Recreating a Real Photo Postcard - a diary

The block is curved, so applied by rolling horizontally. Problem is it's unbalanced - almost everything is on the top of the block, so makes it hard to apply in a level manner.

Good tip ono the "something soft underneath". Putting some craft foam underneath the paper helped quite a bit - doing it that way, I'd say I was getting 1 perfect one out of every four, and maybe another 2 of 4 weren't perfect, but usable. So I'm still thinking breaking it up into two or three smaller stamps is the way to go.

On another front, I picked up some Foma 3.25" x 5.5" paper and gave that a go. Took this as an opportunity to redo the text also, which now I think may be too small (I swear, I calculated this all out.... oh well). Didn't notice the text had smudged until now... I'll have to look and see if that's an issue with the transparency I printed the text on or some kind of goober on the glass/negative. As the paper is the exact size of the negative, gonna be hard to not get a hair of burn somewhere around the edge. I think that's ok though, and the kind of impreciseness that helps with the nostalgia.

bud007 said:

The block is curved, so applied by rolling horizontally. Problem is it's unbalanced - almost everything is on the top of the block, so makes it hard to apply in a level manner.

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It wasn't made correctly. Such a stamp needs a frame around it. So, on a curved block, that would be like rockers on each side of the block to enable you to apply even pressure.

If you made a frame for your stamp to rock in, it could work better. The frame would sit over the postcard and hold the stamp at the right height to fully imprint the words but allow you to apply pressure evenly. So, if the letters on your stamp stick out 1mm, make your frame 0.9mm. Maybe popcycle sticks would be good enough.

Don_ih said:

If you made a frame for your stamp to rock in, it could work better. The frame would sit over the postcard and hold the stamp at the right height to fully imprint the words but allow you to apply pressure evenly. So, if the letters on your stamp stick out 1mm, make your frame 0.9mm. Maybe popcycle sticks would be good enough.

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Ah... so I should have designed a bottom and side border or similar that I don't ink? Or would this be part of the wooden block?

I like the latest version of the postcard picture, including the lettering. The fact that the lettering is “imperfect” adds a vintage charm.

Having only limited and equally frustrating experience with rubber stamping, I hesitate to interject… but I must ask: what ink and inking pad are you using. I had to fiddle with different ink pads and inks to get good stamps. In the end, it also seemed like the rubber stamping had a break-in period before it would reliably work. I gave up and outsourced to a local crafter whe specialized in that aspect of crafting. Less frustrating for me and a much higher success rate.

bud007 said:

Ah... so I should have designed a bottom and side border or similar that I don't ink? Or would this be part of the wooden block?

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Rockers should be solid so as to not compress and would prevent your stamp from compressing, also. But it could have been accomplished by a frame on the stamp itself.

Don_ih said:

Rockers should be solid so as to not compress and would prevent your stamp from compressing, also. But it could have been accomplished by a frame on the stamp itself.

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The wooden block is sizable, so I could easily create a mount on the side of the block for "rockers" that I 3d print... then I can tweak the 3d print to dial in the size/clearance. Could be tricky to match the curve exactly of the block, but hopefully that curve is something akin to a nice round number.

BrianShaw said:

I like the latest version of the postcard picture, including the lettering. The fact that the lettering is “imperfect” adds a vintage charm.

Having only limited and equally frustrating experience with rubber stamping, I hesitate to interject… but I must ask: what ink and inking pad are you using. I had to fiddle with different ink pads and inks to get good stamps. In the end, it also seemed like the rubber stamping had a break-in period before it would reliably work. I gave up and outsourced to a local crafter whe specialized in that aspect of crafting. Less frustrating for me and a much higher success rate.

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Yeah, I'm with you on the imperfections. The stamp ink pad was a Tsukineko Stazon black, which is something my wife had (she makes greeting cards occasionally as a hobby):


It's undersized, so required me to dab the stamp around a few times to ink it up. If anything, it was probably a bit older. Regular smaller stamps I tested with seemed to be "normal".

Not to send you down another rabbit hole, but I can imagine that reading up on techniques used for wood block printing and its more modern cousin linocuts may help.

Really all that's needed is something to maintain consistent pressure through the stamping process - which is just something to hold the dead space uniformly the correct distance off the paper.

And don't use intaglio ink. It will never completely dry.

This thread is an absolute treasure trove!

Have been thinking about postcards recently, and considering using glass plates in a half-plate 1890ish camera I use regularly.
So much useful information here - thank you to everyone who contributed and the OP @bud007 who began this by sharing so generously.

Thinking it through, the postcard craze perhaps only started when sheet film became affordable. I must look at some dates on the many archived old postcards of Oxford, uk. I suspect the big postcard publishers used glass plates (they were still in use here for various processes in the late 1970s)