The sky is falling!

Okay, so over night last night the cities that I work and live in got dumped with snow.  We got 25 centimetres overnight and it is still snowing... 15 centimetres more are expected during the day today.  Almost everything around is closed and they're having trouble keeping up with clearing the roads.  At least, that's what I hear.  I have no idea as I am still in my pjs, watching daytime tv, and finishing up some work that I brought home yesterday.

Today is Groundhog Day - and therefore OPAL day.  Poor little groundhogs - they should just stay in bed, no reason to come out after this kind of snowstorm.  But, it does reinforce the fact that while there are few letterboxes in Ontario, there are even fewer winter-friendly ones.

So, I prepared a few winter-friendly boxes, they are out there in the wild, and now all posted and available on Atlas Quest. Unfortunately, I didn't get three out that I had made - due to timing and the weather - and now I think they're giving me sad little looks.  Oh well, they'll get planted soon enough.

Here are the boxes I planted for OPAL 2011, all winter accessible:
Buzz...
Unless
Bottoms Up!
I Don't Want to Be Among Mad People
Literary Cats
I Knew Him Well
Niagara Region Wines
Spring's First Flower

Happy trails!

Still here, carving away.

I haven't skipped town for sunnier pastures (yet), I've been happily carving and planting away in anticipation of OPAL on February 2nd. Nothing like an actual event to inspire me!  I'm in the double digits now... and won't stop until I run out of time.

Today's carve, transferred onto pink stuff with a blender pen...

But, since my last post: I've gone to my first letterboxing event, met some cool carvers, found a number of boxes, planted a number of boxes, planted an HHH and a mess of HHs, and carved to my little heart's content.

One new thing I've discovered is the blender pen.  I've used acetone on cotton in the past to try to get transfers from toner-based copies onto my carving mediums - usually to much disappointment resulting in the need to retouch the images by hand.  But, the new blender pen - which contains xylene - works in the exact same way, but in the convenient form of a marker.  Also, because it's specific purpose is to do these types of transfers, the quality of the active chemical is such that I'm getting much better transfers.

Can't wait for spring and some proper letterboxing... This freezing cold is starting to get to me.

Carve, carve, carve!

So the holidays are now long over, and I managed to hide one box and one hitchhikers' hostel over the holidays, though no finds for me.  Not long after, both boxes were found (which I find comforting - I hid something someone wanted to find and it was found before it could go missing, phew).  Tragically, I still have one box that I planted last September that hasn't been found.  It has a time limit on it due to the impending destruction of the location of the hide, so I feel bad for the little feller...

This weekend has been very fruitful on the box creation front.  I carved five stamps, completed three boxes, managed to hide one, as well as took advantage of DeSerres' current sale on ColorBox inks.  I have two series on the go, and various singles boxes finished or in the works, all leading up to Ontario Plant a Letterbox Day.  Crossing fingers and hoping for the best.

Mastercarve

Well, I've just finished my first stamp using Mastercarve.  Generally speaking, I don't think I would use it again.  The material itself is far too spongy for my liking making it difficult to carve (the small parts move to get away from the blade).

Potential spoilers below (I may or may not be actually planting this carve; I don't think anyone will actually know what the carve is supposed to be.)

For your viewing pleasure, some badly taken pictures of the carve as well as the first stamp - all prior to be cleaning the image up:

Christmas Came Early!

So last Friday was like... well, Christmas.  I finally received a big package from the US filled with a variety of new (to me, anyway) carving materials thanks to Stampeaz.  As you can see, I ordered the new Firmcut, Speedy Carve, a wee linoblock and a block of Mastercarve.

I was super busy last Friday night and over the weekend, but was just itching to carve something with some of the new materials... I now have a number of projects underway.

So far, the only material I have used  is the Firmcut which I actually quite like. I had seen some comments elsewhere that folks felt that it was not picking up ink due to its shine and that it was difficult to carve.  So, I tried it out so that I could see for myself.  I carved a stamp that has a lot of ink space and it worked marvelously.  [If you want to see the results, all you have to do is find But They're Starving!]

The material upholds its namesake: it sure is firm, but I quite like it.  You do have to intentionally end a cut with it, but I think sometimes I mess up the ends of carving strokes by letting the pieces break off at the end.  So, I consider this a plus.  I would definitely use this material again... I have lots left, so I anticipate many new boxes of this to come.
 
I plan to use the other materials and let you know what I think, but I'm not quite there yet.  But I will leave you with an open letter to the Staedtler company:

Dear Staedtler;


I am given to understand from your international website that you are an over 100 year-old German company specializing in arts and stationary products.  I thank you for your contributions to the arts community and efforts to improve the products that bring such joy.


However, I must insist that you cease and desist with your inaccurate descriptions of the sizes of your artist carving blocks.  As a German company, from a nation that operates under the metric system, I would have expected that if an error in measurement occurred, it would have been to the imperial measurements, not the metric ones.


It is a shocking to suggest that 2.5 inches is equivalent to 6.4 millimetres or that 0.75 inches equals 1.9 millimetres.  Both of these measurements are inaccurate by an order of magnitude. Now, likely, you have mis-labeled your products with millimetres when it should accurately read centimetres.  However, this is a grave mathematical error the effects of which have far reaching implications!


For example, would you ever consider a fox to be the same size as a bird? No, it's ten times larger! Or a cat the same size as a mouse? No, it's at least ten times larger!  What if a mouse thought, "Why should I be scared of that old cat? Staedtler says we're the same size! I think that we should be friends!" I think we both know what would happen to that poor mouse, Staedtler, I think we both know.


And so, I implore you to recheck all of your size measurements.  The dramatic impact of your wanton misuse of the metric system can have impacts that no one could even anticipate.  

And please, think of the mouse.


Sincerely,
Bumble

The Best Carving Medium

Where it all started...

Probably like 99.99% of Ontarians, until July 20th of this year, I had no idea what letterboxing was.  And if I hadn't been reading the paper at lunch that day, I still wouldn't.  But as I already have a love for carving, I'm very lucky to have seen the article.  Within 48 hours, I had carved my first signature stamp and had found my first letterbox.  It's only been a few months, but I'm already pretty addicted.

My favourite box so far has been The Secret Garden by Fiddleheads in Guelph.  Without getting too spoilerish, I loved the clue, loved the location, and the stamp was yet another great carve by Fiddleheads.

I don't have any least favourite boxes - every box has been worth the find.  I'm still trying to figure out In the Great Green Room by Fish Below the Ice in Markham.  I've been back to the location - thrice - once with book in hand - can can't figure it out for the life of me. I'm missing something and I'm hoping that one day it will just *click*.  I am THIS close to kidnapping a random child off of the street to help me... I kid.

My problem right now is that I'm coming up with ideas and carving faster than I can create boxes/logbooks and go out and plant... I'm pretty sure I actually like planting better than finding (although I suppose this also largely depends on when you ask me - as cold as it is right now, I'm not really in the mood of hunting down boxes).  Lots of ideas for plantings, no time to plant.  Sheesh.

Hello, no one in particular...

Welcome to my newly-found addiction.  I didn't exactly prepare this blog for you, dear reader, but more for me to chronicle and remember my letterboxing escapades.

If you're a fellow letterboxer, welcome.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then (a) how did you get here? and (b) go to www.atlasquest.com - quick!

Happy trails!