how many rubber stamping artists in the world?

The answer somewhat depends upon your definition of a rubber stamp
artist.

For example, rubber stamps are widely used in Asia for art as well as
the equivalent of signatures ("seals"). I assume that these would not
be considered "artists" by you.

The next clarification would be what level of artistry qualifies one
as being an artist? For example, the largest retailer of rubber stamps
in the world is Stampin'Up. However, many of the customers of these
stamps never actually use the stamps they purchase, because they are
sold in a social party setting. The customers will purchase products
in a party as a courtesy to the host but may not take up the hobby
seriously.

I also assume that you would wish to exclude children, unless those
children are intensely involved in rubber stamping.

Given all of these factors, there is still a very wide range of
possible 'correct' answers.

The largest rubber stamping magazine has a circulation of about
80,000. It is estimated that 20% of the stampers in the United States
receive this publication. This would yield an answer of about 400,000
rubber stamp artist enthuseasts in the United States.

Another estimating method is that Stampin'Up has about 50% market
share in the US. They sell $150-Million a year in rubber stamp kits,
largely to first-time buyers. This would tend to imply that there are
10-Million rubber stamp artists in the US, if the average sale is $30
(which is a typical average in the industry based on online sales.)

Speaking as one that is in this industry (with one of the top-10
manufacturers) we estimate that there are about 1-million active
stampers in the United States. This is largely a guess, based upon
"market share" and our own studues of how many customers we have. I
believe this is a pretty accurate number.

This means that the rough range in the US is between 400,000 and
10-Million, with a likely average of about 1-Million active, serious
hobbiests.

The last part of the problem is to estimate the worldwide multipler
from the US numbers. I do not have a reliable way of performing this
estimate. You will need another source for that. A SWAG would be that
the us is about 20% to 33% of the world-wide hobbiest count. So,
perhaps there are 3-million to 5-million rubber stamp artists
worldwide.

-----

Your question is actually quite broad and subject to interpretation.
If you want a more specific answer you might ask it more specifically.
But I hope this helps as a general answer.

Thank you for such a swift response.

I explain why I need to know the active population of rubber stampers,
thus you will better know the grading of operator to whom I refer.

I am a private individual, not associated with any business ... I am
not a rubber stamper, rather a retired design engineer and now
classical oboist.

I recently entered a store devoted entirely to rubber stamping and
immediately wondered how operators managed to use the large 1" thick
wood backed stamps, say 4" or more square, without smudging and
otherwise damaging the image during the pressing stage. My mind, as
always, set about solving that problem. In a moment I had a mental
design of a small hand press to take control of the stamp pressure
stage. I made a prototype and showed it to a long term operator and
teacher. She was amazed at being able to produce perfect images with
some of her flawed large stamps and gave me great encouragement to
produce the press for her craft. Specifically, it will allow very
young and older persons to enter the craft. It remains a hand
operation, but requires less hand force. The stamp is not subjected to
any distorting side forces.

Currently no such device exists in any of the hundreds of R/S sites I
have visited. It is now patented and the search indicated that it is a
unique invention. I believe it will increase the R/S population and
thus expand the whole industry.

I am currently seeking to estimate probable manufacturing and selling
prices from the evidence I request you to find. Price depends
basically upon scale of production. The design is highly professional
and uses expensive engineering components ... essential to its
function.

I trust this will help you to more closely establish the information I
seek. Being in the R/S business, you may understand the need for such
a device.

Thank you,
Patent-ga

This is a direct reply to your answer ... in addition to my previous
expansion of the question base.

Firstly I must congratulate you on the amount of information you have
gained thus far.

The stampers for whom I'm lookimg use decorative stamps of the larger
sizes, wood mounted, of 1" or less in thickness. They may be
considered professional or amateur and of any age. They would be
sufficiently serious to seek obvious improvements in their results.

If Asian artistic stampers use the stamp style I describe, then they
would be included.

Any stamper who uses multiple image stamping in a design would be
included, because there must always be the danger of a latter or the
last of several stampings destroying the entire effort, should it
fail.

You are now aware of the use to which I will apply your final result,
I'm sure you will be assisted by this information.

Again, I thank you,
Patent-ga