Cat, cat, cat

A new custom pet portrait stamp - now in its new home in Norway :)

The last is the original photo provided by the customer - 

:) 

/Tian

More Hand-carved Goodies

While I'm working on a new linocut (check out the process on my Instagram), I made a couple of custom stamps -

Elizabeth was inspired by a post on Wedding Chicks and commissioned me to make this stamp for the little muslin favor bags. This stamp measures app. 3" x 3" and took about 3 hours to carve. 

A custom address stamp. The customer requested a stamp with typography "fancy enough for wedding invitations", so here is what I came up with.

You can get persnalized address stamps here - I just added a few variants to the listing and it'll be much easier for you to order :)

If you are interested in making your own stamps, take a look at the tools I use. I've covered them in my previous posts here.

Have a great week! /Tian

New Kid Portrait Stamps

I was commissioned to make two kid portrait stamps - it's fun to study their faces; they are very different from adults :)

Customize your child's first portrait stamp here. 

New Logo & Portfolio Site

If the path to become a successful artist is like climbing a mountain, I feel like I've just built my base camp. I purchased gantian.se a while ago and have been building my portfolio site one brick at a time, and now it's on!

So, take a look - if you see something that looks weird or spots a spelling mistake somewhere, I would love to know - I might have been working on this long enough to develop a blind spot or two :) 

I completed the logo before the website and have grown quite into it since. My Chinese name is 甘甜(ɡān tián, family name and then given name), which also happens to be an adjective meaning sweet. 

I wanted to incorporate my name in the logo without it looking too Chinese. Starting with a few basic pencil sketches, I decided to try out different colors, fonts and layouts in Photoshop instead. 

I did some crowd-sourcing on my personal FB page (thanks, guys!) and finally decided to go with the first one. To my eyes, it's the most interesting design of all four, but why stop there? Or, what's a printmaker without a handmade logo?

I carved out the design with the 甜/tian in two different boldness so I have more to work with digitally.

I scanned the imprint, cleaned it up a little, duplicated the right part and added color in Photoshop - bright red and blue combined with a very dark gray.

I made a vertical and a horizontal logo for different purposes. Right now on my portfolio site I'm using the horizontal design above the top navigation bar. 

Et voilà! You'll find process photos on my portfolio page with some other logos I designed. If you like what I do and would like me to be a part of a project you're working on, get in touch: email me, or use the contact form on the right :) 

Happy Easter!

/Tian

Two New Designs Available

Just listed two custom stamps in the shop -

1. Arrow and heart, a custom monogram stamp. I see this as the bigger version of the heart in this design :)
   
   
   
   
   
2. Tie the knot, custom stamp with names. I've been wanting to make a stamp with this motif for a while, so voilà :)
   
   

   

   
   

Dead Astronaut Ex Libris, stamp

In my last post I wrote and put pictures about how I sketched for the custom dead astronaut Ex Libris stamp; in this one you'll see how I carved it - with my Pfeil gouges fresh from Switzerland, which are probably the best things I've bought in a while.

I transferred the design to a piece of Speedy Carve; the design measures just under 8 x 6 cm. I had to test the new gouges (the ones with mushroom-like handles) on a small piece of rubber (top left) first to get myself a little familiar with them, but their blade is so long, smooth and round to the touch, and they are very nice to hold. They are all wonderfully sharp and leaves perfectly clean cuts in the rubber. I'm pretty sure I'll abandon my old gouges once I save up some money to buy the Pfeil in more sizes/models.

I also color-coded the two small gouges (a V and a U) with marker pens. Look very nice too I think.

I had a woodcut-like effect in my head so I wanted to use the gouges as much as I could. I ended up only carving the name and the UFO (it's just too small) with the scalpel (white one). 

The stamp took me about 2 hours to carve - almost non-stop. Sketching took longer, which usually is the case with custom designs like this. I've not been happy with my new office chair, but I've just ordered a Mabef desk easel so hopefully it'll give my neck and back an easier time 

Here's the completed stamp! (And the Pfeil knives are just so beautiful, aren't they?)

