Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 287, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1915 — HOMEMADE RUBBER STAMPS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOMEMADE RUBBER STAMPS.

First of all. you will need some flat pieces of rubber. There are many sources from which to get these. Mother’s discarded clothesringer has a pair of rollers that can be stripped of their rubber coverings, or you caa use pieces of a worn-out hot-water bag, a piece of a bicycle or motorcycle tire, or the inner tube of an automobile tire. If you can’t find any such pieces of rubber at home, probably some friend can supply you. In addition to the rubber, you will need thread spools on which to mount' the rubber.

Figs. 1 to 5 show the steps in preparing a letter “A" stamp. The hole in each spool must be plugged with a wooden peg (Fig. 1), and the peg cut off even with both ends of the spool so a letter may be mounted upon each. Cut a square of rubber of the sise of the letter you wish to make, and glue it upon the spool end; then with a ruler and pencil draw the letter upon the rubber (Fig. 2), or, if yoa have prints of large type, cut out

a letter and paste it upon the rubber (Paste it upside down, because type must read backwards to print correctly. See Fig. 7.) When the piece of rubber is glued fast to the spool end, and the letter drawn or pasted upon it, carve out the letter with your knife, cutting carefully along the outlines of the letter, and removing the pieces of rubber not wanted (Figs. 3 and 4). Make “proof of the letter by printing it upon a piece of paper, and then trim any places that show up rough. To complete the stamp, cut off the edge of the spool end just below the letter (Fig. 5) so, by placing the cut-off edge against

the edge of a ruler (Fig. 6) it will be possible to print the letter exactly straight, and also get the letters of a word in a straight line. After you have a complete alphabet of large single-letter stamps, try your hand at preparing a stamp with a word or name upon it, like that shown in Fig. 7 Picture stamps are no more difficult to make than letter stamps, but require larger pieces of rubber. Figs. 8 and 9 show two possibilities for picture-making with the rubber stamp parts of a mule, and Figs. 12 and 13 two pictures made with tbe rubber stamp parts of a little girl. Diagrams of the six stamps required for the mule picture are given

in Fig. 10 —A for the body, B for the neck and head, C the ears, D the thighs, E the hock and hoof of the legs, and F the tail. For a small set of stamps you may cut out the patterns; for a larger picture you may enlarge them. Fig. ll shows how to make holders by tackitife pieces of cigar-box wood to spool ends. Diagrams of the stamps for. the little girl pictures are shown In Fig. 14—A for the body. B for the head. C the upper arms, D the forearms, I E tbe legs, and F the hat