Ceramic - Pottery Dictionary

by Susan Mussi

IMPRESSING STAMP

ca: IMPRESSIÓ AMB SEGELLS

es: IMPRESIÓN CON SELLOS

Impressing stamps; you can use anything to mark or make a texture in clay. It could be a leaf, the flat end of a pencil or a sole of a shoe. The clay should be flat and you must work on a surface where it can be left, like a modeling board or a mold.

Here we are going to explain small ones, they can be brought industrially made or you can make them yourself to the sizes, shape and with indented patten of your choice. The material can be wood, dry clay and fired clay and they are made as stamp or roulette wheel.

Fired clay is the best as it is permanent, the design can protrude outwards or inwards and when pressed into the clay, the indent will be the reverse there are three different types –

1) Roll out a tube of clay, cut to the length required, long enough to hold comfortable when being used and with the diameter you need for your design, it can have a stamp at one or both.

2) It can be made without a handle and when fired a small wooden one is glued on to its underside, it looks like a mushroom. The handle is a thin pole of wood like a pencil.

3) Roulette wheel; it has a handle that has two metal arms that fit into a hold on each side of the stamp, this allows the stamp to be pushed and as it turns it covers large spaces quickly. It is mainly used for large pieces of clay that have to be covered with the same texture.

Read more about: Impressing / Roulette Wheel