Here's a bigger image with more details. It's one of my favorite works so far, and the whole communication with Franz, the sketching and carving was just so much fun.

If you'd like to order a custom Ex Libris stamp too, feel free to contact me using the form on the right :) I love commissions like this. 

Greetings from a dead astronaut far away! 

Hercules Ex Libris Stamp

Here's a new Ex Libris stamp I made for a lawyer and his book collection. 

The design is based on the Hercules statue created by William Brodie around 1863. 

I've been challenging myself with sketching and carving intricate Ex Libris designs. Since I haven't had large chunks of time to work on prints, I've been having a lot of fun making these. 

Below are some pictures of how the sketch turned into a stamp. I'm very lucky to have a customer who likes my work and trusts me artistically, which always make the process even better. 

If you'd like to order a custom stamp, you can use the contact form on the right :)

Anchor & Daisy Wedding Stamp Design

I made one for Ruth and Marc. Marc works on ships and their wedding theme is land and sea.

Here are some photos to show you the process.

P.S. If you would like me to create a personalized stamp for your wedding, feel free use the contact form on the right.

The initial pencil sketch.

Half way done carving the stamp, using Speedy Carve and a small v-gouge.

The completed stamp, mounted on a piece of unfinished wood.

Mmm. 

Been working on a very big project recently - hopefully I can complete and share with you in a few days :)

New Look in the Shop

I uploaded a few product images in the shop - the front page and custom stamp page look a little different now and I'm happy.

If you could kindly ignore my inability to get consistent white balance, here are some of the new photos. You can find higher resolution photos on the product pages.

Animal & Name/Initials of Your Choice -

Custom Ex Libris/Bookplate Stamp - 

Custom Business Logo Rubber Stamp -

Personalized Portrait, Hand-carved Rubber Stamp - 

Custom Pet Portrait Rubber Stamp - 

Hand-printed wrapping paper

I had been toying with the idea of stamping my own wrapping paper even before I found out we were going to have a big family Christmas dinner that presumably involves a gift pile under a proper tree. Then I realized if I was ever going to print some wrapping paper, this would be the Christmas to do so.  

This would be your standard magazine shot. 

Upon request, Anton dug out a huge roll of kraft paper from the garage. I wan't sure how lighter colors would show on the paper, so I decided to keep it simple and print in black. We ditched the idea of making regular snowflake or deer head stamps and went with 1) two stamps of our beautiful faces and 2) a smaller stamp saying God Jul (Merry Christmas in Swedish). 

The smaller stamp gave the final result a modern and chic feel and made us seem less like narcissistic brats who give our presents covered with only their faces. 

Oops. 

Anyway - I made all three stamps one morning, went home and we started stamping away. 

You talking to me?

Our gifts vary quite a bit in size, so I printed the stamps closer for smaller gifts and further apart for bigger boxes, using both Brilliance's Graphite Black and StazOn's Jet Black to print the wrapping paper. Brilliance is very easy to clean with just water while StazOn is an archival ink that will stain your stamp, unless you use their stamp-cleaner. I don't recommend mixing these two kinds of ink pads if you want to keep your stamps all clean and pretty, but ink residue on my own stamps doesn't really bother me. 

Printing this wrapping paper can be quite mesmerizing. 

It was a nice & sunny day - which you don't see a lot this time of the year here in Stockholm - and couldn't resist bringing these out to the garden and have a magazine-worthy photo session. The afternoon sun was low and warm but there were still traces of new-fallen snow on the terrace. 

Printing enough wrapping paper for our presents (including two other that we wrapped the second day) took less than 30 minutes; I don't think our presents could look any better. 

Tie these babes up with some twine for a rustic finishing touch. Or not.

If you have any questions about the process, leave a comment below, or head over to my Facebook page and stay in tune with my creations. 

