Using the Seeder Stamp

One of the least complicated leather stamps to use is the seeder. If I described it as a dot on the leather, it might seem very insignificant but it can be used in places other than on the flower centers. Seeders come in different sizes and different patterns as well. As with the other stamps I have described in the previous posts, it is not necessary to have a bunch of different seeders to stamp your pattern. 

I just viewed the Tandy Leather Factory website and to look at their tools and I found that many of the tools that were available when I first started tooling leather are no longer made. It is possible that they had to cut back on the number of stamps that they were making to reduce the cost of production and a possibility of overstock. They also offer a conversion chart for their stamps and here is the address: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/media/downloads/CraftoolConversionChart.pdf. Just copy and paste it into your browser to visit the site but be sure to come back and finish reading this post

The way I look at using the seeder is to think in the realm of geometry. I found out early that although not too complicated, the seeder stamp offered a few of its own challenges to the user. When I refer to geometry, I am referring to circles. The best illustration that I can offer you is for you to take some coins, such as pennies, and arrange them. If you place one penny as a center and place the others around it, you will find that only six pennies will fit around the center one. (See the photo below.)

Pennies arranged to demonstrate basic use of a seeder

One of the things that you have to be careful about when using the seeder, especially when stamping lightweight leather is that it is small and circular just like a punch. I have almost ruined the leather for a wallet cover by having the stamp go almost all the way through the leather. I was probably a little heavy handed with the mallet and the leather may have been a little too damp. That was in the old days before I learned that you do not want your leather wet, just a little moist. Have I said that before?

The photo below represents, badly at that, what you might see if you were looking over the edge of a petal into a flower. For years, I could not figure out what kind of flower looked like that. Then one day it dawned on me that I was looking at it wrong. Please forgive the different lengths of the two sides. If you look, the portion of the line to the right of the center is shorter than the one on the left. You can tell by looking at this bit of a pattern why I am terrible at drawing with a pencil or pen.

Flower petal line

When you compare the “flower petal line” shown above with the layout of the pennies, and if everything on my line were correct, the pennies would be arranged differently. The center penny would be a little lower than those to the left would and right and would throw off the arrangement of the pennies all the way around. Also, bear in mind that the pennies are a lot bigger than the seeder stamps. That might sound as if it might be a disaster in the making but you are working with leather and it is a somewhat forgiving medium. The photo below more or less demonstrates the basic idea of what I am trying to point out here.

Pennies arranged on the petal line

In the photo above you can see that there four pennies around the center but they are not perfectly arranged and this allow gaps between the coins. This is perfectly normal for using the seeder on leather. A person looking at the tooling on the pattern would be rather hard pressed to pick out any imperfections in the stamping with the seeder. What might stick out like a sore thumb would be very large gaps between the stamps instead of putting them as close together as possible. Crowding your seeder stamps close together will probably look better than having large spaces between them.

The photo below shows a flower that I carved freehand because I was in a hurry. I had another project that I had applied cement to the surfaces to be glued together and I did not want it to dry too much. The flower might look somewhat better if its parts were in better proportion but that is not what I am demonstrating here. The photo below shows what one side of the petal line looks like after being beveled. It is important, at least to me, to bevel the petal lines before using the seeder. It will give more of a dimensional look to your design.

Right side of flower petal line beveled

The number of rows of seeds that you put on a flower is dependent upon what you think looks the best. What you want to keep in mind is that the smaller the flower, the fewer rows of seeds you want to put on your flowers. If stamping a small flower, you may want to use a smaller seeder that will keep everything in proportion with the rest of the design. The photo below demonstrates reasonably how you might want to arrange the seeds along the petal line. If a larger seeder were used you would want to use fewer rows while achieving approximately the same diameter of seeds displayed along the line.

Seeder used on the flower petal line

You are not confined by any kind of law or regulation as to how you use your seeder to decorate other parts of your pattern. Personally, I would not get too wild with it but it is your project to do whatever you wish to do with or to it. Below is an example of how the seeder can be used on the stem of a flower to add and accent. I like this use of the seeder because it does help set off the stem at the base of the flower a little bit.

Seeder used on the flower stem

Another way to add a little more character to a leaf on a pattern is to put a seeder stamp on the stem at the base of it. One is usually enough and you might find that more than one is too much. This anecdote about my early days more or less point the use of too many seeders can be challenging. I thought that I had to have a lot of different patterns to offer people so that they would purchase my products. One of the patterns that I did not particularly like had a various sized seeder stamps used as flower stem. It was not so much the number of them but the sizes that were used. There were four or five different ones used to create the stem, and from the base of the flower each succeeding seed was a smaller size.

I remember trying to stamp the background around all of those seeder stamp impressions. For me it was brutal and to top that off, I very seldom have used most of those particular seeder stamps on my patterns. Once in a while I will get the notion to use one or two of them but it is only to make them feel somewhat wanted. (Please pardon my attempt at humor.)

The last photo is of a leaf that has a seed stamped on the stem at the base of the leaf. When I did this sample, I evidently did not want the seeder to feel lonely so I added the pear shader stamp to the leaf as well. Actually, I think that it helps to demonstrate how versatile the seeder can be on your project.

Seeder used on the leaf stem

In closing, the seeder is one of the easiest stamps that you will have to use on a pattern. Remember, over use of this stamp is one of those things that can detract from the looks of your project. Placing the seeds on too many parts of the pattern might need to be explained as, “Those are actually butterfly eggs on the leaves and stems.” I also would not recommend that you not use a seeder as a background stamp either. Stamping the background is almost an occupation in itself, but using the seeder would take a long time and to make it look as if it fits in with the design might be most difficult.

Have fun!