Seal Carving

Korea National Museum sponsored a seal carving class for foreigners to familiarize foreigners with the long-term cultural practice of using a seal instead of a signature to show authority, status, power, wealth, and so much more. Even now seals are used in bankbooks, to sign contracts, and for professional and financial reasons, not to mention their heavy use in most art forms. 

I'd already taken the seal-carving class from Korea National Museum but thought I would join again, because artists need many seals to sign off on their work, and in particular calligraphers need three seals: 

• the mood seal to express sentiment, season, or mood of a work's creation (can be either yin or yang design)
• the name seal in yin design
• the 호 or nickname/artist name seal in yang design

name seal, yin design
(must be stamped first or above the yang design nickname/artist name seal)

Since I had commissioned a mood seal to be carved in Chinese character with the meaning "the overflowing of creativity", and had already designed my yin name seal, I still needed the yang nickname/artist name seal ... so I joined the class.

My Korean name Min Se-ra, given to me long long ago but never really used, is the name that I can pick out of any conversation and answer to. I identify with it and claim it as my artist name so today I completed my set ... Now I just need time to write calligraphy, or paint pictures (although for painting using one seal is quite appropriate).

penname/artist name, yang design
(the yin and the yang design of real and artist name balance each other;
yin supersedes yang and is always stamped first)

A design, date or mood etching is always put in the thumb position on the body of the seal, so the person using it can easily pick it up and know he/she will always stamp with it in the proper upright position.

This gold pigment was rubbed into the side etching to give it a professional high-class appearance.

In our class a Vietnamese woman was particularly talented with brush and calligraphy ink. We were all told to write a postcard and stamp it with our new seal, but this lady went all out with her simple yes graceful pictures of bamboo and traditional Vietnamese settings, which she stamped and gave to whoever wanted one. She was very controlled with her brush.