Monday, February 28, 2011

Conventions and enamel astronomy!

The biggest news this week it that I've confirmed my travel plans and will definitely be at ApolloCon in Houston, TX, June 24-26.

The second-biggest news is that Claws are officially going into production!  I got the samples from my machinist today, and they're awesome and worth every penny.  So, look for copper, brass, and bronze claws available on Etsy and ArtFire soon (probably tomorrow or Wednesday).

The third-biggest news is pics of the solar system buttons.   I've got them displayed nicely on a piece of black velveteen in a shadow box frame with comets and an asteroid belt made of low-grade pearls.  They will be available for sale beginning at the ApolloCon Art Show.  they're each about 1" across, and I think I'm going to ask at least $300 for the set.

3/1 UPDATE:  This piece now has an official name.  It's called "One Sun, Nine Planets, Many Moons, Assorted Rocks"

Whole display with comets and asteroids
One radiant Sun
Mercury

Venus
Earth


Moon
Earth and Moon together

Mars
Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune
 And, last, but certainly not least (in my eyes):

Pluto



 I think that's all the news I have available for the time being.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

becoming legitamate, and other legal matters

I know I'm late again.  I'm probably going to change official posting day to Monday or Tuesday, so when I'm late, I'm not so terribly late.  My lame excuse this time is that I spent the weekend in Pasco, on the other side of the mountains, having my convention art show debut.  I didn't manage to sell anything, but learned a lot about lighting and display, and made a few connections.

The big news this week is that I'm going to go legit in the eyes of the law.  I'll be registering name/business with the state department, getting my sales tax #, and possibly even getting my city business license, too.  And that's just the local stuff.  I'm going to be trademarking name/logo as well.

In more creative news, I've finished the solar system buttons!  I'm not terribly happy with how the sun came out, but I'll live.  There should be pics of those in the next few days (they're taken, but not edited yet).  My first set of copper plates for the elemental creatures series arrived on Monday, so I should be able to get going on those in fairly short order.  I think I'll do a Seasons series next, and after that, I'll probably start a long, intermittent series of "species of firebird" (you know, fire peacock, fire hawk, fire sparrow, that sort of thing).

That is all the news for now.  Hopefully there will be pictures soon.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Changes?

So I have an interesting dilemma.  The current tag-line for the Studio is "Forged & Fired Jewelry & Accessories."  It's applicable and has been working.  Since I've started work on buttons, cloak clasps, and the like, I was thinking of changing it to "Jewelry, Accessories, and Other Fashion Hardware," particularly since these things are going to be the bulk of what I do (I'm currently negotiating a commission to do a whole solar system of buttons).  However, neither of these tag-lines cover the larger fine art pieces I'm planning, which, more likely than not, will be framed and purely decorative.  I want to keep everything under the same name, since it's all going to have a similar style, but I'm not sure what to call it.

Any ideas?

If anything actually changes, there may be some minor cosmetic changes to the site to match.