We do a lot of stamping to our pottery so being able to make our own clear stamps is a nice asset. We had been sending PDF’s to rubberstamps.net to get our custom stamps made. Takes a little time and the stamps are a solid red rubber which can be a pain. Clear is better, fast is better, in-house is even better.
The plan was to go the total DIY route and build a UV exposure box and magnetic negative holders. But we are beyond busy so we had to purchase a consumer stamp making system. There are several companies selling the same unit under different names. We found the cheapest version at overstock.com, the Teresa Collins Stampmaker. It works perfectly and we are very happy with the results but with any store bought solution comes limitations. It’s too small…WAY too small. We plan a short term remedy by making our own negative holder that will squeeze into the exposure unit utilizing every square millimeter and purchasing the UV liquid stamp goo instead of using the prepackaged packs. But for the time being we’ll just make due with what we’ve got.
The process is incredibly simple. Create a negative of what you want to make using your computer printer on clear film and expose some goo with UV light through the negative. The light solidifies the goo that’s visible through the negative and the rest gets washed away leaving you with a stamp.
This is our first try. This is the maximum size of the gel packs that come with the kit.
And this is what we did with the stamps.
A dozen coffee cups for a cafe in Seattle.
And a few dog treat jars.
The glaze pools in the stamping very well.
