Items you will need:
an eraser or piece of carving block
a craft knife/scalpel/X-acto knife with number 11 blade
HB pencil
tracing paper
fine graded sandpaper
(optional) lino blade with number 1 v-shaped blade
(optional) lino blade with number 1 u-shaped blade
Before doing anything, prepare your eraser or carving block by lightly sanding it with the sandpaper, keeping an even surface. This will help to give your eraser some tooth, so that it will print nicely. It will also remove any writing or pattern that may already be on the eraser, which will help you a lot when cutting out your pattern.
Choose a simple image to start off with – here we’re going to be using a simple square image. Draw your image onto a piece of paper, using pencil, marker pen, whatever your favourite drawing implement is.
Here’s my simple image drawn onto paper:
Next, we have to transfer your chosen image to the eraser. (You can always draw directly onto the eraser, but REMEMBER! whatever you draw onto the eraser will print out in the opposite direction – so if you are drawing letters and numerals onto the eraser, remember to draw them on backwards.)
The easiest way to transfer an image onto your eraser is by using tracing paper – that way you will be guaranteed that everything prints out the way you want it to! Trace your chosen image using a HB pencil onto the tracing paper. I like to put a couple of strips of sellotape on the edges of the tracing paper whilst doing this, so that nothing moves around whilst tracing:
Place the traced image face down onto the block, again securing with sellotape so that the image doesn’t move, and transfer the image by rubbing over the back of the tracing paper with your pencil.
The transferred image on the block:
Before carving, trim up the block so that you have half a centimetre or so around the edge of the carving, the best way to do this is to use a large craft knife and a metal ruler. Pass along the edge of the ruler with your knife several times and the knife will cut through the whole depth of your eraser.
The trimmed up block:
Now you can begin to carve! If carving out a large piece I like to start with the most detailed part of the image first, so that if I make a mistake, I don’t feel as though I’ve wasted too much time and energy on the carving.
You want to cut away the parts of the image that you DON’T want to print. This usually means cutting away all the white areas of your eraser, and leaving the black traced lines as they are. When cutting out the image, make sure that you don’t undercut the raised parts of the image that you want to print, or you will find that over time your carvings will deteriorate and some raised parts may even break away. Make sure that the raised part of the image has a solid base to it.
Here is that theory in practice using the craft knife:
Using a lino V-blade makes things a little easier, as the V-shape is already created for you by the blade. Try to make small and shallow cuts when you are carving using a blade – there is no need to go overboard and dig away at the rubber. Small and shallow cuts are easy to carve, and the finished product will print just as well as deep cuts.
You can see from the following picture that using a V-blade creates a neat cut (cut around the inner circle):
A U-blade is a very handy tool for carving out larger areas of material:
It’s not a necessary tool, but I do find it useful when I need to clear out large areas of white space.
Continue to carve out your design and as you go along, make test prints with an old, almost dried-out ink pad. These test prints will help you to see how your carving is coming along, and using an old pad means that the ink won’t cover up your pencil lines.
I’ve finished carving out the design:
And now I will trim it up around the edges, so that the outside part of the eraser doesn’t print.
And here’s my finished carving!
This is a good carving for making funky background designs – have fun using it!
Caring for your carvings
When you have finished your carving and have printed with it, clean the carving with plain water. Using solvents or household products to clean the carving material may result in the material reacting with the solvents and may turn your carving into a goopy mess over time.
I like to store my carvings in a wooden or cardboard container – if you have a plastic container, place the carving onto a piece of paper first. Some carving materials react with plastics, making them unusable over time.
So that’s the basics of eraser carving! Very simple and very enjoyable. Now try the other eraser carving tutorials to progress a bit further. If you would like to see a bit of eraser carving in action, here’s a short video of me carving a more detailed piece.
All images and text copyright erasercarver.wordpress.com 2011
