One of my other hobbies is a medieval reenactment group. Last Pennsic one of our members picked up some stamps from a merchant, and while they were very cool and we had fun stamping fabric it would be even better if the stamps were personalized…lucky I have a laser
(This one is actually two separate stamps, one for the background, and one for the outline.)
The horse at the top is my friend’s Arms - so it was really lovely to see her response when she got her package:
I love this machine!
Plywood glued in two layers or hardwood engraved deeply
(the worry with glue is that enough washing in water to get the paint off when you’re done stamping and the glue would fail)
Registration when doing it by hand meant I had to cut the backer really close - and she had to have a steady hand! Luckily she’s a vet so I could count on the steady hand
When making stamps that need to register to each other, simply create a stamping jig. Cut a small piece of thick wood or acrylic with a hole in the center the size & shape of the stamp blocks. Then just drop the jig on the material, line the first stamp up with the jig’s hole & stamp. Hold the jig as you pick the stamp blocks. Repeat with the 2nd (or 3rd…) stamp and your resulting stamp should be perfectly registered.
You may want to make your jig super thick so you can get the stamp block in before it touches down on the material if the stamp isn’t cut to the same size as the block. Just make several copies of the jig and glue a stack together. Then the stamp block will be captured and aligned before it touches down and no steady eye & hand needed.
and if we were doing this at home, or even somewhere with a reasonably flat table - totally! Doing it at a campsite, on a tiny not terribly level table? Unlikely to happen
Now, for at home work, I can totally make that work - even a generic one - as long as at least one corner is in the same place the stamp will match. I’ll give it a shot!
I do lots of block printing on fabric and paper, using wood blocks I make on my Glowforge. Feel free to ask me if you do it again and think I could be helpful. Here are some of mine:
