A how-to on stamping on fabric (and playing with textile paints) is on Lenna's blog

Rubber Stamps: Alchemy/Fortune

Phrenology Head
Phrenology is a theory stating that the personality traits of a person can be derived from the shape of the skull.

Approx 1-3/4" x 2-7/8"

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Phrenology Collage Sheet and Greeting Card.

 
Mercury Seal
Includes the text "Fleet foot'd Hermes, bringer of dreams."

Hermes (Mercury to the Romans) was the messenger of the gods. One of his duties was to guide the souls of the dead down to the underworld (and to bring dreams to mortals).

1-5/8" x 1-5/8"

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Astronomer
A really large stamp, adapted from a vintage woodcut by Jose Guadalupe Posada. More Posada images are on the Halloween page.

Approx. 2-3/8" x 4-1/8"

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Palm Reading Hand

Approx. 1-7/8" x 2-3/4"

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Muse of History
Clio was the Greek Muse of History. She is the mother of Hyacinth (a nature deity who was accidentally killed by Apollo, after which Apollo turned his spilled blood into the flower Hyacinth). She was credited for introducing the Phoenician alphabet into Greece. Her attribute is usually a parchment scroll or a set of tablets. Another stamp of Clio.

2-1/2" x 4"

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Fortune
Based on Renaissance sources. Fortune has wealth and power in one hand, and weights and snakes in the other (in some sources, a bridle and snakes). She is not only standing on a sphere, but it is riding on ocean waves. Very unstable. Similar to Medieval representations of Fortune, which emphasized her duality and instability, such as two faces side by side like Janus; one face smiling the other frowning; half the face white the other black. (Not exactly our contemporary view of "lady luck.")

That said, this is a beautiful illustration.

2-3/4" x 4-1/8"

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Fortune Text

Blackletter typeface.
1-3/4" x 5/8"

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All is but Fortune Quote

From The Tempest.
3" x 1/2"

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Curved Text

Curve works nicely over the image of Fortune, above.
3" x 7/8"

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Tuscan Order Column

It may seem a little out of place, but sized to fit Fortune (when used in a shrine).
1-3/8" x 3-5/8"

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Tarot Card 4-Stamp Set
Mounted version on a cube. Based on old woodcut style of the Marseilles deck.

Each stamp 7/8" x 1-1/2"

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Apollo
Based on the Renaissance Tarot of Andrea Mantegna.

The son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, Apollo was the god of music (principally the lyre, and he directed the choir of the Muses) and also of prophecy, poetry and dance. Note the swans in the illustration (Apollo rode on the back of a swan to the land of the Hyperboreans during the winter months, a swan that he also lent to his beloved Hyacinthus to ride).

2-1/4" x 4-1/8"

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Primo Mobile
Based on the Renaissance Tarot of Andrea Mantegna.

How to explain this concept, the "Prime Movement," the initial spark of creation in a Medieval cosmology? The Primum Mobile ("first moved" sphere) is the abode of angels in Dante's Divine Comedy. But that is not sufficient. I'll have to refine this when it's not so late.

2-1/4" x 4-1/8"

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Tempus Fugit
(Time Flees or Time Flies)

Based on the Renaissance Tarot of Andrea Mantegna.

Another image of Tempus Fugit is on the Posada page.

2-1/4" x 4-1/8"

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Clio
Based on the Renaissance Tarot of Andrea Mantegna.

One of the nine Muses (the muse of heroic poetry and history... not the muse of advertising awards). Note her looking back (at history). We've lost so much understanding of the symbolic meaning in pictures...

2-1/4" x 4-1/8"

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