Potato Stamp of “CHRIS”.
How much time did it take?
The entire process took ~30 minutes.
Challenges?
Finding a potato was the first challenge. My wife told me that we had potatoes in the house, but it turns out the one potato that we had already sprouted a bunch of leaves and roots, and the thing was a bit soft. I ended up using the one small section of this soft potato that did not have leaves or roots sticking out.
I tried to draw the letters using a permanent marker, using a pen, and then when all else failed, I tried using a pencil. I somehow convinced myself that graphite would stick onto potato better than the other two options. I was wrong. I ended up “free-handing” the process. It was challenging to keep the letters the same size.
I thought I was being a smart boy by using chisels to carve letters into the potato. I thought that since it works for wood/stone, it would work with a potato. Nope. Since the potato was a tad soft, getting the chisel to cut in without completely squishing the potato was incredibly challenging. My chisels were also blunt from years of neglect. Thankfully, because they were blunt, the few times that I pushed a little too hard in the wrong direction didn’t end up drawing blood.
Anything particular about the letters that I chose?
While the “H” and “I’ were easier, those curves on the “C”, “R” and “S” were so difficult! It was even tougher than normal because the slice of potato I had was so darn small and soft. Although the letters turned out legible, they ended up pretty ugly. I should have done block letters. Or maybe “FLINT” would have been much easier…
Thoughts on Mechanization of Writing
Although it took a while to create the stamp of just 5 letters, stamping them repeatedly to make copies afterwards was quick and painless. I feel that creating templates/molds for the movable types in the first place would have taken some time. However, once that’s done, the stamping process could then make many similar copies in a much shorter period of time compared to copying by hand. Copying by hand is also more prone to errors.
This activity made me appreciate the technology I have access to so much more. I am glad I can pick and preview whatever font I want in a word processing program. Once I click print, the words come out beautifully in whatever color I set them to be, provided that my printer remains functional.
margaret keating
June 4, 2020 — 2:54 pm
lol . . . love the poor potato story . . . how many of us have potatoes, even now, sprouting in dark corners of neglect? What must they whisper to each other, alone there, in the dark?
Love the project; I’m waiting until Friday afternoon to do mine, a time of quiet that I always enjoy each week.
I’ve found with the CO-19 that I am slowing down, too, not that much has really changed for me. But I find that I am content to do things more slowly, perhaps more reflectively than a few months back . . .
So the potato printing really appeals to me, and I can see myself continuing to play with it . . . at least until September hits, again . . .
Christopher Lam
June 6, 2020 — 8:14 pm
Hi Margaret!
Thanks! I really enjoyed this project too. I had to do it at night after my two boys went to bed.
O how I envy you, being able to slow down due to the pandemic. With the two boys around, doing the readings for this course, and supporting learners remotely for my school the past couple of months have been more hectic than usual.
On a related note, I loved this project so much that I am working it into my unit next year in English. I think the kiddos will enjoy this project too. 🙂
heidi dyck
June 5, 2020 — 8:31 am
Hi Chris,
Very nice stamp! I used only one potato as well but I cut it into the individual stamps. In the end, I had to stamp each letter to my word…if you see my picture I had some very obvious mistakes in my “printing” – it would have been so much easier to create a single stamp!!
Christopher Lam
June 6, 2020 — 8:19 pm
Hi Heidi,
After I finished my stamp, my wife asked me why I didn’t do each letters individually so that I would have better control over the size of each letter. She also said I was a dummy for not doing them individually because I could have played around with different letter combinations. The only response I could give her was: “the potato you had for me was way too soft.” HAHA.
While it may have been easier to create a single stamp, doing each one individually would have been so much better for fixing errors in select letters. If one stamp broke, I could just replace that one letter rather than the whole thing. Also, this probably wasn’t apparent from the results, but while I was carving the letter “R”, my chisel actually went under the letter “H” and almost broke the whole thing.
If I were to do it again, I definitely would do each separately. But since it worked out this time, I don’t really regret doing one stamp. 🙂