learning Chinese rock stamp carving every Saturday since June 15.
My teacher is a very experienced senior and I guess he is quite famous in Chinese rock stamp carving. Most of my classmates followed the teacher for a long period of time and I heard some of them followed him for years. However, every lesson was only self practicing ancient Chinese calligraphy in class in a dice size square. This continued for few weeks until the last Saturday before my out-of-town vacation, the master eventually demonstrated carving on a rock stamp. Of course, I immediately practiced once at home before I flied. My very first rock stamp was carved for my toddler niece and it was badly carved with very weak and unclear strokes. Apart from her complicated Chinese name, it was all related to my poor skill and false strength.
I believe practice makes perfect. But I was away for whole month and I missed all class thereafter. I nearly forgot how to carve when i came back home, and I missed the second demo class of 朱文. So I tried to recall my memory to carve a 白文 stamp, and then tried my best to do a 朱文 stamp on my own. From the lesson I learnt from my very first carve, I picked some simple but meaningful words on purpose.
My second 白文 stamp is "Blessing" ＜福＞
My first 朱文 stamp is "Auspicious" <吉祥>
I think my works not bad as I didn't touch for so long. But when I presented them to the master, he suggested me to make the lines even and thinner! Waaa, the strokes are already as thin as 1mm...
OK, I will practice more, but first of all, I should get some more rock stamps...
