There is something ethereally transcendent about the sun and moon coming together as one. It is a popular symbol in tattoo art, jewellery, tarot cards and more. Let me share with you some snippets of the design process for this stamp.

I find it easiest and quickest to sketch out the different ideas floating around in my head using pencil and paper first, then refine the components using my iPad and Apple pencil.

To create the repeating patterns for the sun rays, I used Adobe Illustrator, and fiddled around until I ended up with a shape that I liked. Here you can see the initial design I came up with but later ditched, because the sun's face would've ended up too small once it'd been engraved.

For the half moon and sun to really stand out, I had to think about how black fill would translate in terms of engraving depth and create contrast (with the sun) in the wax.

(Above): We created a video showing the wax stamp and mixed gold wax in action.

(Right, and below): I asked for help on Instagram with naming this new colour and received so many inspiring suggestions.

In the end, I chose 'Amber Gold' because I felt that this name conveyed the yellow and orange undertones well. As much as I drooled over the food-inspired names like 'toffee caramel', I was hesitant to name it as such, in case someone accidentally mistook it for candy and ate one. In any case, thank you all for your input - I value all your comments and suggestions!