At our recent seal engraving group we welcomed some new faces, helped them get started with their designs, and we also spent some extra time looking at 基本形 Kihonkei – the basic form.

Finding balance and space in seal designs - Tenkoku stampmaking

We found many options in the possible forms for 2, 3 and 4 character stamps, and enjoyed the spacious balance of these. Blair explained how that could help in planning a design, and related it to some examples from inspiring Chinese and Japanese masters.

We had time to discuss what we were working on and chat about materials and fun process of both the Tenkoku stone carving and Keshigomu eraser cutting techniques.

We worked on bringing organic shapes and cuts into the stamp making so they don’t look artificially machine made, but have vitality and movement. Thanks to folks for sharing their images 🙂

Joan

Our next online session by Zoom↓?
Monday 3rd May 7.00pm – 8.30pm UTC+1
https://japanese-and-chinese-seal-engraving-tenkoku-may-21.eventbrite.co.uk