HOW TO : RUBBER STAMP
My rubber stamping journey began in my third year of university studying illustration degree. I remember stumbling to the class for my morning lecture - Authorial practice, wishing I was all snuggled up in bed rather than sitting in four hours long lecture. At that time I did not even understand what 'Authorial practice' means and what we are going to do. When I entered the classroom I could see a lot of rubbers, ink pads, razors and pencils on the desks – looked as if I was in one of the workshops for children. It confused me but also intrigued me at the same time as I did not know what to expect. We all knew that this module might be quite exciting as our lecturer was going to be Stephen Fowler himself but we didn’t know what to expect. Finally, our lecturer arrives and after a presentation about himself we start our journey through rubber stamping. I have never thought that something so small can unlock so many capabilities in print-making. It’s cheap, portable and so much fun to make you end up being sucked in it for days. After that lecture I understood that I have fallen in love with rubber stamping and started developing my skills further at home. Today I want to share them with you – starting with something very simple but getting the main idea about that magical rubber stamping!
Today I am going to show you how to make a simple stamp in just a few steps - choosing right earaser, picking the design that you want to carve, transfering an image from paper to rubber and finally carving it. Let the fun begin!
STEP 1 / CHOOSING THE RIGHT RUBBER
So you've decided that you want to make your first rubber stamp. Great! Let's help you with choosing the right rubber. Throughout my rubber stamp journey I bought so many rubbers it's insane! I must have looked like a crazy lady going into the same store and buying 12 packs of rubbers every three days! What I found to be the best rubber is that eraser has to be quite firm and wouldn't bubble when rubbed with fingertips. Soft rubbers make it impossible to carve image in great detail, they can be useful for something quite large but then again, the stamp made out of soft rubber will only last you for a short while. And soft rubbers I found are difficult to carve. So when choosing eraser try bending it a little bit and see if the it will make tiny little breaking lines - that means that this rubber is too soft and will break very easily. The firmer the eraser is the better! I find JUMBO rubbers to be really good for larger images. And they are only 80p in most stores!
STEP 2 / CHOOSING THE DESIGN
So you chose your perfect rubber, now it's time to choose the design that you want to carve! This is the second most fun part in the carving process as you get to play around with so many ideas. To get started pick something that you love - plants, leaves, dogs, cats etc. In my case I chose my cat ( I keep saying that I'm not obsessed with my cat but I think I secretly am ). To ensure that your idea will fit onto your rubber just place the rubber on the paper and trace it so you'd get the outlines of the rubber. And voila - now you can easily experiment with the space and your idea making sure that it will, in fact, fit onto your rubber.
STEP 3 / DESIGN TRANSFER ON THE RUBBER
I remember being quite confused when my lecturer announced - let's transfer the designs on the rubber! How am I going to do it? But it couldn't be more simple than this. You simply pop your eraser on your selected design - making sure that the eraser covers you entire design. Then slowly flip the paper while holding the rubber in place, and just scribble on top, covering the entire area in pencil. Exactly the same as when you were tracing coins on the paper as children. I honestly couldn't believe how simple it is to transfer your chosen design from paper to a eraser.
STEP 4 / IT'S CARVING TIME!
This is where the most fun and precise part begins! First things first - pick a tool that you are going to carve with - it can be a scalpel or lino cutting tool. I always choose lino cutting tool as you can easily change the size of the head and it gives you smooth lines and is easier to work with than scalpel. My picked design has tiny areas - eyes. I choose to carve them out first as those are the most delicate parts of my design. In case my carving tool accidentally slips you can try and fix the mistake, but if my cat's body was carved first then fixing the mistake is nearly impossible.
Your perfect stamp has to have a good balance between negative and postitive spaces. That is for it to work there should be more white or black spaces. I tend to go more with having just an outline of my design and some other tiny details black, and the rest of the stamp - white. Nevertheless I hope you experiment and find what works best for you as creating rubber stamps should be very enjoyable. Also doesn't take long so you can make a lot of stamps in no time! More stamps, more fun!
FINAL STEP / STAMPING!
For the final step you will need two things - paper and ink pad - I choose these ink pads, they aren't expensive but contain quite a lot of ink so you have to be careful with application. Instead of pressing rubber onto ink pad to apply ink, place rubber with the design facing up on the table and carefully tap with ink pad over the design. This method allows you to see how much ink you have applied and if any needs removing. Now choose your favourite paper - maybe you have various different papers in which case you can see how same stamp looks on different surfaces! Also you can try using fabric too! Once the ink is applied place your stamp on the paper and carefully without moving stamp to avoid smudges, press with fingertips over the rubber in order for the stamp to be even in colour. And STAMP YOUR WAY!
Don't be put off if your first or second design doesn't come out the way you imagined it will do. After countless of rubbers made I still make one or two bad ones, but the most important part is to never stop progressing and enjoying yourself. Good idea is to look up for ideas on Pinterest on how other peoples' stamps look like - maybe you will get any ideas for your first or maybe 10th rubber design!
I hope this tutorial was helpful and maybe now you will try to make some fun stamps! If you upload a picture to your instagram and hashtag it #notyourfoxstamp I can see your incredible stamps too!
