A toy rubber stamp featuring a pterosaur.

Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved or vulcanized, onto a sheet of rubber. The rubber is often mounted onto a more stable object such as a wood or an acrylic block to produce a more solid instrument. The ink coated rubberstamp is then pressed onto any type of medium such that the colored image has now been transferred to the medium. The medium is generally some type of fabric or paper. Other media used are: wood, metal, glass, plastic, rock. High volume batik uses liquid wax instead of ink on a metal stamp. A toy rubber stamp featuring a dinosaur. ... A toy rubber stamp featuring a dinosaur. ... Suborders Rhamphorhynchoidea Pterodactyloidea Pterosaurs (, winged lizards, often referred to as pterodactyls, ) were flying reptiles of the clade Pterosauria. ... Look up craft in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for colouring a surface to render an image or text. ... Yarn drying after being dyed in the early American tradition, at Conner Prairie living history museum. ... For animal and plant pigments, see Pigment, biology. ... In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. ... A pattern is a form, template, or model (or, more abstractly, a set of rules) which can be used to make or to generate things or parts of a thing, especially if the things that are generated have enough in common for the underlying pattern to be inferred or discerned... Carving can mean Rock carving Wood carving Meat carving See also: Sculpture, Lapidary This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Vulcanization, or curing of rubber, is a chemical process in which individual polymer molecules are linked to other polymer molecules by atomic bridges. ... Latex being collected from a tapped rubber tree Rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer which occurs as a milky colloidal suspension (known as latex) in the sap of several varieties of plants. ... An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for colouring a surface to render an image or text. ... A recording medium is a physical material that holds information expressed in any of the existing recording formats. ... Color is an important part of the visual arts. ... In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. ... Sunday textile market on the sidewalks of Karachi, Pakistan. ... Piece of Letter paper Paper is a thin material produced by the amalgamation of plant fibres, which are subsequently held together without extra binder, largely by hydrogen bonds and fiber entanglement. ... Trunks A tree trunk as found at the Veluwe, The Netherlands Wood is derived from woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs. ... Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms positive ions (cations) and has metallic bonds. ... Glass can be made transparent and flat, or into other shapes and colors as shown in this sphere from the Verrerie of Brehat in Brittany. ... Household items made out of plastic. ... The rocky side of a mountain creek near Orosí, Costa Rica. ... A batik painting depicting two Indian women. ... Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees (beeswax) and used by them in constructing their honeycombs. ...

Commercially available rubber stamps fall into three categories: stamps for use in the office, stamps used for decorating objects or those used as children's toys. OFFICE WORK IS SHITE!! NEVER WORK IN ONE! end of. ... A teddy bear A toy is an object meant to be played with. ...

Official rubber stamps

The signatures on official documents are verified using a stamp in Europe. Care must be taken to not to lose these stamps, since possessing the stamp would allow forgery of official documents.

Business rubber stamps

Rubber stamps for business are custom-made, showing an address, a corporate logo or something similar, or they are bought ready-made. They often have movable parts that allow the user to adjust the date or the word the stamp says. They are still often used to date incoming mail, memos and similar items. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A British pillar box. ... A memorandum is an informal, or recorded, form of communication, usually used by businesses from executives to employees. ...

Some artists have been using such stamps to decorate pieces of art for special effects or in an ironic way.

Ready made decorative rubber stamps (art stamps)

Art stamps have become fashionable in the United States, more so than in Europe. While they are mostly regarded as children's toys in Europe, in the U.S. they are available in many intricate designs and are widely used to decorate various objects. World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... A teddy bear A toy is an object meant to be played with. ...

Such art stamps can be used for easy decoration of useful things like paper for letters, greeting cards and similar things, but also can be combined with other techniques to create traditional art.

Rubber stamps as an art form

Rubber Stamp Art by Michael Dare

In the art world, there is also rubber stamp art. Sometimes the rubber stamps are self-made or even carved out of erasers. Today, companies in the US offer special, eraser-like rubber in larger pieces produced for this. This art is popular there, but virtually unknown in Europe. It is especially used by non-professional artists due to ease of use. It can mimic woodcuts, but is rarely used this way. The print from the carved rubber stamp is viewed as work of art on its own or one or several stamps are used to embellish a work of art with other components. Image File history File links Shorefight2. ... Image File history File links Shorefight2. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... A regular wedge eraser. ... A woodcut is a method of printing in which an image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with chisels. ...

Also, other materials besides rubber may be used to produce a stamp. In fact woodcut and linocut are the same art using another carving material, but linoleum is much harder and so special tools are needed to work with it. In Europe linocut is widely used, other than rubber carving. While linocut is much used at schools or by hobby artists, woodcut is mostly restricted to professional artists because it's hard to do and takes long. Rubber carving material is available there now, but it's marketed as a children's toy and not widely used. Latex being collected from a tapped rubber tree Rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer which occurs as a milky colloidal suspension (known as latex) in the sap of several varieties of plants. ... Four horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Dürer. ... Colour Linocut Linocut Linocut is a variant of woodcut, in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for the relief surface. ... A linoleum kitchen floor Linoleum is a floor covering made from solidified linseed oil (linoxyn) in combination with wood flour or cork dust over a burlap or canvas backing. ...

There are several possibilities to vary the look of those works. Paints, pigments and dye inks all create different effects, extending the use of rubber stamping from paper to fabrics, wood, metal, glass, and so on. Special ink pads can be purchased that allow for embossing and there are pens that can be used to ink stamp pads with a variety of colors for a multi-color look. All this creates possibilities for mixed media art of all sorts. In biology, pigment is any material resulting in color in plant or animal cells which is the result of selective absorption. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The print of a larger rubber stamp can be a work of art on its own right, and is often used as such. But it's also possible to use multible prints from the same or different rubber stamps on a piece of art to create a picture, or combine stamping with other art forms.

Of course the use of rubber stamps can be combined with other materials. The image may be embellished by the addition of chalks, inks, paints, fibers and a variety of other ephemera and embellishments. In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. ... The Needles, part of the extensive Southern England Chalk Formation. ... An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for colouring a surface to render an image or text. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Fiber or fibre[1] is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread. ... Ephemera are documents published with a short intended lifetime. ...

Those works are often used in mail art or artist trading cards because they tend to be small and allow the making of series. The TAM Rubber Stamp Archive has a collection of prints of rubber stamps mail-artists used since 1983 (see link). Stamping is also often used in handmade cardmaking. Mail art is art which uses the postal system as a medium. ... Artist trading cards, also known as ATCs, are small or 2 ½ x 3 ½ inch (64 x 89 mm) miniature works of art which artists trade with one another or sell, similar to the way people trade sports cards. ... Cardmaking is the craft of handmaking greeting cards. ...

In addition, use of the stamping technique has become widely popular with scrapbooking. The variety of stamps available allow for different looks to any given page. Scrapbooking is a method for preserving a legacy of written history in the form of photographs, printed media, and memorabilia contained in decorated albums, or scrapbooks. ...

See also

• Seal (device)
• Parliament of the United Kingdom

Seal on envelope A seal is an impression printed on, embossed upon, or affixed to a document (or any other object) in order to authenticate it, in lieu of or in addition to a signature. ... The Houses of Parliament, seen over Westminster Bridge The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. ...

External links

• Rubber Stamp guides
• The TAM Rubber Stamp Archive
• History of Chinese Stamps
• Dartmoor Letterboxing A popular pastime linking stamp-art and puzzle-solving]