Here’s a sneak peak at the third volume of my nature journal. I wanted to comment about the “R” stamp on the title page.

I’d always wanted to try linocut stamps, so I did spring for a kit last year after having been given a gift card. I chose the Speedball Deluxe Block Printing Kit so that I would have the best understanding with the multiple tools and inks. You can see I made plenty of options via coloring, and two types of Rs, though I can’t seem to recall where that frilly R came from. I will add that I let Boy carve it out to see how he liked linocutting, so that’s his work there!

The R I chose for my nature journal came from Lucy Larcom‘s 1875 Childhood songs, which I found at the Library of Congress. I had originally found a digital stamp online, and reached out to the creator to pay for just the R rather than the cost of the whole alphabet. He declined, so I simply went to the free source instead.