Still tinkering around with the rubber stamp idea, using indelible, dishwasher-safe, quick-drying ink.
I'd thought of using my old drill stand to cobble up something to assist in stamping mugs accurately and with the minimum of effort (a bit like a pad printer). The basic idea is a sliding base which holds a mug and an ink pad. The procedure would be as follows:
- From the starting position, with the ink pad under the stamp, pull the handle to ink the stamp at the same time as placing a mug on a jig attached to the sliding table.
- Slide the table to the right until it hits an adjustable stop.
- Pull the handle a second time to stamp the mug with the design.
- Slide back to the left and remove the mug.
- Repeat for all mugs that require stamping.
I reckon I'd be able to stamp a box of 36 mugs in under ten minutes for the whole box. An added benefit (provided the stamp method works) is that there's no heat involved and hence no time wasted waiting for sublimation to occur. There are also no transfers to print and cut. Obviously, tweaking the position of the mug jig, or altering the stamp head would allow for any size stamp and positioning anywhere on the base of the mug. The whole thing would only cost a few quid to make.
Here are some renderings I've knocked up to better describe the idea ...