Linking assignment

 

Link # 2: Task 4 Potato Stamps – Linking to PJ

 

https://blogs.ubc.ca/pjmacgregor/2021/10/01/task-four-manual-scripts-and-potato-printing/

 

Immediately when I look at PJ’s potato stamps I know we have shared both similar and different experience. Similar in the sense of certainly undermining how difficult this task would be, turning out to be harder than initially imagined. What is different between our experiences is I never thought to carve entire words into one single potato, instead I carved each letter into 5 different slices of potato which caused for more variation. Carving the entire word into the potato would allow for more uniform stamps as each stamp would seemingly be the same since its carved from the same potato. My thought processes was to make it as similar to the letter press and stamp each letter one by one – but never thought to make a one worded stamp, which would for sure be more efficient and uniform. Similarly, PJ and I had the same thought processes of choosing words with letters that do not have curves for the most part, as they’d be difficult t carve. I chose all rigid letters to spell the word “LEARN” and PJ bravely chose “OLIVE” as I’m sure the O was incredibly difficult to carve out. In comparison – PJ was cleaver and carved the word backwards, so that when it would stamp the word would be readable versus my stamp created a mirrored version of the word.

 

Similarly, PJ and I had the same reaction and realization through this activity. Through the use of the potato stamp we both determined the patience, creativity and detail required for this type of writing technique. Thinking about the creation of word processors and how far alterative technologies to create printed words have come, even as I type this all out right now, it seems crazy to think how long it would take me to write all this out via stamp.