Casting a silicone stamp

Today I have been hand printing the cover titles for the first orders of my photo book.

The books come with a blank cover and I had to come up with a nice way to print the title on it. Easiest solution is making a stamp and one of the oldest printing techniques. I 3D printed the mold for casting the silicone stamp with the title letters sunken into the mold.

Before pouring in the two component silicone the mold must be sprayed with mold release, this way the cured silicone stamp block won’t stick to the mold itself. So after mixing the silicone components I gently poured the substance into the mold where it will find its way into all the letters.

After a night of curing (I used slow curing silicone) the stamp block (with raised mirrored title letters) could be taken out and used for making the prints.

I rolled in the stamp with a white printing ink, pressed it onto the book cover…and finished!