Artwork Detail Information

All Add-Ons for FDCs issued prior

to my "First Cachet" are dated to show when they

were painted which clearly designates

each of them as being an Add-On Cachets.

Each Finished Cover is hand stamped on the

reverse side with the Emrick Cachet Logo.

Choosing a Stamp Issue

I would really like to do First Day Covers for ALL of the US stamps issued but because I still hold down a VERY FULL time job I have to pace myself and choose carefully which stamps I want to work on.

I basically choose issues that the subject of the stamp would be widely sought after.

As I have gained experience I am now more or less going by what is

requested and obtaining the suitable FDC "Blanks" as needed...

... leaving the choice up to my Customers.

Purchase and Affix Stamps
Send them off for Cancels

Once I've decided to make cachets

for a stamp issue I must first obtain blank

covers & stamps, place the stamps on

covers and send them off for cancellations.

The Designs

A lot of careful consideration goes into the actual design. I start out doing research on the subject at hand and begin forming several ideas. I search out photos and images that can be used as elements in the whole design and start forming design patterns that will fit the available space on the covers.

I then start making rough sketches. After several of these I hit on the one that I like best. I then go for the "Final Drawing".

This is then scanned to a file on my Mac.

I "clean it up" using Photoshop Elements and set size and position coordinates.

From here I can print a "key-line" drawing to use as a guide for placement on each individual cover... I then hand draw lightly the image on each cover and hand paint each one individually.

The Painting Begins!

I have turned our Breakfast Nook into a makeshift "Studio".

I even put two leafs into the breakfast table and bought a nice cart to hold my ever growing stash of art supplies.

I have at my disposal everything from watercolors, water based oils, acrylics, pastel pencils,

oil pastel sticks, india inks, watercolor pencils, artist grade colored pencils and even bought an airbrush.

Painting as I go...

I have found that it works best for me to "Paint as Ordered" rather than try to paint inventory for sale later.

I have a very constant flow of projects coming in and normally have MANY, MANY covers on the Schedule at any given time.

I ask my Customers to send Payment in
advance to get their project on the Schedule.

I recently altered the Payment Process to eliminate tieing up my Customer's money over a long waiting period.
Please, see details on the Placing Order Requests page of this site.

The waiting period will vary depending on how many covers are on the schedule when you place your order.

I make it my goal to make the wait worthwhile!

Example of a Work in progress...

This project is not your usual cachet cover! My customer has a collection of these 10" x 13" envelopes with the entire sheet of the 1987 American Wildlife issue affixed. Cachet Makers apply illustrations on the border space around the stamps... as shown below on the one that I did for him.

Early stages on painting...

A little more work done...

A little more progress shown here...

IT'S FINISHED!!! Had a lot of fun with this one!

...By the way, there's one animal in the cachet artwork that isn't actually on any of the stamps... but I thought it should have been... so I slipped him in anyway... figured out which one yet? Click the image for a better look!

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Hand Drawn / Hand Painted Cachets