Mega and Mini Monograms

Recently I completed a fun new challenge.  A customer sent me a beautiful monogram image.  My first impression was, "Wow, look at all that detail!"  It was scary, and that excited me.

She said she wanted it in two sizes, one that was large (6 inches tall by 5 inches wide) and one that was small (2 inches tall by 1.7 inches wide).

Normally, a large stamp means that I can put in a lot of detail based on the size of my carving tools. A small stamp means less detail, or I have to really squint and use a fine and light touch with the tools.

Let me tell you, even this big stamp was a healthy challenge to pack so much detail in.  I decided to time myself carving the big one, since I hadn't done that in while.  This was probably the largest stamp I have carved with this amount of detail in it, so I was curious how long it would take.  It took be about 6 hours of carving time, broken up into about four nights.  It really was a joy to work on, and I really did have fun doing it.  Those hours flew by, and I love the way it came out.

The little stamp I think took around 2 hours of carving time.  I couldn't get all the same lines that exist in the larger one, so that cut back on the total time.

This year I have more and more requests for large stamps.  It seems odd to me, but maybe my name is getting out as a guy who can carve BIG stamps.  I don't mind, I think they are fun.

For the record, I have not carved a stamp that is 12 inches x 12 inches yet (well I had one requested but we changed things around so it didn't come to that).  This is the largest slab of carving medium I can buy.  So, if you have a design, cash, and a way to impress a stamp that large, let me know, I'm your guy.