Introduction
Ubiquity of pollen in the environment draws an attention of the public through multiple interactions. Thus, academics from various scientific disciplines reached an agreement that those plant cells are worthy to popularize. Moreover pollen is beautiful so it fulfills the best prerequisite to leak from science to art and vice versa.
Shapes of pollen are sometimes so similar, that tackling of characteristic features can result hard without determination keys or other explicit indication. In case of students, more careful observation can be stimulated by paper and pencil. Drawing activity belongs to teaching of biology ever before, since it boosts an attention to whole object in microscope. However quality of the picture depends of the skills and not always can satisfy the expectations.
Stamping requires an action which pulls anybody in. Reproduction of picture which was derived from photographs, results more realistic, easy and instant than drawing. Since any material can be stamped, pollen can get into personal diaries, on cloths or skin. Stamps do not have any age limitation, even children which can not hold the pen can stamp.
Design of templates
Photo of pollen is opened in GIMP and changed to gray color. Function threshold provides contrast image. Fragments of contrast images from different focal levels are merged together, saved and opened in Inkscape. Raster image is converted to vector, which removes noisy individual black cells.
Production of wooden stamps
The template is engraved by laser into a 3mm thick rubber. Printing blocks are cut by knife and sticked to the wooden plate with handle.