This quest in 2026 for stamps was begun by the illuminated manuscripts theme, specifically the Alphabet Book.
I discovered while putting this post together that I played with stamps of the rubber variety before. (and postage stamps here!)
What i wanted was to create something that could reliably make a repeating pattern – initially I thought I’d cut on the cricut, and i did do that, but as you’ll see in the images below, the stamp pad ink was sucked into the paper. i even cut several of the same shapes (arches, blocks) and glued them over each other, but paper ain’t the best thing to make stamp.
Cathie gave me some stamps she’d made at art college, including some materials i have since discovered Mitch used to renovate my bathroom).
I pulled out my existing stamp collection, which is substantial, but is mostly too representative, having been acquired from children’s stashes in Kmart or on the street.
The joyous discovery was that Mah Jong tiles work as stamps – some of the numbers / winds work better than others.
My favourite stamp pad, a lovely coffee colour was pretty much out of ink, but since it’s maybe 20 years old that’s not surprising. Not surprising as well that i couldn’t re ink it because the company makes new ones now – there were too many options on amazon, and i’m trying to spend less not more money on art supplies, i have SO many options.
I went back to the manuscripts (with a side quest into gelli plates). I’ll come back to this (having discovered the foam stuff in the shed).
here’s some images.
