can be said of the potato stamp and this activity has made me more appreciative of writing tools such as pencils and the computer as they allow you to change your mistakes in an instant rather than the extra hour it took me to recreate my stamp. Collier also touches on how working with your hands and building something piece by piece is therapeutic (Cook, 2012). I find this same peace when I am painting. We have been renovating our house and I have spent hours patching and painting walls. While I am painting, I listen to music and can let my mind wonder to other things. It is also very satisfying being able to see a finished product that you have created.

References: 

Cook, David. (2012, January 26). Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6RqWe1bFpM