Out of Supply

The customer sent the headless couple as in above photo, but I afraid my stamp would look awkward if I continue carving as per requested. So I draw the head and add some simple details on the girl's dress. Glad she liked it.

These were the last stamps that I manage to complete before I realized that I am out of erasers!

Yeah,
you hear me right.

I don't have anymore erasers to carve! Since last January!

Ibarat penoreh getah yang kehabisan pokok getah untuk ditoreh.

Begitulah.

Manchester United Stamp

All I can say is just,

"Fewh!"

Handcarved Stamp; Eppi & Eppa

Lagi stamp orang kahwin. Saya harap Aifa dan bakal suaminya suka!

Setiap kali saya mengerjakan sesuatu design, saya amat mengambil berat tentang detail sesuatu stamp. Kalau boleh, ianya bukan setakat perlu nampak cantik, tapi signifikan kepada sesuatu yang membawa makna.

Contohnya, dalam stamp ini, saya sengaja letak 7 biji "love". Saya tak tahulah logiknya, tapi ramai orang kata 7 itu nombor yang baik kan?

:)

Dyah & Ratahtuli Degalin's Cuppies

...the founder of Ratahtuli Degalin's Cuppies, akan tukar status beliau bulan Mei ini. Horray!

Congratulations to both of you!

Sebenarnya Dyah dah order lama sangat untuk stamp Ratahtuli Degalin's Cuppies, tapi mula-mula saya design lain. Dyah suka juga dengan design yang pertama, tapi dia kata macam ni, "Kalau Dyah request tikus Ratatouille tu dan cupcake sebijik boleh? Then nak letak blog address dan nombor talipon".

Gulp.

Ingatkan dah boleh proceed ukir tapi nampaknya kena re-design. Saya taip balik "Yes" kepada Dyah. Dalam kepala ada "Alamak...boleh ka aku buat ni?!!".

Persoalannya; macammana nak masukkan si Liguini dan sebijik cupcake dalam stamp yang kecil tu?

*Dipendekkan cerita.

Apa-apapun, sekarang saya lega. Tak perlu lagi terjaga di tengah malam dan meracau-racau tentang tikus kecil ini. Hahahahaha.

Design asal dan design yang terkemudian. :)

Berkacang-kacang dahulu...

Bersusah-susah kemudian.

During my closed-for-commission period, I actually manage to catch up with office work but not my stamp projects. My plan has failed :( Mengikut rancangan, masa itu sepatutnya digunakan untuk mengerjakan projek stamp habis-habisan. Tahu tak, saya rasa macam tercekik tongkol jagung setiap kali teringat ada customer yang sudah berbulan menunggu order mereka siap.

I tried as much as possible, juggling tasks between stamp and office works, and not to forget, membuat kerja-kerja kebajikan di rumah. April also seemed to be a month di mana saya telah makan dengan sangat baaaaaaaanyak sehingga perut saya buncit dan baju-baju saya sendat (eh terkeluar tajuk pulak).

Ada sebijik stamp ni, sudah 3 biji pemadam besar saya korbankan, sudah banyak "tarikan nafas" yang saya skipped kerana terlalu berhati-hati, sampai mungkin ada sel-sel dalam badan saya ni yang mogok kekurangan oksigen... tapi stamp itu tetap gagal mencapai piawaian saya sendiri. Saya rasa stamp itu adalah stamp jahat, kerana ia telah membunuh keghairahan saya dalam arena ukiran stamp dan selepas 3 kali "turned off", keyakinan saya tercalar. Sedikit-sebanyak, itulah juga punca disaster yang menyebabkan saya gagal mencapai target. Hilang motivasi maa...

Sementara mengumpul kekuatan untuk bertarung semula dengan stamp jahat itu, saya mengalihkan tumpuan kepada stamp-stamp yang lebih kacang. Jangan risau, saya bukannya sedih-sedih. Saya sedang gembira sakan nih.

Tuan2 dan Puan2 sekalian... mempersembahkan, dua design stamp terkini... siri Koleksi Raja Sehari Kulitmanggis!!! *drum roll ~ Tush!!*

Kek ini tiada dijual di mana-mana, kerana bahan-bahannya adalah daripada jus perahan otak saya sendiri.

Marzukie. Asal sebut Marzukie saja mesti teringat bekas Cegu Bahasa Inggeris saya dulu, made in Machang Kelate. Bila sebut manggis, adakah anda teringat saya? Ini soalan umum bukan khusus buat Cegu Marzukie sa-orang hahahahahahahaha.

P/S: Janganlah nafsu anda tercalar pulak untuk terus bertandang dek kerana entri saya yang tiba-tiba sewel. Sebelum blog ini jadi blog arts & crafts, blog ini lebih kurang beginilah. Sebagaimana telah saya beritakan kepada kawan rapat saya, saya rasa mungkin saya sudah tua. Jadi saya malas mahu berfikir banyak, buat sajalah ikut rasa.

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 :)

Two New Stamps...

...one new set of actoknife, one new desk lamp and a feverish husband.

Aiming to complete all the task...well, at least as much as possible. My carving knife has gone blunt, and I only realize after I tried to make some touching up...it tear up the rubber, instead of slicing through it. Took longer time to finish these two stamps because of the less-sharp knife. Luckily Jingnee and Alia provide me the designs so I can straight away do the carving. The designs, as provided by Alia and Jingnee...I made some adjustment to Jingnee's logo though...and below, are the carved stamp. If you noticed, I made mistake with the A initial on Alia's apron. Aiyooo...yo.

Earlier today I went to buy a new set of knife. Have to buy the whole set eventhough I already got more than 5-6 handles... Why they don't sell blades (only)?

I also bought a desk lamp. I use to do my carving at night, and seeing the details has always been a struggle. The fluorescent lamp in the living room is not bright enough. However, I left the lamp inside the car, I think it has been quite a habit. Everytime I bought something new for myself, I often hid it from my husband maybe a day or two. I'm not sure if he know this, but I think he don't know. Haha.

So that's it. I only have one day left for this weekend. But my husband caught by fever and men, they apparently behave like kids when they fall ill, don't they? I have to take up a new job...

...a nurse.

Latest Work

I managed to produce a couple more stamps during the weekend. Enjoy looking at the pictures!