Tales from a Tool Junkie: Anticipation!

One of the reasons I like working with metal clay, as I'm sure I have said before, is the wonderful textures you can use with it.  I have scads of rubber stamps and texture sheets and I have even experimented with making my own by carving into rubber stamp making material (turns out I'm not the best carver in the world) and also by trying out the polymer clay tearaway technique.  Of course I have been using natural textures since I started using PMC - leaves, flowers, etc.

I like the look rubber stamps give because they are clean and professional.  My carvings on stamp material or linoleum block aren't so much clean and professional as amateurish and primitive.  That looks okay for some pieces, but sometimes I prefer the polished look.  The problem with rubber stamps is the copyright issues, as well as the fact that I can't say that every single bit of the piece, right down to the texture, was made by me.

So I've been coveting kits for making rubber stamps for a while now.  Until recently all I could find were UV photopolymer plates on which you can use a drawing or print to make a plate that cures under a UV light.  So that's what I had my sights on.  But I never purchased a kit.  I've become recently more and more frustrated because what I see in my head just won't translate to the clay.  Like I said, I'm not much of carver and many times I want something deeper than the tearaway technique gives me - for filling in with resin, etc.

Well, I'm happy to say that I finally broke down and bought a stamp-making kit.  It's not a UV one, but one that cures under a regular 60-watt bulb.  It's sort of the bottom of the line kit, but I figured that if I really like it I can upgrade without too much expenditure and if I hate it, I'm not out hundreds of dollars.

So look for some more original things from me and a tutorial/review of my kit when I receive it.  Until then, I'll be camping beside the mailbox waiting.