Hand building · Stamps and maker’s mark

Carve one, bisque it, and it works forever.

A stamp is a plug of clay with a handle and a flat face, carved backwards at leather hard and bisque fired once. After that it is the tool on this list you will still be using in ten years, and it costs one lump of clay.

This page walks it in order with a tick list at every step: the plug, the mirrored carving, the test press, the bisque, and how to press it into a pot without the wall caving or the letters coming out backwards. Six fixes and five videos.

This is the short version: the plug, the mirrored carve, the bisque, the press, each with a tick list. The design notes, the roller stamp and the questions are in the comprehensive version.

2 mmCarving depth. Shallower prints as a smudge
MirrorEvery stamp prints reversed. Flip it first
x5Videos, from potters who have nothing to do with us
x4Steps, each with a tick list you can work off
Jump to a section
Why this page has words and video The whole idea in three lines The technique in six moves What you need on the table 1. The plug 2. Mirror and carve 3. Test and bisque 4. Pressing it Five potters, five stamps The one video to watch When it goes wrong How it works at The Clay Hole Questions people actually ask Related lessons
A potter pressing a small hand-carved bisque stamp into the foot of a leather hard mug to leave a crisp maker's mark, with other carved stamps on the bench

Every step, the design notes, the roller stamp and five videos.

Read it, then watch it

Why this is written down and filmed, both.

Making a stamp is a small project with three traps in it, and every one of the traps is a fact: the design has to be mirrored, the stamp has to be bisque fired, and the pot has to be at the right stage when you press. Facts are what writing is for. What writing cannot do is show you how hard to press, how to hold a wall from inside while you do it, or what a two-millimetre carving actually looks like next to a one-millimetre one. That is what the five videos are for.

Use both, in this order

Read the step. Watch the part of the video that covers it. Do it with the tick list open. A stamp is a two-visit project, carve one night and bisque with the next load, and the page remembers where you got to.

The whole idea

Carve it backwards, bisque it, press it into soft leather hard.

A stamp is a plug of clay with a handle and a flat face, carved at leather hard, bisque fired, and then pressed into pots for the rest of your life. Three things decide whether it works: the design is mirrored, the stamp goes through the bisque before you use it, and the pot is soft leather hard with a hand behind the wall when you press.

The five-minute version

The whole technique in six moves.

If you already hand-build and you just want the shape of it, this is the shape of it. Everything below is these six moves, slowed down and with the places they fail marked.

1Make the plugA wedged lump the size of a wine cork, rolled into a cylinder with a handle you can grip. Flatten one end dead flat on the table.
2Let it go leather hardFingernail marks it, fingertip does not. Carving a soft stamp gives fuzzy walls and a fuzzy stamp gives fuzzy prints.
3Draw it mirrored, then carveFlip the design before it touches clay. Carve two millimetres deep with vertical walls. Bold beats fine.
4Test it, then bisque itPress it into a scrap and read it. Fix it now, not after the kiln. Dry it slowly, bisque it with your next load.
5Press at soft leather hardSupport the wall from inside, press straight in, hold a second, lift straight out. Cornstarch on the face if it grips.
6Put the mark where glaze cannot fill itThe bare foot for a maker’s mark. The side only with a wash wiped in or a glaze that breaks.

Before you roll anything

What you need on the table.

Six things, and one of them is a scrap of clay to test in. The tracing paper is the one that saves you a backwards stamp.

A wedged lump of clayAny of our eight clay bodies. A smoother body carves finer detail; a groggy body makes a tougher stamp. About the size of a wine cork for a maker’s mark, bigger for texture.
A needle tool and a small loopThe needle for outlines and letters, the loop for clearing background. A small V tool if you want the crispest walls.
A flat surface and a ribThe face of the stamp has to be dead flat, or the mark prints in a crescent. Press it on the table, then true it with a rib at leather hard.
Tracing paper or a mirrorFor flipping the design. Draw it, trace it, turn the tracing over, carve what you see.
A scrap of soft clayFor the test press before the bisque. Every stamp gets tested at leather hard. Backwards letters are found here, not on a pot.
CornstarchThe release for clay that grips. A pinch rubbed on the stamp face burns out in the kiln and leaves nothing. Water is not a release; it smears.

