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A rubber stamp is an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved, or vulcanized onto a sheet of rubber. Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to a rubber stamp, and used to make decorative images on some media, such as paper or fabric. [1] [2] [3] [4]
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A rubber stamp uses a raised-relief image molded into a sheet of rubber, often mounted onto a more stable object such as a wood, brick, or an acrylic block. For compactness, the vulcanized rubber image with an adhesive foam backing may be attached to a cling vinyl sheet which allows it to be used with an acrylic handle for support. These cling rubber stamps can be stored in a smaller amount of space, and typically cost less than the wood-mounted versions. They can also be positioned with a greater amount of accuracy due to the stamper's ability to see through the handle being used.
The ink-coated rubber stamp is pressed onto any type of medium such that the colored image is transferred to the medium. The medium is generally some type of fabric or paper. Other media used are wood, metal, glass, plastic, and rock. High-volume batik uses liquid wax instead of ink, with a metal stamp.
There are three main types of rubber stamp inking technology: traditional stamps with a separate ink pad, self-inking stamps with a self-contained die that flips to make an imprint, and pre-inked stamps where the die material is impregnated with ink.
Commercially available rubber stamps are marketed in three categories: stationery stamps for use in the office, stamps used for decorating objects, or those used as children's toys.
Rubber stamps for business commonly show an address, corporate logo and business registration number. [5] [6] Some stamps also have movable parts that allow the user to adjust the date or the wording of the stamp. They are used to date incoming mail, as well as to denote special handling for documents. In some countries it is common practice for formal documents such as contracts to be rubber-stamped [7] over the signature as additional evidence of authenticity. The objective is to authenticate the contracts, prevent forging, and increases efficiency as company executives do not have to separately sign individual company documents.
Business stamps are commonly obtained from stationery stores or directly from manufacturers. They encompass a variety of types, including address stamps, standard word stamps like "received" or "payment due," and dater stamps. These stamps collectively account for nearly 30% of annual sales in the industry. [8]
Rubber stamps are used beyond the business and office world. Applications range from education to marking animals to the food and drinks industry. A few are listed below:
Document marking can be done from within the user's word processor. This can be done manually by creating the "stamps" to appear on the documents in automated document marking software for Microsoft Word. This allows each page to be stamped as it is printed with the user-selected images created electronically.[ citation needed ]
Materials besides rubber can produce a stamp. Woodcut and linocut, the carving of linoleum, are art forms based on the same principles. Linoleum is a harder material than rubber and requires additional pressure to carve. Woodcut is used by experienced artists, requiring both talent and patience. [10] Rubber carving materials are often similar to that of linoleum and woodcut, such as sharp cutting heads, V and U tools [11] Temporary stamps with simple designs can be carved from a potato or other semi-rigid food item.
Furthermore, photopolymer stamps are gaining popularity. They are most often produced in a set of coordinated images using a clear polymer material on an acetate carrier sheet for storage and packaging. The stamps are peeled from the carrier sheet and applied to a clear acrylic handle. This allows the stamper to view the image through the handle and effect precise placement of the image where desired. Photopolymer stamps are generally produced in the United States for sale domestically and internationally. Silicone stamps have many of the same properties of the photopolymer stamps. The creation of clear stamps facilitates the storage of a sizeable image collection, as they can all be used with a single set of handles of various sizes. They are also often very economical, being produced in sets of several images which work together to form a cohesive look.
Various methods can alter the appearance of carved stamps. Paints, pigments, and dye inks create different effects, extending the use of rubber stamping from paper to fabrics, wood, metal, glass, and so on. [12] Ink pads can be purchased that allow for embossing, and there are markers that can be used to ink stamp pads with colors for a multi-color look. 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.
Hand-carved rubber stamps find frequent use in mail art or artist trading cards, as they are typically small and allow the creation of a series of images. The TAM Rubber Stamp Archive [13] has a collection of prints of rubber stamps mail-artists have used since 1983. Stamping is also often used in handmade cardmaking, scrapbooking, and letterboxing.
Stamping has become a very popular home-based craft, and there are a number of forums, some with many thousands of members. Craft stampers tend to be associated with other paper crafts, such as card making and scrapbooking. [14] [15]
Periodical publications for the stamping community have included RubberStampMadness, Creative Stamping, Rubber Stamper, and The Stampers' Sampler Magazine. The latter two periodicals appear to have stopped publishing.
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique, rather than a photographic reproduction of a visual artwork which would be printed using an electronic machine ; however, there is some cross-over between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph.
