Stamp Materials

At Museware Pottery, we make our own stamps. The process we use to transfer images to our pottery is very similar to block printing. The big difference is that each stamp is painted & handled individually.

Our first attempts at stamp production involved sending our black and white images out to stamp making houses and having them made into stamps. Wicked expensive, done by mail and slooow. Then I found Speedball Speedy Cut carving rubber. We used it to create this logo for the Mount Washington Hotel.

Speedy Cut carves like butter (you can pick it off with your fingernail) creates a wonderful impression and cleans up well. It even holds up to soaking. Image transfer is easy. Place an image from an ink-jet (laser won't work) print side down on the rubber. Squirt the paper with nail polish remover. Rub with a spoon. A reverse of your image transfers perfectly. It is somewhat fragile and shows signs of wear with long term use. We've remade many of our earliest stamps but still have many well preserved older stamps. Our very oldest have dried and yellowed, but still work.

One day I placed an order with Speedball and mistakenly ordered pink Speedy Carve rubber. We heart this rubber. It has all of the characteristics of Speedy Cut, but is not as fragile - you cannot kill this stuff. 

In 2009, I found myself an agent and entered the world of licensing design. A major giftware & home goods manufacturer wanted to license some of my best selling designs. Naive to the process, I thought I had to physically make each design they'd requested. Since the design request included new work not present in the Museware Pottery line, I had to figure out how to get the more complex designs in my head onto pottery. I purchased wicked expensive polymer stamp making equipment. Like thousands of dollars expensive. After spending money I did not have on equipment I did not need, I found out that all they really needed were digital files.

I knew nothing about digital design & didn't even know what jpeg or dpi meant. Got a scanner, brought images of our hand carved designs (painted on tile) into Microsoft Publisher - the only design program I'd ever used.  It was like fricken magic! There was my hand painted work, in my computer! I still remember the day I created my first digital design featuring my own hand painted elements. I have made fire! I taught myself Photoshop and started sending manufacturers jpeg images at 300 dpi. The machine gathered dust. We learned to use it a year later. It's an integral part of our business now.

Long story short, when I saw this Galbraith & Paul image, I knew exactly what I was looking at. I just have to figure out what material they're carving/cutting. I doubt it's rubber - that would be too heavy for blocks this scale. This much 1/4" rubber would weigh ton, making it hard to place with precision. Time to research.

Jenny Nelson of HomeSweet uses adhesive backed craft foam sheets to create her bold and graphic block print designs. One of her printing blocks contains hundreds of tiny tear shaped elements. Each was hand cut out of what looks like two sheets of craft foam. Cool. We know craft foam.

To get the feel for this material, I drew a simple design on the paper back of a single layer of black foam. I tried the lower left cuts using my smallest, sharpest scissors. I ended up with ragged edges and chopped curves. So I ditched the scissors and picked up an Exacto with a shiny new blade. The cuts were easy and resulted in clean lines.

Cutting a double thickness of blue foam with the Exacto was more than twice as hard, but could be mastered with practice. My first cuts were slightly beveled. A straight edged stamp gives a better impression and lasts longer. Some rough edges needed clean up.

I'm not convinced craft foam will yield the thin branches and delicate leaves of the Galbraith & Paul block, but think it could be perfect for larger, simpler elements.

Because block creation is so labor intensive, I have to wonder if G&P might be using a more "permanent" stamp material like unmounted lino block. I found this Golden-Cut Linoleum at Dick Blick. According to reviews, it cuts easier than the grey unmounted linoleum and holds up well after repeated use. It does curl when wet, but not when attached to Plexi. I'll look for something local, now that I know such a thing exists. Something tells me it's going to be a while before I produce any fabric.

A Revelation

Last week, the mixed media artist on the 3rd floor offered me two huge sheets of Plexiglas to protect our new wood countertop. I dismissed them as too thin, set them aside and forgot about them. Friday morning I saw this image, taken in the Galbraith & Paul production studio. Shut the front door!

This is Plexiglas! With stamps mounted on it! Seeing this image was like hearing angels sing. Some of our designs include multiple stamps, each individually rolled, lifted, placed and stamped. I don't know if this will work for us but if it does, OMG, it's going to save us so much time!

