Linocuts and carved stamps

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!

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@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).

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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…

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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!

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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…

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I would love to hear more about your next experiment.
What did you use to make the perforations?

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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!

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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? :nerd_face:

Oh i don’t try it so far to send the cards without envelope :grimacing:… 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 :rofl::face_with_hand_over_mouth::sweat_smile::woman_shrugging:t2:

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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.

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They are really good and also really high quality :slight_smile:
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 :wink:

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!)

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Yes, “quite some investment” pretty much sums up me and all of my hobbies!
:money_with_wings: :money_with_wings:

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I think this conversation deserves its own topic, so I’m moving these posts here. :slight_smile:

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!

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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. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: 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. :grimacing:

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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.

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These look so beautiful

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I had this one as gift by japanese postocrosser some years ago. :blush:

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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 :grin: 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).

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What kind of paper do you all print on generally??