In this video, Ben Strano talks to Tim Coleman about an article Tim wrote in 1999 about stamping textures into wood. Tim got the idea after finding discarded stamps in his new (at the time) shop space that was formerly a steel stamp factory. After a few afternoons with his daughter playing with wood and stamps, Tim began to use them to decorate his woodworking projects. Most of the original stamps he found were letters and numbers made of hardened steel that needed to have their temper removed before he could file and grind them into new shapes. Tim shows some of his early pattern work made entirely with letters, as well as later patterns made of combinations of altered shapes, especially circles, ovals, and crescents. He also talks about several processes for adding color selectively to his patterns while preventing any bleeding into the wood grain, and a little about how to create stamps completely from scratch.

You can read Tim’s original 1999 article here.

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