e Bugs

pure gold.

This isn't asking if you're out or if you discuss your identity– more like if you were at the grocery store, would someone shopping nearby be able to tell you're queer without you saying so?

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"What's your point?" "My point is you should call your son." "What if he won't talk to me?" "At least you'll know. Then you could stop worrying about it. You won't have to be afraid anymore. I don't care how mad I was, I'd talk to my dad. Especially around the holidays." "I don't know." "Just give it a shot. For your granddaughter anyway. I'm sure she misses you. And the presents."

These are regular pink erasers from the supermarket. I'm going to make a flower. First, I trace the eraser itself to get a feel for the size.

I trace the design for each color of ink on separate pieces of tracing paper, then tape them onto the erasers and rub the graphite side down to transfer the image. Any paper that holds graphite will work for this.

Since I'm using red, blue, and yellow ink, I'm layering the stamps over top of one another to produce secondary colors like green and purple. I use a V-shaped carving tool most of the time, just a cheap one I got in a kit at Michael's. Almost anything sharp will work.

I got these Ranger ink pads also at Michael's, they're working for me so far. Slightly nicer ink pad brands usually also sell bottles of refill ink, so you don't need to buy a whole new pad when one runs dry.

Most of the time involved is spent carving the rubber and testing the print as you go. Be careful to carve in the direction away from your hands.