Creature of Fire got included in an ArtFire Collection!

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=25495

I like this kind of positive feedback.

Back from the dead

Ok, so I have a confession to make, and an apology to go with it.    I have been known to suffer from the occasional depressive episode.  Sometimes it's triggered by weather, and sometimes by other things.  I have, over the last few weeks, since I returned form Texas, been having the worst episode in years.  The fog started lifting yesterday, and I realized I'd basically been sleepwalking through the last 3 weeks.  I apologize to what readers I may have for dropping off the face of the earth like that.

One of the few things that keeps me getting out of bed in the morning when I'm that far off the cliff is that my world is full of things that need to get done, but I don't particularly want to do when I'm feeling energetic and creative.  So I cleaned and organized both my studio and my office at home.  I hung shelves that had been sitting around in boxes for months.  I unpacked all the art I shipped back from Texas.  I framed and hung much of the art I'd bought over the years that had just been sitting around wrapped up.  I painted a lot of my furniture, so things aren't quite so mismatched. And yesterday, as the gray fog started to dissipate, I made these:

they're 1.5" pin-back buttons of some of my elemental illustration pieces.  I happen to have a button press laying around, and have been meaning to get around to these for at least a year.  Something about the image editing needed to adapt the art to the format, along with the physical work of pressing the buttons made the fog dissipate a little bit faster, and now I'm mostly ok.  Expect the buttons (and buttons of some of my Different Worlds) to start showing up in the ArtFire shop fairly soon.

There is News!

First, happy Mother's Day to all the biological moms, adoptive moms, house moms, and and other women charged with dealing with the less mature folks (including those less mature folks who are well into their 20s and better).

I got word back that I passed the jury for Foolscap, so I'll definitely be there!

Also, we finally have a Facebook Fan Page!  http://www.facebook.com/pages/NightshadeRose-Studio/212745315405599.  I'll be adding buttons and whatnot to the blog soon.


I finished "Creature of Earth".  I'm not exceptionally pleased, but it didn't self-destruct, so I'll take it.

Success and failure

This is going to be a short post, since I'm writing at stupid-o'clock AM.  Pictures will be added later.  The great giant news is that I picked up the kiln on Friday.  I've been using it all weekend and it's awesome.

In other news, I attempted to re-make the Green Man enamel piece, and this one self-destructed, too, albeit in a completely different manner.  I've taken the hint , and changed the Earth elemental piece to an ouroborous (snake biting it's own tail.  Symbolizes infinity).  It will likely be done in time for Norwescon, but probably not in time for prints.  I've finished Air, as well, but I'm not particularly happy with it.  There are some perspective/proportion issues that make it look funny, and I'm not particularly inclined to show it at all.

Ok, time for bed now.

Late again, but with good reason.

Right, so, finals at school ate my life, time, energy, and brain.  The worst thing about finals in art classes is that it's not really an exam.  You basically take all the art work you did in class, display it, and stand up in front of the whole class and justify your existence...including your failures.

Epic Fail: Spirit of Earth

This was supposed to be "Spirit of Earth", AKA The Green Man.  It has bubbles, both ruptured and not (the popped ones you can see the base color in), as well as silver wire that has separated from the enamel.  This was mostly my hubris biting me in the ass.  Between the bad engineering decision that resulted in a face full of cracks (It's heavy enough metal that I can wait and counter-enamel at the end!), the physics-lacking jury-rigged solution (If I flip it over and counter it now, all the cracks will melt back together and everything will be ok), and over-firing at the end, the glass melted enough to allow the cloisonné wire to start falling out, and the glass to run down them.  It's a small miracle I didn't seriously damage the school kiln.  The only thing that survived were those totally perfect eyes...mocking me.



In happier news, Water is done:

Spirit of Water

I am pleased, especially with the metallics I got in the darker brown and the water.

Firebird!! Also in today's issue:marketing materials

The "Spirit of Fire" firebird was finished on Wednesday.  It was a royal pain and a learning experience, but it's done.  It took approximately 6 firings

I also have a whole series of pics of most of the process, but I'm still sorting those out.  So, for next week, we'll have process pics, and probably "Spirit of Water" as well.  That one's currently in the "fugly" stage, and I expect to have it done in another day's work.

I'm currently venturing into bookbinding for a school project, and that's been interesting.  My art business class requires us to have 2 portfolio books to show at the end of the quarter (a little more than a week from now), one big fancy book (for meetings with shops, galleries and clients), and one leave-behind book (to leave with those shops, etc. so they'll remember you).  I'm making the big portfolio from scratch, and playing with a couple of ideas for the leave-behind.  Since I'm running with copper, silver, and purple for my main colors it's been interesting to try to get the right balance and not go over the edge into gaudy.  I've got several options for the less-elaborate leave-behind portfolio.  There's the standard black vinyl with permanently bound-in page protectors, the 3-ring binder, the paper or plastic presentation folder with brads, and professional binding (which is expensive).  But, I found, in Office Depot, a form of spiral comb-binding that doesn't require a special machine to work the comb.  I'm thinking to try that in letter and half-letter size, just to see what it looks like. I've also got a few of the standard black variety in case the experiment looks odd or otherwise doesn't work.

Sheesh.  An artist's work is never done.

elemental creatures

So, the new Big Project is the Elemental Creatures series, which I hope to debut at NorwesCon. It's my first major endeavor in enamel illustration.  I'm nearly done with Fire, have started Water, and have a working sketch for Earth.  Air is still a bit in the planning stage. Hopefully next week I'll have all the pics of "Creature of Fire" ready to show you.  I'm trying to document the whole process, through all the firings, etc.so all the exacting work is visible.

I'm also starting to look into project management software; something to help me keep track of my time and stay on top of my production schedule.  I've just done some figuring out of how much I need to sell to be sufficiently profitable, and producing that much may be a challenge.