I asked my dad to cut for me a set of parts for the BLOCKFACE stamp kit. I got one in oak plywood and one in acrylic, so I finished them two different ways.
Oak Plywood
- sealed them with approximately three layers of shellac, dripped on. The shellac soaked into the charred sides and disappeared and this did significantly reduce the amount of char falling off.
- next time I would tape off the side that will get the adhesive, and then put the parts in a bowl with some shellac and soak them before laying them out on a nonstick surface to dry. Then I would assemble them
- assembly was mildly finicky but didn’t take long enough to be annoying
- cleaned up the tray a little to use it for storage by replacing the back with colored card stock and taping the edges with iridescent washi tape
- ETA 10/19: the cardstock backing didn’t survive being stuck in my bag for three weeks straight in part because the char on the edges of the tray denatured the fancy tape, so I laminated the card between a piece of veneer and the tray to make a sturdy backing and then sealed the back and sides of it with shellac.
Acrylic
- sanded the easy to access edges down to smooth them and remove some of the gunge, resulting in a nice frosted look when looking down into them
- cleaned up the tray as above (the tape is sticking just fine to the acrylic)
- gonna give it to a friend
I’m having a great deal of fun making shapes and patterns with it. I have not done much lettering, but my sketchbook is very small relative to the letters.
I think that the set would benefit from a d=10mm dot. Yeah, it’s got the 10mm square, but sometime you just need a dot.
mantissa_ 