Stamp dan Sedikit Omelan

I manage to complete 3 more stamps. Complete means; siap diukir, nicely-mounted dan telah selamat sampai ke tangan pemiliknya.

Look at Mamat's face. It's only about the size of my thumb. Hahahahaha... Aku boleh picit ko Mamat hanya dengan satu jari.

Save-the-date stamp for one of my ex-collegemate. Gambar kucing berkasih-kasihan tu dia cedok dari internet. Not my drawing.

Carving the curly "Sylvester & Grace" was challenging. I know it was going to be tricky and time consuming for a that type of font especially when it is small, tapi bila Grace request ~ I agree jugak!

When it come to wordings, I always think it is the hardest part. Sometimes the font can be as small as size 10 or 8, depending on the design. And the most painful fact is that I'm carving on erasers! I mean, how big erasers can be? Sometimes I question myself, why do I have to force myself with this torturing thing? The wordings are the most excruciating of all.

But of course, only God knows how self-satisfying it is when everythings turn out well. It make me feel like.... Aaahhhhhhh..... I can't explain it.

Sudah banyak kali, hubby ask me, "Benda yang saya suruh buat tu U dah setelkan dah?". Apalagi yang boleh saya jawap? Belum. Baru menguruskan anak dan chores dan sedikit design stamp, hari sudah petang.

Hubby cuma geleng2, I know he's dissapointed. But I am dissapointed too.

Frankly, stamp-carving gave me satisfaction but overall, kepala saya tidak tentu arah sekarang.

Tak mengapa, saya kuat. Saya akan hadapinya!

Hiyyyaah!

WIP

Still struggling with unfinished loads of work.

Call me anything. Tortoise. Snail. Slow Loris.

Scream on my face. Hit me with pillows. Throw me tomatoes. Potatoes.

Mangosteens. Lemons.

Until I change into,

a super woman.

Hello Readers!

Above are the stamps I made recently. The first two are commisioned by Raja Ila, and the second one is for her dear husband's 32th birthday.

Alif Lim's is a gift I made for our special friend. He is a mualaf, just like me. Alif Lim, nice name right? Like alif lam mim.

And the last one is for Sarah and Adli's wedding. Hm, I think I have made three stamps using the same design for three different couples. It is not my original design actually, it has been suggested by my previous customers, Nadia & Hafizan.

I want to say THANK YOU, coz I know many of you keep visiting here. I only have around 50-60 visits per day, but that's good enough for me. I really appreciate it. Sometimes I do give return visit, only perhaps, minus the comment. But trust me, I really adore your artistic hands and delicate arts/crafts (while some of you have unique way of writing too). If you know me, I like handicrafts/survernir shops. I can spend hours in there (and boring my best buddy), observing and touching this and that. Adoring the cuteness, creativity, talent and workmanships.

I got the same feelings when visiting your blog. And I know it borings my husband, coz I can get freezed in front of the monitor for hours! :D

:)

Psst... I'm planning a giveaway. It is called Suka-suka Giveaway! It's not stamp, that's why I call it sukasuka. Haha. Dedicated to my regular readers. Watch out for my next update alright!

No Title

I'm still in debt with many people...I mean work, services I promised them. If one day I die and fail to deliver them, please halalkan k. I also still owing email replies. Kerja-kerja pejabat pun banyak yang menunggu, kepada yang mempunyai perniagaan sendiri, mereka akan tahu apa yang perlu dibuat sebelum 31 Januari setiap tahun. I promised that I will arrange payment for zakat perniagaan, dan (baru teringat) lesen perniagaan perlu diperbaharui. I have mentioned to my boss, that I'm willing to cut 1/3 of my salary if he can provide an assistant for me in the office (so I can concentrate more on Mangosteenskin) but he said, "We'll see". Based on my experiences, that would most probably means, "No". Nevermind, I take it as a challenge to overcome my own weeknesses.

Maybe this year I need to create serious guidelines for myself and future customers. I need to come up with certain rules for Mangosteenskin, like restricting up to 10 orders only per month. Or, maybe 5 for a beginning. I want to reserve more time for reading, chores, religious-aspects and family....or maybe "family-planning". Haha. I have great experiences trading creative products and services in 2009, and hopefully this year I will be more mature when dealing with stuffs.

I made a drawing recently. It supposed to be for one of my customer but since she wants to put her order on hold, now my idea is, maybe I can use this drawing for other purpose. Not sure yet. I just hope I can do more drawing in 2010.

