When arts and crafts run into science

So.. as part of my Thirty Before Thirty list, I wanted to successfully carve a stamp. Because, you know, I'm a little stamp crazy.

This weekend, I picked up a few stamp carving supplies at the art store, including various cutting nibs and two different kinds of stamp base. Based on Julie's reccomendation, I picked up some Speedball Speedy Carve rubber, and also a block of this cheap white art store brand (for practice).

I decided to start with something a little complicated.

And... well... it started out pretty good, but I lost patience and this was the result. Craft failure.

Turns out the material I got to practice on was just too brittle for a finished stamp. Well, for one with curves and detail, anyway.

I'm not entirely disappointed though, as I plan to use the leftovers from the practice block to get the hang of my remaining cutting nibs. I figure once I master that a bit more I'll use the good rubber for my base and then start with something simple. Like a geometric design or a chevron or something ;)

Have you ever had a craft experiment that was pretty much a complete failure?