Pottery Stamps

So, last fall, about when I started taking pottery classes, my friend Tom decided to upgrade his cable-drive rotary tool arsenal. He very very very generously gave me his old set. And stand. And table. And accessory box. Seriously, this was a HUGE gift. Blew me away!




However....it also terrified me. I am quite scared of power tools, though I will make myself use them when I need to. It takes a bit of psyching myself up to do it, though. I finally bit the bullet this winter and gave the ol' Dremel a try so I could make some pottery stamps. The first one turned out okay, but the process didn't do much to instill any degree of confidence in my stamp-carving abilities. What it did do was show me just how freakin' sweet pottery looks with a stamped appliqué on it!


See? And my glaze tests show me that the stamp breaks many of my favorite glazes beautifully, which will make them even cooler when they're glazed.

Well, Tom has been asking me for some dishes. Obviously I'm not going to say no to a request like that. So, to mark his pieces, I decided to make him a bear paw print stamp. But, because I was not feeling very confident yet, I decided I'd make myself a new raven mark for my own stuff, before moving on to his. It turned out quite clean and pretty, I think!


What I did was printed the design out, colored in with pencil the areas I intended to have carved out, cut it out, and stuck it down to the end-grain face of a scrap of hardwood I wheedled offa my friend Ray. I used a very light misting of spray adhesive to stick it down. Then I burnished the crap out of the back of the paper with a clothespin I had handy, just to get the pencil marks to transfer to the wood. Peeled off the paper, used a pencil to darken up the lines on the wood, and I was ready to carve.

I think the bits I used were diamond burr carving bits. I don't really know. They were pointy with rough little balls on the end. I ended up messing up several times on mine, and having to sand the face down considerably and then carving it deeper to get rid of the accidental gouges.


All in all, I'm pleased with how they turned out, and I'm pleased with the learning I got accomplished with the Dremel. Next time won't be as scary, and hopefully there will be fewer accidents in need of correction. Now I just need to throw some pottery!

- Stell