This post has been a long time in the making. The making of this Maker’s Mark! My Graphic Designer and all around gal pal Betsy Mortenson has been working with me for a year or so. While the process isn’t that long in and of itself – working around her schedule, my schedule… you see the time frame now!

I had long wanted a mark/stamp that I could use on tiles, on packaging, across the board. But I am working in so many mediums, and with so many themes… the question was how to find one clear and simple icon that summed up “ME”? Enter Betsy – who has talent, skills and experience in this field. Here is is:

Half inch initial stamp for pendants and 1′ makers mark/initials for tiles & tags

2″ designs for muslin bags and boxes

Betsy was divine! We would lunch, I would ramble, she would extrapolate real info from y over caffeinated musings. She anted to know whose packaging I liked… my first thought was Rachel of Dida Metals. Her logo is clear, and uniquely hers. It related to her personally, but you do not need that background info to appreciate the clear graphic quality. Rachel uses this logo on all her cards and packaging – as a “brand” should be!

Dida metals: my packaging inspiration and metals friend.

We played with a goddess motif and a hare motif. Clearly the hare won. Not a bunny – thats cuter, whimsical… and that is not the brand identity I wanted. Hares are more mythic: from fables to tall tales, to totems. Betsy had me pinpoint specific hare shapes:

Selecting the specific tilt and shape…

Evolution of an idea. Images (c) Betsy Mortenson.

From my chicken scratch in m y notebook, and from my Lunar hare tile… the idea was born! Its so wonderful! I have a gross of muslin bags to stamp as my new jewelry bags. ( Where I put them safely in my studio is another question. ) I have happily stamped my most recent tiles with my mark – and even these lino print cards! In the future I will glaze the marks on the tiles – it was so new to me I forgot! And the 1″ size is great for jewelry hang tags. The overall look was partially inspired by Asian “chop” marks. These two can be stamper with overlapping corners as well, for a more unified presentation.

All in all I couldn’t be more thrilled. This is really a soft launch of my new brand identity… but one step at a time. You will be seeing more of this in the future. When I can – I plan to have the initials made into a custom metal stamp for my jewelry pieces. I would love to hear your comments!