At the recent Hobby Industry of America Trade Show in Anaheim, California, several companies debuted stamp "tatoos". The ink is water soluble and kids, (or grown-ups who would prefer to try a tatoo without pain and permanence as factors) can simply use their bodies as a surface to stamp different images. It just shows how far we've come from the "old" days when rubber stamps were the tools of artists who worked primarily with paper surfaces.
Today's rubber stamper may actually be overwhelmed with the number of choices available for them to stamp. Recent home decorative trends and a return to wearable art stamping indicate the manufacturing of products for rubber stampers to stamp on will continue to grow. The ready-to-wear market in ladies' fashions has shown a marked rise in ethnic designs that are often stamped in squares, rectangles or other shapes on dresses, shirts, slacks, totes, etc. Anytime something happens in the ready-to-wear industry that has craft applications, you will shortly see that reflected in magazines and stores, so look for the use of rubber stamps in many wearable art projects in the near future. Another good example of this would be the use of rubber stamps that are ironed into velvet fabric, giving an elegant embossed look to the fabric piece. The holiday season we've just been through showed many examples of velvet as a surface for stamping.
Other surfaces that are becoming popular for stamping are wood decorative items, walls, metal and terra-cotta. Each of these surfaces may require special preparation, an ink or paint formulated to work with the surface, and careful perusal of pattern directions before starting a project to insure you've met all the necessary requirements of your surface to guarantee your projects success. In the weeks to come we will be going into rubber stamping on various surfaces in more detail so that you will be able to stamp on a variety of objects for your home or garden with complete confidence.
Even natural surfaces have become popular in rubber stamping. I recently saw a card where a flower petal had been lightly misted with water, allowed to sit for a moment on paper towel and then rubbed across the card before a phrase was stamped over the floral rubbing. The natural color left from the flower was a soft enhancement to the beauty of the stamped card. The surface was a handmade paper that had bits of the same type of flower embedded in the paper. Although the flower petal itself was not the surface stamped on, it definitely contributed to the overall look of the project.
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