The Gift of Stamps

Closer look of the actual carved stamp (1 of 3) 

These are finally done, and the recipient which is my friend Kyle Ankney, knew they'd be late for his Christmas gift. Which if you don't know him you can find him on Twitter, and Youtube. These homemade stamps very much describe him as a person, since he will be the first to admit/joke that he is an Elitest, likes pretty things, and would love to pound a denied stamp on any piece of paper in metallic gold ink. He also complains that he has horrible handwriting, so I made him a set of stamps that will look the exact way he wants, every time. Plus side is he also loves them, so the gift was successful!

Denied is upside down, but here is all the respective stamps in gold ink. 

 Anyway, onto the process. Everything here is handmade except for the knobs on top. Those I just bought unfinished cabinet door handles and glued them on with E6000 glue. If you don't know what that is, it's industrial strength glue to be used on pretty much any medium. Those handles won't be going anywhere. The rubber is just the typical wood block print rubber, but the softer kind. I just cut it with a knife to the sizes I wanted, drew on my letters and then carved it with a speedball tool.

A look at the clear coat and color of the wood.

The polyurethane process, due to the current cold weather is what gave me the most trouble. I had to wet sand them a few times since it was causing bubbles. I got them out though, and what usually would only take two coats, took four. But I'm happy with how they turned out. I did not stain them before hand with anything, so the color there is the natural wood and amber of the polyurethane. I think they turned out really pretty, and despite my set backs I think they look good.

I've shown these to a few people and they actually said they'd be interested in buying their own set of custom stamps. Since I have been making plans to sell original paintings soon, would this be something you all would be interested in as well? Let me know in the comments! I really enjoyed the process and would have no problem making more of these little things. It was also fun to do something different and make me problem solve on another level.