Letterpress plates from BoxcarPress.com. Great for stamping designs.

Friday 19th August 2016

We find the 0.047 relief depth shown here is best (K152). Shallower ones will stamp a crisper design but K152 is better if pigment will be used to highlight the recesses. For some things it can be valuable to put border around the outside of a design so that when the stamp is pressed hard into the clay, the edges do not smear outward. These do not actually need to be stuck to a piece of wood, just lay them face down on the clay and use a wooden block to press them. Because they are flexible it is easy to peel them out. When the clay is stiff enough no parting agent is needed. The cost: In 2022 the minimum charge is $35 for about 50 square inches. They accept PDF and insight-live.com/glossary/194">bit image files and the shopping cart enables previewing. The cart might generate CMYK plates (four of them for process color printing), just remove the CMY ones and keep the K (black). The most common mistake is having too much detail or too small printing. Or forgetting to make them reverse-reading. It is best to make your images using vector graphic software like Illustrator or Inkscape.

Pages that reference this post in the Digitalfire Reference Library:

Example of a logo done using a polymer plate, Cone 6 stoneware coffee mug with a letterpress-made stamp, Letterpress plates: Design for the draft, Boxcar Press website, 3D Printing a Clay Cookie Cutter-Stamper

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