Carving stamps

I took a book off my shelf: Geninne Zlatkis' 'Making an Impression' - and read through it, then pulled out my lino-cutting tools to make a stamp. I have a mason jar of things I've collected on walks. Some little branches and twigs and things, they are fun to look at.

I sketched a few of them and carved one of them into the white eraser block (the previous times I've tried to make stamps, I've used linoleum blocks, and it wasn't very inspiring perhaps because of the difficulty of carving lino without technical skill/knowledge). The white rubber was so easy to carve into! I accidentally cut off too much in several places, but it's a learning experience.

I used a #1 tip for most of it, and #3 to carve away the outside chunks. I like how it turned out!

Here is a 2nd one (initial sketch on the far right, stamp on left, and stamped impressions in the middle):