How do you carve the stamp? It is just so small letters. I like to do stamps too, but I would be happy if I can create them as filigrane as yours!
@einfachich: I’d love to see your hand-carved rubber stamps, could you please show some example?
I only hand-carved the “Lotto” writing and the circle! The “Reisegern” stamp is my own design, but was made by a company. (The one shown in my avatar is hand-carved, but it’s quite big.)
For carving stamps I use a scalpel and (very high quality) linocutting tools (which I only use for stamps, I use other ones for linocutting, so those ones for stamps stay as sharp as possible). Most important one is a small “Gaißfuß” (sorry, I didn’t find an English translation).
Thank you, and do you carve them in Linoleum or in rubber? Where did you get the quality tools? I just found not so good ones and it is not possible to work with them on small details…
For rubber stamps I carve in rubber (I like the blue rubber from the German art supply stores gerstaecker or boesner best), linoleum isn’t very good with stamp pads.
I searched for months for the perfect tools and tried various ones.
Finally someone at the “Stempel-Medina” that I was invited to by the organizer (a Postcrosser) showed me her tools from stampin’up. They aren’t available from the company any more, but after weeks of searching I found someone who still sold them.
I really like your stamps!
Thank you, I have a lot ideas of stamps I want to do but with my working tool that wouldn’t give a good stamp, but I will continue my search when there is the possibility because the shops are open…
I would love to hear more about your next experiment.
What did you use to make the perforations?
These are so adorable! You do well for them being so small.
I am not a expert but I have done some courses and learned how to print on a letterpress machine using lino blocks, and so I know a little bit…
In the US we call them linoleum blocks and there are many different kinds (soft, hard, wood-mounted, etc).
For using stamp pads there is a kind of soft-carve pink material that is good with ink pads. Also there is a white Japanese one that works well, but I have found it hard to find in the US.
The tools I use are from Switzerland, made by Pfeil. They make linoelum and wood block cutters.
Carve on!
These are beautiful! Do the ones with the plastic covers and buttons/sequins through the post okay on their own, or do you put them in an envelope?
Oh i don’t try it so far to send the cards without envelope … i have the fear that the cards get wet or dirty on the postway… and my messages are too long, so i need the full space on the card
Thank you for showing the tools, I think this has to be my project for this year…
The rabbit stamps, the envelope and the smallest tea pot are made out of a normal rubber that you can buy in every store, the others are a material I bought in an art shop.
They are really good and also really high quality
We don’t have a set but bought those ones we really need as single ones. Quite some investment - but really worth it, as it’s so much more fun to carve with good tools!
(Also for carving linoleum: It’s much easier to carve it if you warm it up a little!)
Still I keep those for linoleum carving and rubber carving strictly separate from each other
I never saw where to buy that pink rubber for carving stamps in Germany. (Though I saw it in various pictures on the WWW where it was used, I’d love to try that!)
Yes, “quite some investment” pretty much sums up me and all of my hobbies!
I think this conversation deserves its own topic, so I’m moving these posts here.
I haven’t touched my linoleum tools in so long… you all are giving me the motivation I need to go search for them again!
Oh…! It reminds me the tools I used when my dad taught how to carve bottle gourd to make a bowl out of it and decorate it when I was young. Nice memories. I don’t know where these tools are now, and don’t remember where is the one he had into a bag. I’ll try to ask where it is and post the picture.
Sorry, it has nothing to do with the subject.
Great idea for a new topic @meiadeleite! I wonder if there is anyone else out there making lino stamps for their letters and postcards!
Thank you for this topic… I discovered lino during the lockdown last year. I live in India so it’s kind of hard to get lino sheets and tools but I happened to find few and started practicing.
These look so beautiful
I have made cards using lino printing, this was a test of how it’s going, and I’m happy I did it as it ended up looking much nicer than the ready one personally I like even how I still see the crumbles made their own marks and how this makes me remember the process (which I often like more than the end result).
What kind of paper do you all print on generally??