Using the signature, calligraphy, and seal as integral parts of composition in painting is uniquely Chinese. To authenticate and to show approval of his work, the artist uses a personal seal in red along with his signature ink.
In addition to the personal signature and seal, most traditional Chinese brush artists use seals to enhance their compositions.
OAS is proud to offer our patrons to the opportunity to have a Chinese name created for their masterpieces, as well as the service of having your Chinese name carved on a soapstone piece by an artist in China.
Artist Seals are traditionally carved as a square shaped positive imprint where the characters are in red with a background of white. However, we have found over the years some of our patrons deviate from traditions! Therefore, we also offer to carve your seal in the negative form where the characters are in white and the background is red. OAS also offers a variety of shapes including oval. Oval shaped imprints can be carved in two ways: REGULAR which is symmetrical approximately 1- 1/8" long x 13/16" wide or IRREGULAR which has similar measurements as our REGULAR option, but the shape will be asymmetrical, leaving it up to our seal artist to choose from his own availability.
Regular and irregular stones are based on the availability of the seal carver. We will do our best to try to get your request. Lately, it's been difficult to get irregular shapes, but OAS will do our best to make the request.
Remember as stated on our Artist Name Seal Page, please remember that because these seals are made overseas and shipped to OAS, our policy is to place orders with our carver in batches. This means from the time you place your order for a seal, it may take anywhere from 4-10 weeks for your seal to reach you. We know that customers are anxious to receive such a special item, so if you place an order for a Name Seal, feel free to check in with us from time to time to see where we are on our seal order process, and when you can expect your seal to arrive.