I found a couple of craft-sized sheets of Plexi in Hobby Lobby and promptly bought them. I also bought a bag of pre-cut craft foam stickers - round, square, hearts, all in two sizes. Coming up with any print, even a lame one, would be fun.

Why Blog?

Starting a blog is a lot like starting a family. It's never what you think. It takes on a life of its own and you either care for it or it dies. I have three such casualties. While none are actually dead and still get traffic, they are starved for content and are sadly neglected.

As a businesswoman in a creative field, I've had to train my la-la creative brain to be businesslike. I'm a classic right brainer and business logic does not come naturally. I've had help. In this poker face business world, I've been lucky enough to know four generous people who shared both their creative & business knowledge whenever I ask. They've helped me develop a design aesthetic & business sense that's kept Museware Pottery growing & thriving, even in a tough economy. (Thank you Gayle & Lorrie, John & Don - you're awesome.) So I'm passing it along. 

Block Print Me - I'll talk about business, mine & yours. Creatives in business face special challenges including how to price & sell without giving it all away and how promote & thrive without burning yourself out. I've learned a lot in the past 10 years. I'll share what I learn about the craft & business of block printing and introduce you to some of the leaders in the printed textile world. I'll practice a little self expression, self promotion & mentor-ship and go where I'm lead.

You'll find me a real fan of designer & blogger Jenny Nelson of HomeSweet. Her well written blog begins with a declaration:  This is who I am and this is what I'm going to do. She did it and shared her revelations along the way. Yesterday, I read her blog from start to finish, followed her links and found the coolest people doing the coolest stuff. Her generosity inspired me to share my process. I'm excited about it. It's kind of like starting a new relationship - all promise and possibility.

Where it Began

I’ve been a designer forever and pottery designer for nearly 7 years. It’s what I do. I’m also a licensed artist - my designs have been featured on products like pottery, coasters & trivets, home textiles, greeting cards & checks. I design even when I’m not working and find inspiration just about everywhere. So designing is actually my job. Which means I don’t have to feel guilty about it.

A few months ago I found this all fabric, all the time blog called True Up. Which led me to this book. Which got me thinking about fabric. Now I cannot stop thinking about fabric - designing for it, printing on it, stitching it into some new cool thing.

Early this week, I was on Pinterest, a site for collecting and categorizing the cool things you find on the internet. It's colorful and very visual and an easy place to lose an entire afternoon. In the last months, I've created dozens of boards filled with things that interest, amaze and perplex me. Today, I have literally spent the entire day on this site, following links everywhere. In the last hours, I have amassed enough information about about block printing on fabric to keep me awake for days. This is where I’ll talk about what I’m learning, instead of sleep or instead of doing my actual work.

Hello Me

I’m Sheree Burlington, owner and designer of Museware Pottery. I design hand painted personalized pottery which we create and sell through gift shops and catalogs nationwide. We also maintain an online store. I started Museware in September 2005 after three years co-owning a trio of Paint Your Own Pottery studios called You’re Fired. I left an 18 year kitchen design career for self employment. My life has never been the same.

When I left my kitchen design job, people thought I was crazy. My career was established and growing. I made great money. I loved my work. Why would I leave all this to enter an arena where the majority failed in the first 5 years? The warnings were the same when I sold YF to start Museware Pottery.

Deluded by images of personal freedom & more family time, I picked the 2 most misguided reasons in the world to quit a perfectly good job. Self employment gives you neither. True, I can walk out the door to deal with family matters any time I want. But I can’t punch out at the end of the day. Or ever.

Would I trade my shiny, self-made handcuffs for the relative security of a job? No. I’ve been the boss of everything for so long, I’d make a crappy employee. And when I look back on what I’ve created in the last 10 years, I’m proud but I’m also not finished. I've evolved from an artsy gal painting a few platters a week to a full fledged production studio shipping thousands of pieces a year to gift shops across the country. It’s been a long and winding road.

Now that Museware Pottery is acting like a real company, complete with an awesome, loyal, hardworking staff (OMG. Finally!) I’m free to look around, re-evaluate, consider the possibilities. That’s what I’m going to do here. Figure things out. And I’ll share what I learn with you. I’ll start tomorrow.