Carving 101

Here are the supplies needed:

• Eraser (Mars-Staedtler is highly recommended, but most will work) or carving material sold by Speedball, Nasco or Stampeaz
• Speedball Lino Gouges - I recommend #1 and #5 (it's a good idea to sharpen these before class with some #400 sandpaper - they do not come very sharp and that is key to a good carving)
• A handle for the gouge blades - these are sold in kits with a rather bulbous handle, or you can use the Speedball Calligraphy nib handles as well
• Testors or X-acto Knife - sharpened
• Pink or Red Dye Ink Pad (recommended)
• Black Ink (recommended)
• Scratch Paper
• Tissue Paper and a Pencil OR Laser print out or photocopy and Acetone
• Ball point pen
• Cotton Balls
• #400 Sand Paper
• A design to carve - solid, bold images are a good place to start, some are provided if you follow that link. Text can very quite challenging so I would not recommend starting there, but you should carve something you like.

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