Friday, November 23, 2007

Rubber stamps .. not just for scrapbooking!



















In between all those shows, I do occasionally have time to create something new. This piece came out of the discovery of a local rubber stamp dealer at a show I did at Clarkson University's Cheel Arena back in October. I purchased several from her over a couple visits to her booth (from among a collection SO much more interesting than what's available at Michael's or the local JoAnn's!!), but this particular one was the only stamp that barked at me for immediate use. I really liked the long twining vine theme. I initially thought I might attach the precious metal clay piece that resulted to a strip of leather, as I've been toying with the idea of creating some sort of leather design with a sterling clasp - but for some reason I decided on something more delicate. The pearls are faceted, dyed teal and are hand knotted. Aren't they a great color!?!? I call the piece "A Secret Garden". The silver piece is a 1/4 ounce of .999 silver, yet it's still a dainty, elegant bracelet.

3 comments:

Judy said...

Ooooooh! Does this stamp dealer do custom designs?

Cool use of the stamps and (as always) gorgeous stuff.

Tracy Talbot said...

This piece is incredible! Do you happen to remember the stamp company or better yet their website? What a great idea!!

The Wild Inside said...

The rubber stamp has no identifying information on it, so I have no idea from what company it came. I've learned that stamps I intend to use with metal clay need to have distinct lines in order to impress well into the clay. There are SO many I would love to purchase, but when you turn them over (if you even have access to the actual stamp due to closed packaging) the stamp is really only appropriate for a stamp pad - the design is too fine to impress deeply enough into a piece of clay (I've stopped trying to purchase stamps online as a result .. I wanna be able to actually flip it over and examine the cut). One of my winter skill goals is to learn how to make tear away textures, which will require my either finding some appropriate designs to use or creating my own.