Stamping cats all over!

What I tried today is to create a cat stamping tool. When I was a kid we used to buy these and they seamed to be all over the place. We were stamping all the pages in our textbooks and it was fun. We were stamping even our favorite books to show everybody that they are ours. So I came up with an idea to buy a present to a little fellow who Is just starting with that kind of toys and what a surprise!

I went to a big shop with all these toys and found just one box and it included just 6 stamping blocks - a bear, a duck, a dog, an elephant, a dear and a mouse. Well, I thought, it shouldn’t be that hard to create your own…

Whatever design you like!

So I took my silicon pistol and began. Here is my silicon pistol – may be the cheapest one on the market. I drew my first design idea with a pencil and then covered it with silicon on a sheet of rice paper. Now the thing is that I began as if I am a Michelangelo and I can begin drawing from the toe and then continue with the rest of the body step by step. But I am no Michelangelo and I messed all up by melting my silicon lines every time I added something. Somehow I managed to create the stamping surface but I didn’t have a wooden block to use as a base and made one again from silicon and the result was more than unsatisfying. And then I tried to level all the lines for silicon doesn’t spread equally and It went even worst:)


So after some trouble getting the silicon stamping area relevantly equal so that it can carry the ink equally I received these results. Not bad for a start, but not good enough. And I have taken a picture of the first stamp and the result images to give you a hint of my disappointment.

So after all the hesitation and trouble I realized that I was doing some very stupid things and a single wooden block with a single silicon drawing is going to be faster, easier and much smarter. So now I was almost happy but didn’t have a wooden block and couldn’t take this project to the end so I decided to try something else.

I took some pieces of isolation material (5 mm) that I have around and after I drew with a pencil what I imagined I took a knife and cut it. So this is what I created and tried the stamping qualities of the material and they actually are not that bad. It’s just you can stamp only 3 times before inking again and although it is equally flat and can be easily glued to an wooden block it is kind of too fragile for a kid. Because we all know how kids like to scratch with their cute little fingers everything and they like to know how things work and this material won’t last more than a minute. So the stamping result is better but it is not hard enough to face the moment of children playing with it.

So this is what I received as a result of the stamping with the isolation material cutouts and they are actually not that bad. So I had to think of something easier and more capable of withstanding children play. And suddenly it hit me.

I could just draw a cat however complicated - one or ten - and just go to an office where people create stamping tools like firm stamps. And it sounds so nice when you say it – the perfectly working stamping tool can be ready in 5 minutes and can make over 50 000 copies of the image! Wow! And this is precisely what I am going to do when I think of a drawing I like enough and I am going to draw some projects now for I actually like the idea very much and am certain I have to try it.

So I will continue though with the search of other ways to create a stamping tool. One of cource could be a wooden block with engraving in it, but this takes time. Another possibility is to create a gypsum matrix and then lay silicon on it. There are many options and all sound like fun.