In February and March we ran a series of Japanese stamp making classes – called Tenkoku 篆刻 – in the Glasgow area of Scotland, kindly sponsored by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, helping people discover the traditional Japanese stamp making process. These inspiring cultural groups… Read More »Tenkoku Japanese Stamp Making Events
In December 2022 and January 2023 Blair enjoyed a fascinating visit to Japan as part of a project kindly funded by the GB Sasakawa Foundation. He was fortunate to be able to meet Tenkoku Seal Engraving as well as as Zen masters and teachers and… Read More »Meeting Seal Engravers and Zen Teachers in Japan – exploring Tenkoku
Our Tenkoku Japanese and Chinese stamp making group explored composition and how to create movement and atmosphere. We had some images of sunshine, figures and spears too in the old tensho seal engraving characters ✨ We also enjoyed some carving, chipping away at our stones. Blair… Read More »Light and Movement at Tenkoku Stampmaking
At Japanese stamp making it was great to see folk experimenting with different pictures to make into stamps. We had a lovely horse that really came to life. Blair talked about stamp design layout and combining characters vertically, and we enjoyed some peaceful time working… Read More »Lively lines and animals at stamp making
At Tenkoku Japanese and Chinese Stampmaking group Blair showed participants some of the development of his three treasures zen Buddha Dharma Sangha stamp he was working on. He gave a demonstration of carving and then making adjustments to the stone, stamping, and discussed the process… Read More »Carving the Three Treasures Seal
At our May Japanese and Chinese stamp making group online on zoom we had a relaxed session with participants working on very different and unique stamps with a range of characters. We looked at example stamp designs, such as from Blair’s teacher Wakabayashi Shujo, and… Read More »Diamonds and ovals – Tenkoku stamp making
We investigated the main styles used in Tenkoku seal engraving, such as tensho or inten, and ancient Chinese mysterious styles such as carved into animal bones or worked into metal, discovering how these were modified and cut into stone, or also brushed onto paper. We… Read More »Exploring the inspiring styles of seal stampmaking
At our recent seal engraving group we welcomed some new faces, helped them get started with their designs, and we also spent some extra time looking at 基本形 Kihonkei – the basic form. We found many options in the possible forms for 2, 3 and… Read More »Finding balance and space in seal designs – Tenkoku stampmaking
We looked closely at the styles of in 印 stamps at the Tenkoku 篆刻 seal engraving group, particularly at Japanese Master Wakabayashi. Wakabayashi Shūjō was like a grandfather to Blair who started studying shodō calligraphy with him in 2002. He kindly introduced Blair to Tenkoku seal engraving and the materials… Read More »Discovering beauty in Japanese and Chinese stamps
At the November 篆刻 tenkoku (seal engraving) group meeting online by zoom, Blair gave an in depth demonstration of carving techniques to directly guide participants and give them tips on this exciting part of the process! This covered how to handle and work with each… Read More »Cutting and carving stones for Japanese and Chinese stamps