Hey folks,

I was wondering if anybody could tell me what brand of tracing paper they've used to tranfer an image onto a stamp for carving.
What brand is recommnded?

Thanks

Wingfoot

My dear Wingfoot,

Save yourself some trouble and make it easy to transfer an image.

If you have the image, print it using a laser printer and do the transfer to the rubber with a hot iron. The toner from a photocopying machine works just as well as the ink from a laser printer - so you can just photocopy something at Staples if you don't have a home printer.

This makes for a much crisper image to carve - especially with letters. Once you try it, you'll never hassle with tracing paper and smudgey pencil again.

phyto

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print it using a laser printer and do the transfer to the rubber with a hot iron.

Yes, I swear by that method. But before I started doing that, I did the pencil transfer method. I just drew around the design with a pencil, then turned the actual paper over onto the pink stuff and rubbed until the design transfered. No tracing paper necessary. If you're taking an image from a book or something, and you don't have a copier, you might want to use tracing paper, I guess. You'd need one that's fairly tough and won't shred when you rub over it. No idea about brands, I'm afraid.


DebBee

I just trace the image on the page it's printed on. The lead from the pencil will transfer just fine. It eliminates the need for tracing paper all together.

castles16

I do the same thing as DebBee because I have an inkjet, not a laser. So, I use a charcoal pencil (extremely well-sharpened at the beginnign and throughout) and draw right on the picture that I want to copy. Then, I turn it over and rub it until it transfers. Not nearly as crisp as I'm sure the laser-iron way gets, but it works.

-Infinity

Hi Wingfoot,

I have been unsuccessful in trying the iron method (I think it has something to do with the printer I use :::shrugs:::) so I do often use tracing paper. I used to draw directly over the image I wanted to carve, then flip it to transfer it to the carving material. The problem I had was that I couldn't see what I was transferring, and the image was often smudged or too light to clearly see. I have had much better success with tracing paper and, for now, it is my preferred method. I can see where I am placing it on my carving media and I get a better impression to carve. I use Strathmore Tracing 300 series which I get from Micheals. It is top bound and has a yellow cover.

Hope this helps,
Padfoot Treehuggers :)

I use vellum it’s tougher than tracing paper. I trace or draw the image I want on to the vellum with a pencil sharpened to as fine a point as I can sharpen it. Then, I flip the paper over on the carving material. After that I take an embossing tool and trace over the lines. The embossing tool has a fine enough point to transfer the fine lines and the vellum is tough enough to with stand the embossing tool as long as you don’t run it over the line several times. It usually only takes one or two passes using medium pressure over the pencil line, to transfer it. You can get a finer line with the emboss tool on the vellum, than you can using the pen or pencil directly on the material. It takes awhile but it’s worth it if you want fine detail. The lead comes off the vellum easily.

I’m experimenting with a mechanical pencil right now, to try to get an even finer line, so far I’m breaking a lot of leads. But the mechanical pencil will transfer. Rocky

M husband uses vellum in his job, so I just use some of that. It's gold-colored and comes in rolls, and it's nice and thick. You can get it from art stores in the drafting section. Sorry, I don't know the brand. I use a mechanical pencil for finer details. (Not that I'm actually able to carve all those details...)

I like using tracing paper as opposed to tracing directly on the drawing because I'm able to see what I've drawn and get greater detail that way. And I need all the help I can get! 8-)

Booknut

A 0.5 mm mechanical pencil works good for fine lines.

sahalie

I will use regular copy paper over the image I want and then hold them both on a window and trace the image that way, then burnish it onto the rubber.

Shiloh

Hi Wingfoot -

I use vellum (available in the scrapbook section of Michael's and Jo-Ann's) and tracing paper (Canson brand, from Hobby Lobby)

I then use a mechanical .5mm pencil to trace and then flip it over and use a soft rubber brayer to transfer (rub) the image onto the carving medium. This seems to work well.

When I get braver, I'll try the acetone method :)

SunFleur

Strathmore tracing paper, yellow cover, top bound. That's for artwork I find that I'm not going to recreate digitally.

I design a lot of my artwork digitally, and I have an inkjet. In Illustrator or PhotoShop, I'll color the artwork a shade of green, invert it so that the green is what I'll carve away, print it, then color the green area with a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil.

Read on for the extended version of the procedure...

Why green? It's the easiest color for your eyes to see... you can see millions more shades of green than any other color... which explains why we do so terribly miss the green foliage in the wintertime...

To transfer the pencil to the rubber, I trim the paper to within 5 mm of the image, leaving one long side at about 2 cm. I gently place the paper down on the rubber, then place a flat object (usually an artist's triangle or a ruler) gently down atop the paper. This keeps it perfectly flat when I tape down the 2 cm side.

Then, keeping the flat object flat on the paper, I align its edge with the tape. I use a simple plastic burnisher and swipe it completely across the paper, back and forth, moving the ruler or triangle a hair or two on each pass. Think of how your inkjet printer's head slides back and forth.

This method occasionally produces variations from the original tracing, but its far more rare than it is common.

Wow, you got lucky with the copier at Staples.

I've tried numerous brands of printers, and the only one that works fairly well without leaving a tar-like substance on the pink stuff is the Hewlett-Packard brand of toner. Even the aftermarket toner that is designed for HP printers is terrible.

After repeated tries with toners, I gave up and went back to ol' reliable pencil.

StarSAELS

A couple of weeks ago I witnessed someone (I'm not saying who) trace an image from a logbook onto tracing paper, make some "corrections" in pencil, pull out an exacto knife, and carve a near duplicate, right on the spot.

You need the tracing paper for this thieving method. Then you can create your own stamps for Silent Dog (Silent Doug), Psychotic (Cyclonic), and Arab (Scarab).

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A couple of weeks ago I witnessed someone (I'm not saying who) trace an image from a logbook onto tracing paper, make some "corrections" in pencil, pull out an exacto knife, and carve a near duplicate, right on the spot.

My jaw dropped when I read this - I can't believe it! Why?? There are so many other things to carve (so many I can't keep up with my ideas!) - why in the world would anyone stoop to stealing someone's elses images?? I could understand if it were public domain clip art images, but just out of someone's logbook??

I'm disgusted.

~SHH :-/

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No no..you misunderstand! He is speaking of homage stamps...

Whew! Glad to hear I just read it wrong, what with all the talk of vandals and enviro-zealots snatching boxes... I was thinkin', "what next??"

Thanks for clearing that up,
~SHH :-)

"When I get braver, I'll try the acetone method :)"

I've tried the acetone method... it works VERY well on the pink stuff. Not so well on the MasterCarve and PZcut. So, if you use the pink stuff... give it a try!! I think you'll be happy.

Thanks for the tip! :)

I use Mastercarve and Orange PZ Cut - any suggestions for transfer with those?

SunFleur