Want to get printing, but still looking for some personalized rubber stamps? I'll make one for you! You can find geeky, cute and classic designs in my shop, or commission one by emailing me today. 

Got some red and green from our trees too. 

Happy holidays! :)

/Tyr

This year's first "julbord"

I shipped all these packages yesterday - they will be the last batch to non-EU countries that will make it before Christmas. Now I can finally catch a breath!

May the Force guard you all the way to your new owners.

I sent out all the photos of the custom stamps this morning, then it's time for my new office's julbord this year. Julbord translates literally to Christmas table and features the highlights of Swedish cuisine including a variety of fish (various pickled herring, smoked and baked salmon), Christmas cheese, Christmas ham, meatballs (of course), Janssons frestelse (Jansson's temptation, a traditional Swedish casserole), beetroot salad, potatoes and more. 

Weeks of very hard work gave me good reasons to justify my over-eating. 

As usual, here are some stamps I shipped out yesterday -

Anna makes adorable little felt mice. She wanted a custom logo stamp for her Etsy shop, As Nice As Mice, with her favorite mouse, Archibald, with his little glasses and waist coat.

Here's Archibald. Photo from Anna's Etsy shop. 

Here is the custom logo stamp I created for Anna! It measures about 5cm or 2" tall.

Here's a tiny stamp for Tyrone who owns an English brunch place called Greasy Spoon in Södermalm, Stockholm. This tiny stamp of their logo is the second one I made for them.

This little one is roughly 1cm or 3/8" wide.

And a new portrait stamp! This is how a hand-carved custom portrait stamp comes together - from photo, to sketch, then into a stamp :)

Mmm. Off to enjoy a well-deserved weekend! 

New studio, yay!

I moved to a new studio!

It's in the center the island Lidingö, a modest 11 square meters. I have moved in my smaller computer desk and the bigger one (on the left)  for when I sketch, carve or print. I built some simple wall-hanging shelves on the right. Apart from the two windows you see, there's a large glass wall facing the outside - that's where our fika area and kitchen is.

Needless to say, I'm feeling peachy! This following week will be very busy with loads of Christmas orders, but after that I should have sometime to make a few prints.

Anyway, I'm posting pictures of my recent custom hand-carved rubber stamps - I shipped this many last week - and you know where the shop is if you'd like to order one :)

The first is Ann's stamp. She's the awesome snake/reptile rescue lady from Australia. Ann won my last portrait stamp giveaway and this is the prize - her personalized portrait stamp.

Ann's stamp actually took two attempts. I wasn't happy with the first version's python so I had to make a second one. It turned out great though!

Then there are two very small stamps: a 1 cm mouse and a 3 cm pelican.

Another two portrait stamps of two very different ladies -

A custom text stamp for wedding invitations -

And a custom logo rubber stamp for Karyn. She's based in Mjölby, Sweden and makes goat milk soap!

As usual, you can find out about giveaways and Christmas offers on my Facebook page :) Have a good day!

Confessions of a Stamp Maker

It has 259 days since my last blog entry.

So, what have I been up to? I've designed logos, illustrated book covers, made prints and of course, carved a lot of stamps. I've also moved back to Lidingö, but will very soon be moving to a new studio space there on the island. I took part in Hem och Villa (Home & Villa) convention in Stockholmsmässan, and made a lot of new friends.

Carved stamps and their wood mounts waiting to be put together

But I'll take it one step at a time. I will try to update this blog more frequently and record my new projects better, and as for now, I'd like to share some of my recent stamps :)

I've made portrait stamps for one person and for couples:

And logo stamps - simplistic, with loads of details and also big ones for business cards:

Considering how inactive I've been on all social networking sites/apps except for Facebook, I've been quite surprised and very grateful that you guys could still find me and ask for personalized stamps! :)

I'll find out Christmas shipping deadlines from the Swedish Post and plan things a little for this Christmas. Maybe some new designs in the shop? Mmm...

Till then, happy crafting!