Shows, Sales, and everything else!

Tine for catching up!  Most immediately, we've got a big sale going on in the Artfire shop.  There's a coupon code for half-off everything in the "clearance sale!" category.  Also there's free shipping on everything right now.  The sale will run till Tuesday.

Other big news:  I'm graduating from my jewelry and metals program this winter!  Part of this process involves having a solo show, and mine will be on Friday, Dec 16th, at Wayward Coffeehouse, at Roosevelt and 65th in Seattle from 6pm to 9pm.  I even have a postcard for it!

All of the pieces featured on this postcard will be at the show along with some other spectacular things.

Speaking of things you haven't seen yet, here's another pendant:

I'm exceptionally pleased with the smoke effect from the double silk ribbon necklace.  I think I'm going to switch everything over to silk cords and ribbons.  At the least it will lend some consistency to my presentation.

Also, speaking of shows, I'm all lined up to be in the Dealers' Room at RustyCon January 20-22, 2012.  I've got my paperwork in for the Dealers' Room at Norwescon, but I don't know yet if I'm going to get a slot.  I should probably snag an art show table to feature some of my really spectacular pieces, just in case.
OryCon was a pretty fun show.  I seriously had the slickest, most professional display of all the 3D artists.

I sold a pendant and a print, and spent an awful lot of time at concerts.  Also, I think some of the northwest convention regulars are starting to recognize me.  :-)
I'm going to be away from home and studio for a couple weeks right after RustyCon for a desperately needed vacation, during which I'll be filling my personal twitter feed with pictures of things like pineapples full of rum.  With any luck I'll come back full of ideas and new solutions to vexing engineering problems.

That's about it for now.  There will be further updates on progress towards the graduation show.  If you're in the Seattle area at the time, feel free to stop in.

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.

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.

More New Things!

So I jumped and posted a few new things to Etsy, and a whole bunch of things to ArtFire, so Artfire now matches Etsy, and will hopefully no longer be the bastard step-child.  I am now offering enameled ivy buttons (more shapes to come), and cloak clasps will be added as soon as I sort out a few minor engineering issues.  I've got an ivy one mostly worked out, but am working on a spectacular clasp in which the 2 halves form to make one butterfly (probably worked in cloisonne).  I need to put more effort into carving for casting, as I think it might be a nice production/reproduction step for these things.

I am a bad, bad, blogger

Apologies for skipping last week.  I spent the weekend doing business research and having major personal revelations and was so exhausted I forgot to write.  The practical upshot of it all, though is that it is my goal to have work to fill at least one panel at the Norwescon Art Show (4/21-4/24).  I'm concentrating on the enamel/illustration part of my art, since I can make that on-topic (Sci-Fi/Fantasy, if you're wondering).  I intend to do more elemental panels to go with the "Creature of Air" mirror.  I don't know if I'm going to make mirrors of them, or just leave them flat wall pieces, but I do know that I'm going to photograph them and do prints.  So that's really the only big announcement I have.

All school, all the time (until next quarter)

The Final Critique in my 4th jewelry design class is Wednesday, and I was really concentrating far more on business than school at the beginning of the quarter, so now I'm making up for it by putting all of my energy into school.  I promise I'll post pictures of everything afterward.  As a teaser, I've been doing mirrors/mirror frames all quarter, and specifically looking at mirrors as scrying tools.  At least one of them is going to end up being kept for my own altar.

In business news, I'm starting to post some leaves on Etsy, but I don't have many available at the moment.  Some have sold, and a bunch are off at Blowing Sands, and I haven't had the time to cut out any more.  I've been looking at finding a fabrication facility to cut custom enameling blanks for me, but that's turning out to be quite expensive.  I have found what look like acceptable blanks for various leaf types available commercially, though.  I'll be ordering some to try it out. 
Also, I'm thinking about maybe starting to do some shows this coming year.  I'm looking at maybe a regular craft fair or two, but I'm mostly looking at sci-fi/fantasy type conventions and the like, as my enamels seem to be tending to the fantastic and whimsical, especially with the leaves.  If I manage to sort out a live appearance somewhere, y'all will be the first to know.

It's been another one of those weeks.  I had my first Etsy sale.  They bought the two best items in my shop, so I've been scrambling all week to replace them.  I don't think I've mentioned previously, but I'm still a student, currently attending 3/4 time (taking 10 hrs this quarter).  So between class and various forms of homework, I only get about 3 days a week in my own studio making things to sell, and things end up taking longer overall. I ended up making 4 new pendants, 2 planets and 2 moons.  One of each is now listed on Etsy, and the others have gone into a "Miniatures" display case that the Art Group at school is putting together for a few weeks.  At least this way more folks will see my stuff.  I'm also going to have quite a few entries in the silent auction at the end of November.

Anyway, back to what I've been up to:
I'm continuing to play around with engineering.  I'm bezel-setting everything right now, and it doesn't look quite as bad as I thought it would, though I'd prefer to go without the frames if I could.  The pieces for the moon-phase bracelet turned out to be scaled wrong, so that one's gong to be a choker/collar instead.  I completely forgot to take an in-process picture yesterday, but I should be able to do so tomorrow or Tuesday and then add it to this post.  I'll probably scale everything down and attempt a more bracelet-sized piece in a couple of weeks.

Business problems I *REALLY* need to work out soon:
What's next after Different Worlds?
What can I do at lower price points?

ETA 10/25/10:
The moon-phase choker in progress.  Hopefully it will be done tomorrow.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

I guess Sunday night will be my regular posting time.  It seems to work.

It has been a singularly unproductive week.  I was ill for quite a lot of it, and the change to cloudy weather always takes some getting used to.  So, I only have 3 pieces to show, and a certain amount of trepidation about the business part of the business, which I have to get started on this week.

Silver, garnet, pearl

 Another set of earrings.

Silver and pearl

I'm really liking that sort of lily-type flower shape.  This was based on a set of earrings that I made the week before last.

Silver, iolite

Yet *another* set of earrings, this one in a more contemporary style.

So, I've been making things.  What I haven't been doing is selling them.  I've got a shop on Etsy, and I'm about to launch on ArtFire, but I think what will really help is getting off my butt and shopping my stuff around to local boutiques.  Hopefully some kind owner will take pity on me and tell me whether it's just that I need to tweak what I'm doing a bit, or if my design sense is barking up the wrong tree entirely.

On the up-side, I just listed Entwined on Etsy.  We'll see how that goes.