New Stamp Friends

Rock Garden for Lewis Dad
handmade stamp on paper

Inspired by Koyasan Temples.
Happy Birthday Lewis!!

Cardinals for Mom and Grandmom
handmade stamp on paper

Cardinal finds Rock Garden
handmade stamp on paper

Running Deer
handmade stamp on paper

Miyamoto Sensei brought some sweets back from her trip to Hiroshima. The paper they were wrapped in had many deer and reindeer, so I used two designs to make this design.

New Stamps

Ferret for Pyar
handmade stamp on paper

Pyar has good memories of his sister's pet ferret. He especially liked how slinky their bodies move. I tried to emulate that movement in this stamp for Pyar. He likes it.

Otter Fun
handmade stamps on paper

Crossing Wires
handmade stamp on paper

This was inspired by a sweet card Danielle made for me. I love male cardinal's color. They remind me of my Grandmother Matilda. Thank you Danielle.

Clouds for Jessica
handmade stamp on paper

One of Jessica's shirts inspired me to make dots on clouds. Thank you J!!

Ranking in Japan (not raking)
Cloud, Cardinal, Ferret, Deer, Rock Garden

To Tim and Lindsay,

This story from Japan is about the rock gardens that dream when blue dotted cloud like shapes drop things onto them so that the gardener would have to rake everyday.

Koyasan Temple Stay

Snow in Tree
pencil in sketchbook

Renegejoin Temple in Koyasan is one of our favorite places in Japan. We stayed there again for a weekend in February just to see the snow. The temple is stunning in any season. I gave myself ten minutes to work on this one after warming up with other sketches. I wanted to render snow without anything behind it in order to indicate the tree's isolation.

Sketch of Middle Rock Garden with Shadow
pencil in sketchbook

This sketch was done from across our room in order to frame a section in the windows.
I sat under the kotatsu (heated table) and tried to see the white on white while the snow continued to fall.

Sketch of Middle Rock Garden
pencil in sketchbook

On our second night, we had a wonderful large room that overlooked the central rock garden. Since it was so cold and snowed all weekend, the stillness was mesmerizing. It was difficult to find the difference between the snow and the branches.

Bird Resting
pencil in sketchbook

There were many screens and doors with paintings in the temple. This sketch was done in our room on the second night. We made voices for many of the birds, they all seemed to have flamboyant personalities, especially the ones with the red feet.

Sketch for Rock Garden stamp
pencil in sketchbook

This is a small sketch of the front rock garden. Idea for stamp making.