Rubber Rabbit's Soft Block Carvings

The Semi-Finalist Carving
This was what I did for the contest.
I combined sketches I did in 1970 of English floor tiles.
Winning was quite a surprise!


A Poem by Tagore
Done for a Tagore poetry exchange, I copied one of my favorite artists: Aubrey Beardsley.
All the leaves were a challenge to carve, but the words were my first successful attempt at words.
While most printing is done simply (single color on plain paper), I thought I'd try some stamping techniques of direct-to-paper and overprinting, after masking the main prints.
I think it makes the carving stand out.



Spirit Dancers
Spiral or lined designs are a hoot to carve. Good dexterity is required to turn the block in your fingers while you carve so that you can do unbroken curves.

Carving images from multiple blocks so you can print different colors was my next advance in printing. It is a lot easier than having to hand color each part of an image, and is certainly quicker!


Dancing Dog
This print is four carvings: woodgrain, border, the dancing dog, and the colored-in dog.
Carved on Uncle Walter's Block, it is easiest to align if you cut all the blocks the same size.


English Robin
This was my second entry to Uncle Walter's contest in 1999. This was all six sides of the block carved: the saying around the edges, the robin on one side and the village on the other. It wasn't that hard to carve, but it sure was nerve-wracking, to make sure I didn't make a mistake on any part of it! I won semi-finalist again, which was very gratifying.


An English Cottage
My first genuine three block color carving. The easiest way to decide how to do this is to carve the key block or outline, color it in and then carve those parts. Be sure to leave some point at which you can line up your blocks to print, or plan to use a stamp aligner. This print appeared in the gallery section of Luann Udell's book, Eraser Carving, published by Lark Books. The only problem was that the editor identified the print as having been colored in with chalks, when it was actually printed with chalk-type inks. Oh well.


The Sanctuary Knocker of Durham Cathedral
This one is made up of five blocks.


The Shadow, The Background, The outline or Key Block, and a word collage overprint.
When printed in metallic colors on black it really turned very holographic.


My first (and last) reduction carving.

A reduction carving is made by using one block and cutting parts away, printing, cutting more away, printing again, etc., until you are left with only an outline or one part of your print.



Not only did I find this process hard to figure out but for the first time, ever, I didn't enjoy carving! I had to start over once, and made over 75 prints of the first step; messed up some from the second and third steps, so ended with fewer than 50 prints in all. Fortunately, the labor is being rewarded by being published by Rubberstampmadness.

I learned to carve from photographs by practice alone. Someone mentioned on the CC list that they carved photographic images by tracing them with pencil and rubbing the tracing onto a block, so I tried it with photos and darned if it doesn't work! My specialty seems to be animals, and I've even done portraits to order (contact me if you are interested).

Of course, being 'Rabbit,' means I do a lot of rabbits.



A Hare, A Cottontail and A Wyoming Jackalope

My favorite subject is my dog Drake:




But I've done a couple custom-ordered carves of other people's pets.

Clancy, a parrot owned by Brenda Volpe

Aggie, a black dachshund owned by Tiffany Ward Perdue

Daisy, a prairie dog owned by Jane Roulston


Chloe, a cat owned by D. Musick
I carved her to show a carving class how to carve from photos, so she was a 'borrowed cat.'

I've also done some portraits.


Calvin Coolidge, Millard Fillmore, James Monroe