Wednesday, February 29, 2012

...Plastics...

Y'all remember this in-progress carved acrylic piece?


Well, it eventually got finished:

I'm reasonably pleased, but I'm probably going to go back in with the heat gun and take out a little bit of the curve. I'm working with other colors of acrylic as well:

I really liked doing these hairpins, and (while I admit they're a bit crude) I think they're pretty good for having been completely free-handed in a couple of hours. They've been tested in my crazy hair, and I didn't manage to break any of them, so they're structurally sound. The "ivory" pins have been useful, but I'll probably put an antique finish on them before I declare them done-done.  The "tortoiseshell" is a somewhat more vexing problem.  That pin was cut from a sample that took nearly 2 months to arrive, and I have reason to doubt the dependability of the manufacturer. Unfortunately, they're the only people I could find offering marbled-pattern acrylic sheets in reasonable sizes (next best minimum order is five 4'x8' sheets).  So negotiations will continue and hopefully this will work out.  I really want to have the "tortoiseshell" to work with.


Monday, February 13, 2012

And winter proceeds apace...

January was interesting, exciting, and incredibly busy.  It was mostly getting ready for the dealers' room at RustyCon, which was a whole different animal than my usual con experience. First, there was having to take an art show display and turn it into a booth:


It still needs a little bit of polish and some more lights, but I love that I have a banner now.  The young man ducking down in the back is my friend Nick, who was lending assistance.

Then there was getting the promotional giveaways ready, which involved pressing 500 buttons:

Having Zazzle print 500 tags:

and then combining them into complete swag bag inserts:

That took the better part of an afternoon, and I learned some lessons about print layout for these things.

After that was the final pre-show creative push, where I had a really good kiln day and tried out some new styles (I'm exceptionally proud of the tiger stripes):








Then, much to my chagrin, we were snowed in for several days:

We were in fact snowed in right up until the last possible moment to load in for the show.
We did alright at the show. Mostly sold claws, but if you had your eye on Directions #2,
I'm sorry, but it's found a new home.

Two days after RustyCon, I went on desperately needed vacation, and came back well refreshed. The last week or so has been spent trying to close my accounting books for 2011 so I can do taxes.  I'm almost done with that.
So, the next few weeks will hold listing the new stuff on Artfire, making more new stuff, adding some more storage to the studio (and possibly getting a new/modified bench), finishing accounting, and getting geared up for NorwesCon at the beginning of April. Here's hoping it all goes smoothly.