Chop

The Chinese, equivalently Japanese, chop combines the ideograms that translate my name: Smith translates as smith, or artisan, or craftsman (the character is an ax hollowing out a wooden boat). Alvy is of uncertain origin so I translate it as white, as in albino, albumen, albedo, etc (see Irish connection). Ray translates as light.

 "White light smith" is both my name and my profession.

The upper three characters at left, surname first, are written in brush-style calligraphy. Their older bronze-style forms are combined and stylized to fit within the circular red chop below.  I obtained the old-style chop design in the title bar in 1998 from Jon Bei Cui, a chop designer working in the de Young Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.