Everything about Rubberstamp totally explained
Rubber stamping, also called
stamping, is a
craft in which some type of
ink made of
dye or
pigment is applied to an
image or
pattern that has been
carved, molded, laser engraved or
vulcanized, onto a sheet of
rubber. The rubber is often mounted onto a more stable object such as a wood or an acrylic block to produce a more solid instrument.
The
ink coated rubberstamp is then pressed onto any type of
medium such that the
colored
image has now been transferred to the medium. The medium is generally some type of
fabric or
paper. Other media used are:
wood,
metal,
glass,
plastic,
rock. High volume
batik uses liquid
wax instead of ink on a metal stamp.
Commercially available rubber stamps fall into three categories: stamps for use in the
office, stamps used for decorating objects or those used as children's
toys.
Official rubber stamps
The signatures on official documents are verified using a stamp in Europe. Care must be taken to not to lose these stamps, since possessing the stamp would allow forgery of official documents.
Passport stamps are a common use of very important official rubber stamps.
Business rubber stamps
Rubber stamps for business are custom-made, showing an address, a corporate
logo or something similar, or they're bought ready-made. They often have movable parts that allow the user to adjust the date or the wording of the stamp. They are still often used to date incoming
mail,
memos and similar items, as well as to denote special handling of the document. There are about 10-15 large to medium sized businesses in the UK that are producing stamps of all kinds all day every day. Many smaller businesses exist producing just a few daily.
Business stamps are generally available from stationers or direct from the manufacturer.
Popular stamps include address stamps and one line cheque stamps.
Some artists have been using such stamps to decorate pieces of art for special effects or in an ironic way.
Ready made decorative rubber stamps (art stamps)
Art stamps have become fashionable in the
United States, more so than in
Europe. While they're mostly regarded as children's
toys in Europe, in the U.S. they're available in many intricate designs and are widely used to decorate various objects.
Such art stamps can be used for easy decoration of useful things like paper for letters, greeting cards and similar things, but also can be combined with other techniques to create traditional art.
I work for a company in Cambridge, England and we can make any stamp you desire!
Rubber stamps as an art form
some say that rubber stamps could be considered an art form.
In the
art world, there's also rubber stamp art. Sometimes the rubber stamps are self-made or even carved out of
erasers. Today, companies in the US offer special, eraser-like rubber in larger pieces produced for this. This art is popular there, but virtually unknown in Europe. It is especially used by non-professional artists due to ease of use. It can mimic
woodcuts, but is rarely used this way. The print from the carved rubber stamp is viewed as work of art on its own or one or several stamps are used to embellish a work of art with other components.
Also, other materials besides
rubber may be used to produce a stamp. In fact
woodcut and
linocut are the same art using another carving material, but
linoleum is much harder and so special tools are needed to work with it. In Europe linocut is widely used, other than rubber carving. While linocut is much used at schools or by hobby artists, woodcut is mostly restricted to professional artists because it's hard to do and takes long. Rubber carving material is available there now, but it's marketed as a children's toy and not widely used.
There are several possibilities to vary the look of those works. Paints,
pigments and dye inks all create different effects, extending the use of rubber stamping from paper to fabrics, wood, metal, glass, and so on. Special ink pads can be purchased that allow for
embossing and there are pens that can be used to ink stamp pads with a variety of colors for a multi-color look. All this creates possibilities for mixed media art of all sorts.
The print of a larger rubber stamp can be a work of art on its own right, and is often used as such. But it's also possible to use multible prints from the same or different rubber stamps on a piece of art to create a picture, or combine stamping with other art forms.
Of course the use of rubber stamps can be combined with other materials. The
image may be embellished by the addition of
chalks,
inks,
paints,
fibers and a variety of other
ephemera and embellishments.
Those works are often used in
mail art or
artist trading cards because they tend to be small and allow the making of series. The
TAM Rubber Stamp Archive has a collection of prints of rubber stamps mail-artists used since 1983 (see link). Stamping is also often used in handmade
cardmaking.
In addition, use of the stamping technique has become widely popular with
scrapbooking. The variety of stamps available allow for different looks to any given page.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Rubberstamp'.
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