The Artists

Chong came to this country from Korea when he was thirteen years old. He graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a major in printmaking and moved with his wife Judi to Holbrook, Massachusetts. There he worked for a company creating plates to emboss names and logos inside shoes as well as plates for greeting cards, perfume boxes and other applications.

Eventually, Chong and Judi moved to Great Cranberry Island off the coast of Maine to start a business creating plates for similar applications. A chance suggestion by an island neighbor prompted Chong and Judi to carve a metal plate to make their Christmas cards that year.

Their art is a real team effort.  Chong does the designing.  From the original idea he makes the working drawings and carves the design into a metal plate. Judi also studied printmaking and painting in college.  She does the press work (the actual embossing and coloring).  She makes some of the paper they use and marbles other papers as well.