Birthday gift to the Emerald Isle

We were recently contacted by an existing customer to make a Nafudakake as a birthday present. A nafudakake is an ideal gift because it shows you care. You have gone to the trouble to have something custom made which is pretty rare in this world of mass production.

We were also informed that the birthday was only 4 or 5 days away, a far bit inside our quoted turn round of 4 to 6 weeks ....

 The nafudakake was to incorporate the WTKO logo, the organisations stock kanji for their name, the recipients grade and finally the nafuda for his name.

The WTKO's kanji is imported to our graphics package and converted to a vector image. We then selected a font for the grade and name kanji that would complement the WTKO kanji. The font is bolder than our normal script or brush font but much closer to the WTKO kanji.

The nafudakake was completed within 5 days and posted out to Ireland, the nafuda were made from maple and wrapped in a black frame. It is very rare that we can turn a project round in a matter of days rather than weeks, but we do what we can.

If you have a project in mind just drop us an E Mail to sotosabisu@btinternet.com
Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Nafuda section shop page

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New addition to Dojo Kun range

We recently produced  a club dojo kun plaque for JKS Shogai Karate as a solid board rather than on individual nafuda (tiles). We incorporated the clubs name in kanji and a custom vector image logo we developed from a low resolution image a club member had sent us.

We started with the logo, importing it into our graphic design package, unfortunately the resolution was too poor and had to reproduced it from scratch. If we convert your "high resolution" image there is no charge for vector conversion. If we have to reproduce from scratch or design a logo for you we will discount this service by 50%.

Above is our graphic design of the logo and below is the finished product. The white of the shotokan tiger was converted to clear to allow the maple to show through.

 The plaque is made from 12mm mdf with a grade "A" veneer on the face and grade "B" balancer on the reverse. This is far more stable than a solid piece of maple; which would warp and crack in a centrally heated environment at this size. 

The panel was sanded down to 320 grade and a few coats of sanding sealer are added, it is then french polished before the graphics are added.

Above is the graphic design and below the finished product.

We were really pleased with the finished plaque and thought we would add it o our range. The plaque in its frame measures 498 x 357mm and retails for £179.00 including P&P to non premium UK post codes. You can also choose to have mirror plates added or a normal cord for picture hanging. If you would like to commission a dojo kun plaque for your dojo just drop us an E Mail to sotosabisu@btinternet.com

Dojo Kun Plaque - Type "A"
Size	Cost
Club or Association Dojo Kun with Logo 498 x 357 mm	£179.00
Special Offer Club or Association Dojo Kun with custom Logo at half price 498 x 357 mm	£199.00
Available in "block" or "brush" font
12 mm maple veneered mdf in black frame
"Click" to go to - Dojo Kun page
Europe / Worldwide Postage - £22
Payments by BACS or Pay Pal at 5% Premium

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Kun and Mokuroku section shop page

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Nafudakake for Texas Dojo

We recently completed a project for Hakkoryu Nintai Dojo in Woodlands Texas, a gift from two newly promoted dan grades to their dojo.

The client chose for the nafudakake to be made in maple with an black frame. The montage shows the graphic design process through to the Nafudakake hanging in the dojo.

When you commission a project you can be sure that you will end up with a unique piece of art that is simply not available anywhere else.

If you have a project in mind just drop us an E Mail to sotosabisu@btinternet.com
Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Nafuda section shop page

Top Tip
If you are accessing this site on your phone you may wish to view the "Web version" and access the menu in the side-bar to navigate. Just scroll down for the link.

Custom Hanko for Ensokan

I thought I would share a recent project completed for Ensokan Sogo Bujutsu Renmei where we produced a large custom self inking stamp. The client supplied a low resolution image of what they wanted and requested a large stamp that they could use on certificates.

Client supplied Graphic

We Imported the image into our graphic package so we could try and reproduce the border. Unfortunately the image was far too low a resolution. We converted the image to a vector image and then had to manually edit to correct node positions of just the top pattern. The bottom pattern was a mirror image.

We used a similar font to the original and inserted both katakana for the name and kanji for the title, rank, organisation and position. 教士 = Kyoshi, 六段 = 6th Dan, 円相館 = Ensokan and 会長 = Kaicho = president. 

Kai means association and a Dojocho is the owner of a dojo, Kaicho means president or chairman.

The finished stamp was 73.5mm x 37mm and is the largest stamp we have produced, it is not in our standard range and was costed separately for our client. All custom stamps are priced individually but as a guide a similar stamp with just a couple of hours graphic design would be around £60.00 inc P&P to UK non-premium post codes.

If you have a project in mind just drop us an E Mail to sotosabisu@btinternet.com
Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Hanko and Inkan section shop page

Top Tip
If you are accessing this site on your phone you may wish to view the "Web version" and access the menu in the side-bar to navigate. Just scroll down for the link.