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The earliest known form of printing evolved from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tablets, used during the sixth century. Printing by pressing an inked image onto paper appeared later that century. Later developments in printing technology include the movable type invented by Bi Sheng around 1040 and the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. The technology of printing played a key role in the development of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print. The block is cut along the wood grain. The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller (brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas.
Flexography is a form of printing process which utilizes a flexible relief plate. It is essentially a modern version of letterpress, evolved with high speed rotary functionality, which can be used for printing on almost any type of substrate, including plastic, metallic films, cellophane, and paper. It is widely used for printing on the non-porous substrates required for various types of food packaging.
Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised (uncarved) areas representing a reversal of the parts to show printed. The linoleum sheet is inked with a roller, and then impressed onto paper or fabric. The actual printing can be done by hand or with a printing press.
Relief printing is a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix, which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface, is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas the recessed areas will not. A printing press may not be needed, as the back of the paper can be rubbed or pressed by hand with a simple tool such as a brayer or roller. In contrast, in intaglio printing, the recessed areas are printed.
A Whiteboard is a glossy, usually white surface for making non-permanent markings. Whiteboards are analogous to blackboards, but with a smoother surface allowing for rapid marking and erasing of markings on their surface. The popularity of whiteboards increased rapidly in the mid-1990s and they have become a fixture in many offices, meeting rooms, school classrooms, public events and other work environments.
An eraser is an article of stationery that is used for removing marks from paper or skin. Erasers have a rubbery consistency and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Some pencils have an eraser on one end. Erasers can come in various shapes and colors. Less expensive erasers are made from synthetic rubber and synthetic soy-based gum, but more expensive or specialized erasers are made from vinyl, plastic, or gum-like materials.
Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable type into the "bed" or "chase" of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type, which creates an impression on the paper.
A brayer is a hand-tool used historically in printing and printmaking to break up and "rub out" (spread) ink, before it was "beaten" using inking balls or composition rollers. A brayer consists of a short wooden cylinder with a handle fitted to one end; the other, flat end is used to rub the ink.
Photogravure is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained and then coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio plate that can reproduce detailed continuous tones of a photograph.
Laser engraving is the practice of using lasers to engrave an object. The engraving process renders a design by physically cutting into the object to remove material. The technique does not involve the use of inks or tool bits that contact the engraving surface and wear out, giving it an advantage over alternative marking technologies, where inks or bit heads have to be replaced regularly.
Card making is the craft of hand-making greeting cards. It shares skills in common in allied crafts such as scrapbooking and stamping.
Scrapbooking is a method of preserving, presenting, and arranging personal and family history in the form of a book, box, or card. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media, and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journal entries or written descriptions. Scrapbooking started in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century.
A label is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed directly on a container or article can also be considered labelling.
Viscosity printing is a multi-color printmaking technique that incorporates principles of relief printing and intaglio printing. It was pioneered by Stanley William Hayter.
Waterless printing is an offset lithographic printing process that eliminates the use of water or the dampening system used in conventional printing. Unlike traditional printing presses, waterless offset presses do not use a dampening solution to clear the press of ink. Proponents of the technology claim efficiency and ecological benefits.
Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Invented in China during the Tang dynasty, woodblock printing was widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868). It is similar to woodcut in Western printmaking in some regards, but was widely used for text as well as images. The Japanese mokuhanga technique differs in that it uses water-based inks—as opposed to Western woodcut, which typically uses oil-based inks. The Japanese water-based inks provide a wide range of vivid colors, glazes, and transparency.
The history of printing starts as early as 3000 BCE, when the proto-Elamite and Sumerian civilizations used cylinder seals to certify documents written in clay tablets. Other early forms include block seals, hammered coinage, pottery imprints, and cloth printing. Initially a method of printing patterns on cloth such as silk, woodblock printing for texts on paper originated in China by the 7th century during the Tang dynasty, leading to the spread of book production and woodblock printing in other parts of Asia such as Korea and Japan. The Chinese Buddhist Diamond Sutra, printed by woodblock on 11 May 868, is the earliest known printed book with a precise publishing date. Movable type was invented by Chinese artisan Bi Sheng in the 11th century during the Song dynasty, but it received limited use compared to woodblock printing. However, the use of copper movable types was documented in a Song-era book from 1193, and the earliest printed paper money using movable metal type to print the identifying codes were made in 1161. The technology also spread outside China, with the oldest extant printed book using metal movable type being the Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377 during the Goryeo era.
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