Rubber stamp carving

On By CarynIn Craft

Pinterest strikes again. I’ve been pinning linocuts and woodcuts because I like the results and I saw that there are slabs of rubber that can be carved to create flexible stamps. Color me intrigued. I bought a set, and I already have micro wood cutting tools, so I gave it a go.

Photo description: my picture of an old farm truck printed on white paper, and a 4×6 slab of pink rubber. I transferred the inkjet image to the rubber with a steam iron, then went over the lines in pencil.
Photo description: rubber carved with a single edge razor and micro carving tools and the excess edge cut away with scissors.
Photo description: test print with scrap paper and black ink and a roller to press the paper to the stamp.

So this was fun. My lessons learned include making sure the carving tools are all very sharp. My gouge was not and left micro tears at the edge of the lines which filled with ink and printed a fuzzy mess. Putting the paper on top of the inked stamp then using a roller to press the paper to the stamp worked much better than pressing a stamp down on the paper. The process definitely has a learning curve, but the rubber is relatively easy to carve and it opens up worlds of possibilities.