Just an Inch

It seems like so long ago that I came up with the idea of carving stamps that were only one inch square. At that time, I was heavily involved in postal letterboxing and was interested in challenging not only myself, but others, too, to more difficult carving projects. I think I coordinated four rounds of 'Just an Inch' plb rings, and they were so interesting and fun.

Here are some examples of inch stamps...yes, they are one inch square. The idea is to put as much detail as possible onto one inch square of rubber, no more.


These two are called Summertime, with the first the famous Cassatt-inspired image. I just made LTCs out of this pair, and really liked how they turned out (check it out in the LTC slideshow at the bottom of this blog).

This one is a chintz fabric called Summertime. I actually mounted the PZKut stamps back to back with 6mm foam in-between to create a really fun two-sided stamp.

For every Just an Inch ring, I would challenge myself to carving the title of the ring, and sending it along with my plb for a bonus stamp.

If I remember correctly, Third Time's a Charm was the last general inch ring I coordinated.

The "Not So Big Band" is one of my favorites and was also part of a two part project. The jazz band inch, "Just a Little Trio" was sent to a friend and it is now planted as a traditional letterbox in North Carolina.

The last inch is from the quilt-square Just an Inch project. This wasn't my contribution, as the requirements were that it had to be a layered stamp. I just wanted to carve a special sig-stamp just for fun. It was inspired by the quilt pattern named The Children of Israel...cool, huh?

Carving images on just an inch of rubber is fun and challenging...you'd be amazed at how much you can cram onto an inch. And, don't we all have at least an inch of scrap rubber just sitting around waiting to be transformed into something magical and tiny?