A wedged lump of clay, a needle tool and a small loop, a rib for the face, tracing paper to flip the design, a scrap of soft clay to test in, and a pinch of cornstarch. That is all of it.

1

Step one

Make the plug, flatten the face, let it firm up.

A stamp is a handle with a flat face. Wedge a lump the size of a wine cork, roll it into a short cylinder, pinch or roll a handle you can hold comfortably, and press one end down flat on the table. That flat end is the face, and it has to be genuinely flat: a domed face prints a crescent, a dished face prints a ring.

Size follows the job. A maker’s mark is small, a centimetre or two across, and wants a handle long enough to grip between finger and thumb. A texture stamp for a slab can be as big as your palm and wants a handle you can push with the heel of your hand. A roller stamp is a cylinder as long as a thumb with a hole through the middle for a chopstick, carved all the way round; it is the fastest way to texture a whole slab and it is made exactly the same way as a flat stamp, just rolled instead of pressed.

Then wait for leather hard. A fingernail marks it, a fingertip does not. Carve too soft and the walls of every letter tear and close back up; carve too dry and the edges chip. If you make several plugs at once, which is a good habit because stamps are cheap and you will want more than one, bag the ones you are not carving tonight with a damp paper towel. They will keep for a week.

Keep the body under an inch

The stamp is going through the bisque, and it is the thickest thing on the shelf. Thick clay dried fast cracks, and air trapped in an unwedged plug blows the face off. Wedge it, keep the body no thicker than an inch, hollow a big handle from the back, and dry it slowly for days under loose plastic before it goes anywhere near the kiln.

Tick list, the plug0 of 5
2

Step two

Draw it mirrored. Then carve it deep and simple.

Every stamp is a mirror. Whatever you carve prints reversed. For a texture that does not matter. For letters, initials, a logo or anything with a left and a right, it matters completely, and the fix is to flip the design before it touches the clay: draw it, trace it, turn the tracing over, and carve what you see through the paper.

Then decide which way the mark should sit on the pot. Carve the design into the face of the stamp, and it stands up on the pot as a raised mark. Carve the background away and leave the design standing on the stamp, and it presses into the pot as a recessed mark. A maker’s mark usually wants to press in, because a recessed mark survives a wash, a wipe and a glaze, and a raised one gets sanded flat by the first thing it touches. Texture stamps go either way, and a good one is often both.

Depth is the thing beginners underdo. Two millimetres at least, with vertical walls, held-upright tool, one pass per line. A shallow carving prints as a smudge once the clay springs back a little, and hairline detail fills with the first coat of anything. Bold, simple, deep. If a mark looks slightly crude on the stamp, it will look right on the pot. If it looks refined on the stamp, it will disappear. Our clean lines lesson is the whole method for the cut itself.

Designing a maker’s mark

Initials, a symbol, or a symbol with initials inside it. Simple enough to read at a centimetre across. No thin lines, no tiny counters in letters, no serifs. Make it once, then make two more at different sizes from the same drawing, because a mug foot and a platter foot want different marks. Keep the drawing; you will remake the stamp one day.

Designing a texture stamp

Think in repeats. A stamp that tiles with itself, a stripe that lines up end to end, a dot pattern that overlaps without a seam, is worth ten one-off pictures. Carve the edges of the face too, so the stamp can be walked across a slab. A roller stamp is a repeat by definition.

Tick list, carving0 of 5
3

Step three

Test it in a scrap, dry it slowly, bisque it.

Every stamp gets tested before the kiln. Press the leather hard stamp into a scrap of soft clay and read the result. Backwards letters, a domed face, a line too fine to print: all of that is found here, where it costs two minutes, and not on the first pot, where it costs the pot.

Then dry it slowly. A stamp is a lump, and lumps crack. Loose plastic for a few days, then open air out of any draft, and it is dry when it is no longer cool against your cheek. Then bisque it with your next load. Our bisque is cone 05 and free, so a bag of stamps costs nothing to fire. Do not glaze fire a stamp; bisque is porous, which is what makes it release, and a glazed stamp is a glass tool that sticks.