I had problem sleeping due to bad flu and cough few days ago. So I woke up and started carving. No mood to carve actually, but it's just something to distract my mind from discomfortness. I've prepared the eraser for carving earlier but I was so scared of the small wordings. Afterall, I can't go back to sleep so took the chance to continue my work. I love the silence and yeah, I really took all the time. When finished, I tested the stamp on paper and


They turned out quite well! It's a new achievement and I almost teary! You know, sometimes when I commit myself to a customer's request, I don't even know whether I can do it or not. But I like to give a shot first, before saying no.



Below are my other completed and progressing works.

Okay, that's all for now. Till next update.

It's Christmas

...and it surely marks the approaching end of the year.

Here's few works done during my absence.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WIP: Shelby's Wedding Stamp

Been carving from 5.30pm -11.o0pm. The carving process is very slow as the details are so tiny. I do take short break once in a while, but around 10.30 I start to feel dizzy and nauseatic so I stop carving and lie on the floor. I grab one inkpad to test the stamp, and take pictures while still lying down.

Handle

An old work I just completed recently. I used the mini mini mini stamp set to decorate the top side of the mounting with extra wooden handle. Nurain, pinjam kejap k! Hehe.

The handle is my husband's brilliant suggestion. So proud of you, darling!

Stamped Stuffs

Fridge magnet.

Made of shell and some buttons from last year's Christmas gift from my brother. The letters are made using this alphabet stamp set.

Bought it at RM12 something at Popular bookstore.

My mini stamp artwork! Made into a small plaque. The rooster stamp is one of my mom's favourite.

It suppose to be a keychain, but I never use it as keychain. I used it once as pincushion.


This is my current notebook where I jot down my to-do-list. I stamped my husband's name on it(hm...perhaps should add R and S behind the M, so it would become Mrs. Khairuldin kan? Hihi). He suggest that I color the background of a mounting, so I experiment using a stamp I made for him recently.

Sweet

Two new stamps carved on Friday night.

Trisya's!

And Nadia's!

A new experience with "khat" design (it writes Nadia & Azree).

November 8th Saturday palm reading.

Succesfully carved stamps just make my day..

Just a little mishap while cutting the wood :)

From Tri-color to Monotonous

If somebody ask you to carve a stamp for a logo like this, how would you do it? This logo might look simple and easy, but how to create a single stamp that will give an impression of three different colours? For this kind of logo, the colors are important elements.

Another challenge is, the customer require the stamp to be in a specific measurement. My problem is, the size of the text is already small, so reducing the logo to the required size will proportionally reduce the text to something much much smaller. Again, for a logo like this, I think it is important to produce a crisp and neat carving rather than rustic or wavy cuts.

I almost say "No, it is impossible to do it handcarved", to the customer, but at the same time I still want to give it a try. It would be a new experience.

So I carried out my first attempt. I spend hours trying my best on it but as soon as I finished, I'm certain that using the cross-line (as to distinguish two different colored background) is a huge mistake. The text is also unsatisfactory.

I come up with a second solution, and this time the customer agree coz it resembles their logo better than the first one.

As usual, carving the wordings is the most challenging part. I took the longest time on it but I still can't get it perfect. Argh.. Sampai terpeleot jari masa carve "B" untuk "Bersatu" tu.

Miniature Artwork

Remember how matchbox labels look like?

Wahahahahahahahahaha....I feel so inspired!! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!!! From artwork, to stamp, and back to artwork again!

I experiment with one of my earliest handmade stamp. And, tadaa!!!... Mangosteenskin's original miniature artwork! It is done 100% using my handcarved eraser stamp.

My husband said I was talking in my sleep last night but he couldn't understand what I was mumbling about. It must be because of THIS, because I almost can't sleep due to over-excitedness!

Some WIP

Trying hard to do commision jobs whenever I can. These are a couple of stamps am working on but I couldn't finish them as I've run out of raw materials for the mounting.
Small fonts still make me nervous. Before I start carving these kind of stamps, I usually take time to get physically, and mentally prepared.

And, another butterfly came...

to make friends with the blue one. Maybe they need more friends, don't you think? Lebih seronok main enjet-enjet semut.

Enjoy this page of my test-chop-prints ya.

When you finish carving a stamp, you need to see whether your work turns out well or not.

Editing photos using photoscapes is so quick and easy.

Ahh~ I just love round corners. Most of photos in the late 70's and early 80's are rounded-corners.

Round corners is nostalgic and it bring back happy childhood feelings. :)