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Description

Letterboxing 101 session (STEAM)

Resources

- Speedball Speedy-Carve rubber and linoleum cutters to make the stamp, but the participants can use an eraser, potato
- Styrofoam tray and household knives to make their stamps.
- Pencil and paper to draw out stamp design
- Stamp pad
- Participants will also need a plastic food container with a lid and a sheet of paper for their letterbox

Instructions

Introduction / Icebreakers
Spin the Wheel of Discovery to learn about your fellow participants (https://wordwall.net/resource/12532127).

Activity 1: Safety First (5 minutes)
- Be alert at all times when handling knives.
- Pick knives by their handles and always direct sharp points and edges away from you.
- Your hand should never be in the path of the blade. Keep your hands and body behind the blade.
- Cut away from your body.
- If you have to pull the knife towards you for control and strength, please pull in a direction that is to the side of your body.
- Wear safety glasses if you have them.
- Always use a sharp blade.

Activity 2: Make a Stamp (demo 15-20 minutes. 30 minutes for self-work)
1. Start with a block of material. We are using Speedball Speedy-Carve. It's pink and kind of like an eraser.
You can use whatever you have around: an old large eraser, a potato, or a foam tray.
2. Draw (or trace) your design on a piece of paper and heavily color it with a pencil. Rub that paper on the Speedy-Carve. It leaves the design on the block and is ready for carving.
Remember that if you want letters, you need to draw them backwards on the stamp. When you stamp something, the image on the carving block will be a mirror image of the stamped image on a piece of paper. Most of the time, this doesn't matter, but when you want to carve letters, they must be carved backwards on the carving block so the stamp will display them correctly on paper!
3. Next, we carefully carve around the design with a linoleum cutter, also from Speedball. If you don’t have linoleum cutters, you can use a knife or blade. There are a bunch of different blades so we will start with the finest to trace the outline, then we will move to wider blades to do the bulk work away from the design.
4. Use an ink pad to test out your design.

Tips!
- Carve away from yourself. Not only is it safer, but it's also easier to do!
- Cut a long line with one, long continuous cut to get the cleanest edges.
- Remember—you don't have to cut deeply! For the details we're doing now, you shouldn't be carving more than a fraction of an inch deep. Excessively deep cuts will cause your stamp to deteriorate quicker.
- Cutting at sharp angles creates ragged edges and poor carvings. Use shallow angles for clean cuts. You want to 'scoop out' the unneeded pieces—not stab at them! We will now send off the participants to make their own stamps. We will be available for questions.

Activity 3: Introduction to Letterboxing (discussion 15 minutes. 30 minutes for self-work)
In 1854, and a Victorian guide named James Perrott placed a bottle in the wildest, most inaccessible area on Dartmoor, England, along the banks of Cranmere Pool. In it, he included his calling card so future visitors could contact him and leave their own calling cards. Little did anyone know, this small act would be become the hobby we now know as letterboxing.
Letterboxing combines artistic ability with “treasure-hunting” in parks and forests that the whole family can enjoy. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by following clues to their prize: a rubber stamp—often handcarved—to stamp into one’s one personal logbook.
Letterboxes can be hidden almost anywhere. Most are planted in scenic, outdoor areas, but others have been planted in bookstores, libraries, zoos, pubs, coffee shops, cemeteries, playgrounds, and one was even planted in at Disneyland. Where you can plant a letterbox is limited to only your imagination, though for legal or security reasons, you should avoid planting boxes in some locations such as national parks or airports and other high security areas. Get permission if you can.
We will show examples of letterboxes.
You will now build your own letterbox and hide it nearby for someone to find.
1. At the very, very least to get started, you must have a container, a stamp, and a logbook (sheet of paper is fine).
2. Look for somewhere to hide it (under a log, rock, or somewhere hidden).
3. Now write some clues for someone to find it. You can tell them the number of paces or steps from an object to it. You can have them use a compass to locate it. You could make or take a series of pictures for them to follow to find it. You could write a story that describes how to find it.
We will now send off the participants to look for a place to hide their letterboxes and write at least 3 clues.
We will be available for questions.

Debrief/Discussion
What did you learn?

Tags

• carving
• letter boxing
• Octagon 2021
• Steam

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