Once it is bisque fired it is done, and it is done for a very long time. A bisque stamp does not wear out, does not soften, does not care about water, and lives in your tool roll for as long as you make pots. Write your name on the handle in pencil before it goes in the kiln; pencil burns out, so write it on again afterwards in marker.

Tick list, test and bisque0 of 5
4

Step four

Press it at soft leather hard, straight in, straight out.

The pot has to be ready too. Soft leather hard: the surface takes a crisp mark, the wall does not move, the stamp lifts clean. Straight off the wheel is too soft and the mark smears as you lift. Firm leather hard is too dry for anything deeper than a whisper. For a foot mark, the moment after trimming is exactly right.

Support the wall from inside with a hand, a sponge or a wooden spoon, directly behind where the stamp lands. Press straight in, hold for a second so the clay takes the whole face, and lift straight out. No rocking, no twisting, no second press to make sure. A rocked stamp prints a double edge, and a twisted one smears. If the clay grips the stamp, a pinch of cornstarch rubbed on the face is the release; it burns out in the kiln and leaves nothing behind.

Then put the mark where glaze cannot fill it. On the bare foot ring or the bottom, where there is no glaze at all, is the traditional place and the reason every pot in our kilns goes in with a naked bottom on a cookie. A mark on the side of a pot is a design decision, and it wants a wash wiped into it before glazing or a glaze that breaks on edges, otherwise three coats of anything opaque turn it into a dent. Our wipe-away lesson is the natural next page for a stamped surface.

Tick list, using it0 of 5

Watch it done

Now watch five people make five kinds of stamp.

Watch this one, then go make a plug.

None of these potters work here or know we exist. Between them they cover the maker’s mark, texture stamps from start to finish, the classroom version, five kinds of stamp, and pressing cleanly. Nothing but the still frame loads until you press play.

Fifteen minutes on a maker’s mark from a working potter, mirror writing included. The other four videos are in the comprehensive version.

Start here: the maker’s mark How to Make Your Own Pottery Maker's Mark Florian Gadsby
Fifteen minutes on designing, carving and using a signature stamp from a working potter. The mirror-writing part is shown, which is the part everyone gets wrong once. Watch on YouTube
Texture stamps, start to finish How to Make Clay Bisque Stamps For Adding Texture to Your Pottery Andrea Akerib Pottery
The long, patient version: forming the plug, the handle, the face, carving at leather hard, bisque, and pressing. If you have never made one, watch this first. Watch on YouTube
Signature stamp, the classroom way Creating a Clay Signature or Makers-Mark Stamp for Pottery KaransPotsAndGlass
A teacher walking through a signature stamp with an emphasis on reversing the design and getting the depth right. Twelve minutes. Watch on YouTube
Five kinds of stamp 5 Clay Stamp Projects - How to Make and Use Clay Stamps! Little Street Pottery
Flat stamps, roller stamps, found-object stamps and two more, each made and then used on a pot. The best overview of how many things a stamp can be. Watch on YouTube
Pressing it cleanly How to Stamp the Bottom of Pottery Pieces Rachel Hamilton
Six minutes on the part after the stamp exists: the stage of the clay, supporting the wall, pressing straight in and lifting straight out. Watch on YouTube

When it goes wrong

Six ways it goes wrong, and what to do about each.

The three failures that happen on the first night.

Pick the one that looks like your stamp or your pot. The first three are the stamp. The last three are what happened when you used it.

How it works here

At The Clay Hole, a stamp is the cheapest tool you will ever make.

This page is written for potters everywhere. A few things are specific to our building, so you know before you start.

Three things to know here

Bisque is cone 05 and free, so stamps cost nothing to fire; put them in with your other work, dried properly. Carving tools are studio tools for every Level except Green, who bring their own. Every pot goes into our kilns with a naked bottom on a cookie, which is exactly where a maker’s mark belongs.

Firing your stamps

Bisque is cone 05 and free. Put your stamps on the drop-off table with your other greenware, dried properly and with your name on them. A dozen stamps in a bowl is fine. Do not glaze fire them; bisque is what makes them release.

