Here is the fourth post in the eraser stamp carving tutorial. I would not call myself an expert on this subject, but hopefully what I’ve learnt will help you get off to a good start. I’ve broken things down into the following bites:
1: carving medium, i.e. erasers etc.
2: the tools you need to carve your stamps.
3: methods of transferring your design to the medium for carving.
4: inks.
5: carving.
There are many, many brands and types of inks you can use with your stamps. What ink you want to use depends entirely on what you are going to stamp on and the size of your stamp.
Generally, ink pads are the size of the ones in the picture above. The small square ones are approx. 2.5 x 2.5cm (1″ x 1″) and the large one is 7.5 x 4.5cm (3″x 1.75″). But even if your stampis larger than the ink pad you have to hand, you will still be able to ink it up – as long as the ink pad is raised!
Some ink pads are multicoloured or have glitter in them. There are even some that are fluorescent.
The main difference to bear in mind with the ink pads is that some of them are only for use on paper but others can be used on a number of surfaces, like wood or fabric (and paper). So if you know that you will be using your stamps on fabric it might be an idea to get the kind that is suitable for fabric from the start.
If you do stamp on fabric remember that your will probably need to set it so it won’t run when washed. This is usually done in the oven on low heat or by ironing the stamped area. Your ink pad should come with instructions for doing this (please check these before you start ‘cooking’ your fabric!).
If you want to make larger stamps/carvings which are no longer easily covered with (even) the raised pads, you will need to get your hands on a roller (sometimes called a brayer) and some proper ink in a tube (or a tub). But that is a whole different topic, which I won’t go more into here.