How to Carve Custom Pottery Stamps That Last Jazz up your pots with custom pottery stamps! Paul Linhares

Paul Linhares likes to say that he "draws" on his pots with the custom pottery stamps that he makes. I love that idea of drawing with stamps, especially since I am not naturally gifted at drawing freehand on pottery. But in order to “draw” decent images, you need to know how to make high-quality pottery stamps. If the stamps are sloppy, then the imprints on the pots will be sloppy too.

It may seem pretty simple to carve your own stamps, but there are some tricks that you need to know that will help you make long-lasting stamps that make a good impression (no pun intended). In today’s video clip, an excerpt from his video Paddled, Stamped & Glazed: Dynamic Pots from Start to Finish, Paul Linhares takes you through his method for making custom pottery stamps. Enjoy! –Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor

This clip was excerpted from Paddled, Stamped & Glazed: Dynamic Pots from Start to Finish with Paul Linhares, which is available in the Ceramic Arts Network Shop.

More Ways to Make Custom Pottery Stamps

As with everything in ceramics, there are many ways to make clay stamps. In this article in the Ceramic Arts Network archives, potter Virginia Cartwright explains how she makes her polymer clay stamps. This technique is great if you don’t want to wait for a bisque fire to work your stamps into production. All you need to do is pop them in the toaster oven!

And pressing a single stamp into clay isn’t the only way to make stamped texture. In this post, Sarah Pike shows how you can make your own clay texture rollers and cover large areas with a simple roll!

If you want to be super high tech, you could try your hand at 3d printed stamps like Cate Brus-Austin. Cate even shares where you can order your own 3d-printed stamps online, so you don’t necessarily have to own a 3-d printer to make these pottery stamps!

So many great options! So little time!