Monday, September 22, 2008

Custom Work

One of the best parts of carving a custom made stamp for someone, is that the stamp is new and original. I've said before that carving the same things over and over again is a job for a machine. But carving a unique and different stamp for someone is a challenge (which I like) and keeps the task fresh and new each time.

I've made my first sale on Etsy (http://jackbear.etsy.com), and it was a custom logo stamp for another Etsy shop. There was a good deal of text, which is always a bit intimidating. However, I have found that I'm getting better at it, and I try to keep in mind that a letter is just a "shape." I've played around with font size a little bit, and have found that a font size of 20 is fairly easy in most styles of font. Smaller gets trickier depending on the font. As with anything, practice makes perfect!

I have a couple of orders in the works right now, both custom. I'm working on a design for a bride for her invitations and a stamp for the tables at her reception. I am also working on a custom bookplate. I'm looking forward to carving both after we work out all the details on the stamps (size, fonts, style, etc.).

I've added a custom bookplate listing on the Etsy site, and will soon be adding a line of "Science" themed stamps. I also updated the "look" of my previous listings so it was a bit more clear what I was selling.

1 comment:

Dick -Photographer said...

John,

I am going to need a couple of 3 Oaks stamps once I get the logo resolved. Would like one for a Return Address Label Stamp and also one for my photographs. Talk to you in person soon with more detail.

Dick