Tools by Level

Needles, loops and V tools are studio tools for Yellow, Purple and Black Level Members. Green Level Members bring their own. We also have a large collection of stamps and rollers on the shelves, honestly more than we need, and they are studio tools too. Make your own anyway: a maker’s mark is yours, and that one goes home with you.

Naked bottoms

Every glazed piece goes into our kilns on a cookie with a bare bottom, no exceptions, which is the rule that keeps the shelves clean. It is also why the bottom is the right place for a maker’s mark: no glaze ever touches it, so the mark stays as crisp as the day you pressed it.

Stamping other people’s pots

A studio full of members is a studio full of stamps left on tables. Yours goes in your bag or on your shelf. A stamp found on a shared table with no name on it becomes a shared stamp, and then everyone has your initials.

Questions people actually ask

The ones that come up every week.

Do I have to bisque fire the stamp?

Yes, if it is made of clay. An unfired stamp sticks to soft clay, crumbles at the edges and softens the moment it gets damp. A bisque fired stamp is porous, so it releases cleanly, and it is hard enough to last for years. Our bisque firing is cone 05 and free, so put your stamps in with your other work.

Should the design be carved into the stamp or left standing up?

Both work and they print opposite ways. Carve the design into the face and it stands up on the pot. Carve the background away and leave the design standing on the stamp, and it presses into the pot. A maker’s mark usually wants to press in, so it survives a wash and a glaze. Texture stamps go either way.

How do I get the letters the right way round?

Mirror the design before you carve it. Draw it, trace it, turn the tracing over and carve what you see. Then press the leather hard stamp into a scrap of clay and read it before you bisque it. Everyone makes one backwards stamp. Make yours in the scrap.

What stage should the pot be at when I stamp it?

Soft leather hard. Soft enough that the surface takes a crisp mark, firm enough that the wall does not distort and the mark does not smear when you lift the stamp. Straight off the wheel is too soft. Leather hard is too firm for anything but a shallow mark. For a mark on the foot, stamp right after trimming.

Can I use rubber stamps or linocut blocks?

Yes. Carved rubber blocks give the sharpest letters of anything, and they release cleanly from clay. The trade is that they do not last as long as bisque, and they need a firm press because rubber gives. Polymer clay stamps and 3D printed stamps also work. A bisque stamp is still the one you will have in ten years.

Where should a maker’s mark go?

On the foot ring or the bare bottom, where there is no glaze to fill it. That is why every pot in our kilns has a naked bottom on a cookie, and it is why the foot is the traditional place. A mark on the side is a design choice and it wants a wash wiped into it or a glaze that breaks over it.

How do I stop the stamp sticking?

Bisque it, use it on clay that is not too wet, and dust the face with cornstarch for a difficult clay. Cornstarch burns out in the kiln and leaves nothing behind. Talc works too. Water does not: a wet stamp smears the mark.

Related lessons

Six lessons that sit next to this one.

Three to read next.

A stamp is one way to put a mark in clay. These are the others, and what to do with the mark once it is there.

Surface and decorationImprinting TexturesLeaves, lace and fabric pressed into a slab: the stamp you did not have to carve. Surface and decorationCarving Pristine LinesThe cut itself, for a stamp face that prints clean. Surface and decorationWipe-Away TextureA wash wiped back over a stamped surface, which is how it shows. Surface and decoration40 Ways to Add TextureStamps are four of the forty. Here are the other thirty-six. Hand buildingHow to Use Sprig MoldsThe stamp’s cousin: press a shape, lift it out, attach it. Surface and decorationMishimaStamped mishima: stamp it, flood it, scrape it back.

That is the whole project

Plug. Mirror. Carve. Bisque. Press.

Your first stamp will probably be backwards or shallow, and you will find out in the scrap of clay, which is the point of the scrap. The second one will be in your tool roll for a decade. Almost nothing in this building gives back as much per lump of clay as a good stamp does.

If you want the design notes, the roller stamp, the reasoning and the answers to the questions everybody asks, switch to the comprehensive version at the top. Otherwise, go wedge a lump.

Back to Clay Hole University Or press a leaf instead

Written for potters everywhere. Where our studio does things differently, the page says so.