Tutorial: Carved Charles Rennie Mackintosh triangle stamps

Charles Rennie Mackintosh is most famous for his rose motifs, but he also used triangles widely in his work, particularly at Derngate in Northampton, at Scotland Street School (where I first came across his use of triangles, the wonderful vivid green ones in the stained glass windows), and in his textile designs.

Here's how I carved a set of eraser stamps based on Charles Rennie Mackintosh's triangle designs:

1. Measure and mark the position of the triangles on your eraser.

2. Cut the triangle shapes out using a craft knife.

3. Draw any designs you want within the triangle shapes. I left some plain, cut one as an outline triangle, one in a chequerboard design (inspired by one of Mackintosh's textile designs), and one with stripes (inspired by Derngate).

4. Carve out the designs - I used Japanese woodblock carving tools, but you could use lino cutters or a craft knife.

5. Make use of the scraps by cutting them into other shapes to complement the triangles - for example I cut some smaller triangles, a small square, and a strip of mini triangles that could be used as a border, and everything came from one medium sized eraser.

6. Test your stamps and if necessary remove any excess areas.

Fun fact - this black ink pad is the first I bought, it's probably over 20 years old and still going strong even though it's my most used ink pad! And I bought it at the same time as two Charles Rennie Mackintosh rose stamps!

I did some test prints with the stamps, inspired by Scotland Street School and Derngate, then I stamped a sheet of paper all over, inspired by this textile design.