Making Stamps for Fabric Printing.

Last week I showed you this.

It is a piece that I show in my talk and because in the next few months I will be talking to some groups who have members that I know have heard me before in other venues, I thought it would be a good idea to get it finished.

Before I do anything else to it I wanted to share with you how I made the stamps from the styrofoam pizza bases. There always seems to be a lot of them around here.

I got the designs from a book I brought back from Brunei called 'Hornbills and Dragons' by Bernard Sellato. It looks at the designs found in Kalimantan, Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah which are the countries that make up the island of Borneo. 

The designs have very convieniently been displayed in clear black and white graphics.

I scanned the images into the printer, resized them, and printed them out. Using the printout as a guide I used a sharp pointed pencil to engrave an outline of the image onto a piece of pizza base.

I then carved out the stencil using a soldering iron. You have to be quick or you end up with a big hole and you HAVE to work in a well ventilated area because of the fumes given off by the styrofoam.

I glued the designs onto another piece for stability and strength.

This method allowed me to get some very intricate designs made into a stamp, quickly and easily. If a mistake was made it was no bother to just start again on an inexpensive pizza base.

As with any culture the designs have a lot of history and meaning for the indigenous tribes of Borneo, many of who still live in the traditional long house.

The designs can be seen in all sorts of crafts such as carvings, paintings, textiles and basket weaving,

even tattoos.

Stay tuned to see what I do next with this piece.