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.

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.

The other side.

For those of you who were not previously aware:  I am not all sweetness and light.  I often have odd turns of mind, and frequently take commissions and pursue projects that have edges - or in this case, points.  The next addition to my production offerings will be claws.

Copper and brass, finished, from left to right, as shiny, brushed, and hammered, with a second hammered texture in copper.

nickel claws, shiny, brushed, and hammered

It should be noted that the nickel ones were a one-off request and won't be going into regular production due to concerns with allergies and toxicity.

Anyway, these are going to be my first real experiment in serious production work.  I've designed blanks that I'm going to send out to be commercially punched, so I only have to worry about forming and finishing in-house (and I'd really like to have personal control over those no matter what).  It will be an interesting experiment.

New Year

Happy New Year, everyone!

Sadly I don't have a lot of new to report, as I spent this week battling The Head-Cold That Ate Cleveland, rather than actually working.  I got a little bit of clean-up done at the studio before I was felled, and my test-batch of commercial enameling blanks arrived.  Hopefully I'll get to finish with the clean-up, and do some test-pieces with the blanks tomorrow, so I can have some momentum back when school starts on Tuesday.  I'm considering, for school this quarter, doing a series of pieces based on antlers/horns.  We shall see.