Customer Reviews

West African Adinkra Symbols: 31 Rubber Stamps

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you've been burned by worthless (low quality) rubberstamp sets sold by book publishers you're wise to be cynical when you see another set on the shelf. I took the plunge and bought this set at a local independent bookstore and was pleased with the quality of the red rubber and the images themselves. I also enjoyed the well-designed and colorful booklet that reveals the history of the symbols and what each symbol actually means. The box the stamps are packaged in is wood and begs to be stamped and colored. What fun! My only complaint is with the wooden mounts. The mounts are thin cheap wood (with extra-thick dense foam cushion) so don't expect beautiful thick maple wood mounts! Considering the price though and the number of images (31) this didn't really detract from my overall enjoyment and satisfaction so I will give it 5 stars.

As a person who spent over 2 years in Ghana and became pretty familiar with Adinkra symbols...I was disappointed with this stamp kit. I was excited when I saw this kit online but should have read the reviews before ordering as I see several other people felt let down too. I can hardly believe that the author left out the most well loved Adinkra symbol of all, "Gye Nyame", a symbol about the power of God. I really wish the author had put more effort into her research and included the names and accurate meanings of the symbols in the Twi language. Bummer.

The rubber stamps are the real bargain here. As others have mentioned, the small booklet that comes with this set does not have much going for it. I also would have preferred to see the symbols identified with their African names. There are websites that go into more details about the symbols. People should not have much trouble finding them by searching "Adinkra" and "symbols."

I had heard rave reviews about this stamp set and waited with great excitement. The stamps themselves are sufficient, though they are small. The disappointment was in the definitions, which are not accurate to the language and the fact that the two most popular Adinkra symbols were noticeably absent. While it is a good set to have around, I would have preferred to invest the money in a more accurate, larger mount set.

Fun & informative. I have used and enjoyed this stamp kit and booklet for my students and myself.

I used this in my art classroom on an Adinkra lesson and the students loved it. I loved the results. I use this every year. The stamps are great and stamp easy and clean. Would highly recommend this product.

I ordered 4 of these sets to use with an Adrinka Printmaking project with my junior high art students and these stamps held up remarkably! Students created prints with borders of symbols that they identified with i.e. that fit their character traits. Students then wrote a small reflection about the work and the character traits in relation to the Adrinka symbol meanings. This was a great project! Couldn't have done it without these stamps...which, by the way, were hard to find...that is why I had to turn to the Internet. They are no longer available in art or bookstores!

I am glad I disregarded the negative comments about this set of Adinkra stamps. I needed smaller stamps for my audience to use during a hands-on activity following my presentation on the symbols. I wanted them to emulate the process for stamping fabric, including creating a grid and filling it in with symbols in a repetitive manner. Larger, more authentic stamps would not have allowed this, given the size of the fabric swatches being used and the budget for the program. I found the booklet useful, but I had done a great deal of research on the symbols, and had sufficient information to counter any shortcomings. If you need stamps to use with a group, I recommend this set. Augment it by having some larger calabash Adinkra stamps on display as part of your program.

The set is smaller than I thought. It also didn't include some commonly used symbols which was a disappoinment. I can't really suggest that anyone else order this product. I really does need some improvement. The booklet was okay, but had a lot of empty space that could have had more information, but it was very eye catching. I also didn't get the dark black results that were shown on some of the examples sprinkled throughout the booklet. I don't know if that was because of the ink or the material used to make the stamps.

Disappointing, especially since she's actually spent time with adinkra printers. could have been more conprehensive and translations more accurate. Also disappointed not to see ethnic names of symbols displayed.