Artist Makes His Mark on the World
Howy Boschan plays in a rock band, but he has found another way to make an impression.
For the last several months, Boschan, 20, has been leaving his stamp on Christmas cards, memos, posters, T-shirts and flyers.
He and other rubber stamp artists create intricate designs by making several impressions with the same stamp and using colored inks, glitter, felt pens and embossing powders.
A mask can be made of an impression, for instance, and used to cover an existing pattern. New images can then be made by stamping over the earlier impressions. The result is often an image that seems to be one stamp when it actually consists of several.
Boschan demonstrates his craft outside a rubber stamp store where he works in Santa Monica Place. Stores catering to rubber stampers routinely carry more than 2,000 different stamps. More than 10,000 additional stamps are available in catalogues.
Stamping aficionados contend that anything that can be painted can be stamped, and they share techniques through a national magazine, RUBBERSTAMPMADDNESS.
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