DIY stamps? Carving custom stamps from erasers

Expression, March-April, 2005 by Stephen Sloan

Would you believe you could get custom stamps for less than one dollar? Impossible, right? Not when you carve them yourself out of white vinyl erasers. Hand-carved eraser stamps are a great addition to your commercial stamps and a simple and easy way to make your very own custom stamps. Now it's possible to have any stamp you desire right at your fingertips.

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INSTRUCTIONS

To get started all you need is an eraser (or two, or three ...) and a simple carving tool. You can use any eraser but will get the best result with white vinyl erasers. The Staedtler Mars Plastic erasers are a good choice. You should be able to find them in any art supply store. While at the art store you will also need to get a Speedball # 1 V gouge and a Speedball pen nib holder. Insert the V gouge into the nib holder just like you would a calligraphy nib. Ready to begin? Note: If your eraser has printing on it, clean the printing off using acetone and a cotton ball. With a pencil, draw a line on the eraser dividing it into a square and a rectangle. A second eraser placed across the end of the eraser to form a "T" will help with making the square. Draw two diagonal lines dividing the square and the rectangle into triangles. The second eraser is a perfect straight edge for drawing the diagonal lines. Now cut away the lines on the eraser. Hold the nib holder just like you would a pen and push the V gouge along the line. It should cut a shallow V groove. Don't cut too deeply! Remember that you're making a printing device similar to a stamp. After cutting all lines, ink your eraser on a dye-based ink pad. You should see four triangles and three white lines.

Now it's time to experiment. Using the V gouge, carve a different texture or pattern into each triangle. The ink on the eraser will help you see what you're carving away. Try making straight lines, curved lines or zigzag lines in one triangle. In another make some little circles or maybe a spiral design. This is your time to experiment with how the V gouge makes marks in the eraser. There really is no right or wrong way to do it. What you leave on the eraser will be the printing surface. Remember that what you carve away will print as a white line or space.

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Now comes the time for my favorite part of making background stamps. You're going to make a tile or brick pattern with your stamp. I always position my eraser diagonally when I do the tiling. It helps to conceal the brick-like pattern of the tiling process. The idea here is to experiment. Try stamping the eraser in the same direction each time you stamp it. Try turning the eraser a half turn between stampings. Have one row face one direction and the next row the opposite direction. Think bricks. Build your pattern just like bricks in a wall. Next, choose a pattern from your sample papers. Then, get some Strathmore Art Paper and a Big and Juicy Rainbow pad and stamp your chosen pattern onto your paper using the Rainbow pad. If you use a Rainbow pad that varies from warm to cool colors it will appear as though your pattern is preceding and receding from the page. Try using pigment pads on dark paper for a subtle effect. Try different tiling patterns with the same paper and ink and you will get a variety of different results. Experiment and have fun!

RELATED ARTICLE: MATERIALS

WHITE VINYL ERASERS

SPEEDBALL #1 V GOUGE

SPEEDBALL PEN NIB HOLDER

DYE-BASED INK PAD

BIG AND JUICY RAINBOW PAD

STRATHMORE ART PAPER

PENCIL

RELATED ARTICLE: Simple Silhouette Stamps

Now that you've mastered the background technique, why not see if you can master silhouettes. It's almost just as easy.

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Draw an outline of the eraser on tracing paper. This will show you how much space you have for your image. With a pencil, draw or trace your preferred image onto the paper. You can also draw your image directly onto the eraser.

Lay the tracing paper image-side down onto the eraser. Rub the back of the paper with the side of the pencil to transfer the drawing onto the eraser.

Use the #1 V gouge to outline the drawing. Be careful not to cut into your design. Just trace around the pencil line.

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Use a Speedball #3 U gouge to carve away the unwanted background areas. Direct your cuts away from the design--you don't want to accidentally cut away part of your image. Oops!