Oriental Chops
by, Thrifty Stamper
If you follow my tutorials or columns you may have noticed that I often use the word "Chop". There was a comment on one of my blog posts this month questioning the use of the word.
A chop is a seal used in the orient. The first chops were created out of bone or wood. An artist would carve his/her name into the bone or wood to create a square that was then used an official "signature" instrument. The wood/bone was dipped in red cinnabar paste and pressed onto paper. The chops were used in the financial world as a signature. Today many chops are made out of plastic or metal.
Most traditional oriental art carries an artist's chop. The new stamp set called "Be Virtuous" has 4 chops.
I requested this set be made because I was drawing chops with a marker on my oriental cards. If you look closely you can see that these chops have oriental symbols instead of a name. They are left to right: Grace, Loyalty, Peace, Virtue. I think they are perfect for anyone who stamps oriental paper art!
Here is a card I made for this article. You can see that I featured the large Chop and then "signed" the card in the lower right corner with a small chop.
I made a full tutorial of this card. You can find it here:
http://mfpspeedytv.ning.com/page/tiger-chop-card
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