How To Keep Basket Stamping Even When Stamping Around A Design Or Logo?

[thekid77]

hey friends, i am making a small card holder and the customer has asked me to tool their logo onto the middle of the leather, then to basket stamp around the logo.....

how do you keep the basket stamping even when the logo prevents you from spacing the basket stamp evenly from left to right and top to bottom?

please see the attached pic.....the logo is in the middle, and today i tried stamping around it but i couldn't get the stamps evenly placed because of the logo in the center...

thank you in advance for your advice!!

[Wild Bill46]

Use your Ruler to keep the lines straight,

I would start at the Logo outline, and tilt the stamping tool a bit to coinside,

still keeping true to the ruler! .

It takes a bit of perseverance to get the hang of it ! But you will ! .

Hope this helps, Good Luck -------- Wild Bill46

[Bob Blea]

Here's a tip that will probably help: On a piece of scrap leather draw a straight line and then stamp a couple of rows of the basket stamp you want to use neatly along that line. Make sure the line of stamps is long enough to stretch across your logo. Let that dry and then cut it out, making it into a small ruler. Use that to help you line up spacing of the stamps across the logo. Also use a ruler to keep you lines on the project straight like Wild Bill said. And try practicing it on scrap a couple of times before taking on the project.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[thekid77]

Thank you so much for the advice!!! You guys are amazing!! I really appreciate it

[silverwingit]

This can be difficult! The best way I have found is to draw a light reference line through the center of the object you want to surround. The you can start your initial line there and build your pattern outwards. That's much easier in my experience than trying to surround an object from one side and expecting the pattern to match up and meet properly on the opposite side.

You still have the same issue of making the pattern match when the lines of stamps meet as they fully enclose the object. That's where careful planning comes in. I really like Bob's idea of the ruler. That's essentially what I've done but I never thought of drying them out and saving them. I'd make one in each size stamp you have. You could then "measure" the diameter of a circle or other shape the surrounds your object with the different size stamps. That's how to select the right size stamp for the diameter you want to surround. The solution lies in the right combination of stamp size and diameter to be surrounded.

One other tip. Basket weave stamps all have a "natural" slope that works best with any particular stamp. With any new stamp you will need to experiment to discover" just what slope of line a given stamp "likes" the best to make the array o stamps line up best with the outline of the area being covered. Using the wrong slope is an uphill battle where using the right one makes completing the pattern in a way that lines up right and is therefore pleasing to the eye is a snap. Once I've determined the natural slope of a given stamp I make a little right angle of leather of that exact slope. That way when I approach a new area that I want to cover with a particular stamp I just use the corresponding angular "gauge" to determine the slope of that all-important initial reference line. If you have a "Bob Blea" ruler and one of these angular gauges for each of your basket stamps your basket-stamping life will become much easier.

Finally, it's more important than usual to maintain proper moisture as you complete your pattern. You can do a terrific job of placing your stamp and making your impressions and then when your work dries you see how the depth of your impressions varies from one side of your project to another because it was properly cased when you started but then dried out as you completed the pattern.

Hope this helps. You will likely need to sacrifice a few pieces of scrap leather to get it right for any given situation.

Good luck!

Michelle