I know people are curious sometimes about who the people are behind the anonymous-looking website. Impression Obsession was formed in March 1998 by Mitra Friant and Charmaine Jackson, two high school teachers who thought it would be fun to run a stamp business part-time after school. We published our first stamp catalog with 92 images in August, 1998 and we were off and running.
We had a lot of success with that first catalog and continued adding images (and customers) until the company became too busy to be a part-time job. In September, 1999, I (Mitra) quit teaching and started working at the stamp business full-time. Charmaine, meanwhile, had a baby and decided to continue teaching so she got out of the stamp business.
2011 will mark 13 years in business...I can't believe it! IO has come a long way since then. We now have over 5000 images in production at any given time and have expanded into offering clear stamps and more recently cling stamps (stamps with gray cushion that temporarily stick to acrylic blocks). We are proud to offer designs from Alesa Baker Designs, Heart Art Studios, Melissa Gordon, Leigh Hannan, Gary Robertson, Gail Green, Claudia Tenorio-Pearl, Kalani Allred, Hannah Davies, and Joanne Fink. With so many different artists, we offer stamps in a wide range of styles. There is truly something for everyone at Impression Obsession.
I am helped (greatly) by 5 full-time and one part-time employees who work in our warehouse pressing rubber, trimming dies, indexing wood, and packing orders. I truly can't remember what it was like when Charmaine and I made all of the stamps ourselves (I think I've blacked the memory out). I'm lucky to have a great staff who has stuck with me (several of them for years and years) through all the ups and downs that come with running a small business.
It's been a great ride so far and we're still going strong. 2012 will bring lots of new products, new designs, and new techniques. Happy stamping!
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