Apologies for missed posts

The last couple of weeks have just been crazy, and the next few will be more so, but not necessarily in a way that will make me miss posts.  I make it up to you with many pictures.

Packaging

This is my packaging: cute little tins with stickers on and purple tissue inside

Blessed Sky

"Blessed Sky" pendant.  If you look closely there's a very subtle pentagram worked into it.

Different Worlds: Blue Marble #7 (Pacific Rim)

Blue Marble #7: Pacific Rim.  It's got Australia!

Firebird pendant

What can I say, I like firebirds.

Different Worlds: Sun #2

A larger, pendant version of the sun from "One Sun, Nine Planets..."

Different Worlds: Gas Giant #2

Another Gas Giant type planet

Creature of Air

The final scan of Creature of Air.

Creature of Earth

The final scan of Creature of Earth.

So, yes, I've got the elemental creatures done.  I'm working on my next few things, one of which is titled "Leviathan."  Hopefully there will be more timely pictures of that one.

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.

The year's quite full show schedule

Considering that the season really started last week with Norwescon, I thought maybe I should outline where I and my work will be making appearances for the rest of the year.

May 17 - June 10:  Seattle, WA:  North Seattle Community College Student Show, NSCC gallery.  The solar system will be there, as well as whatever elemental creatures I have done.
June 24 - 26: Houston, TX:  Apollocon.  Attending, and I've got 2 tables reserved in the Art Show.  There may be a new illustration project or 2 along with the creatures and astronomy.  I'll also likely have prints available for private sale (not in the show, since they don't have a print shop and I'll be displaying all the originals).
August 12 - 14: Spokane, WA:  SpoCon.  Attending and hopefully displaying in the Art Show (haven't heard back about availability yet)
September 16 - 18: Redmond, WA: Foolscap. Attending and hopefully displaying in the Art Show.
November 11 - 13: Portland, OR: OryCon. Attending and hopefully displaying in the Art Show.

That's the schedule so far.It doesn't look like much until you start accounting for all the travel and that I'll likely have 2 tables/panels to fill at each show.  August also includes working GenCon and Pax as a demo person with Sandstorm Productions, a game publishing company that friends of mine are heavily involved with.  Hopefully next year, I'll have enough prints of things to be able to mail them in to shows that I can't attend.  At this point it's all about getting exposure.

Norwescon aftermath

So the bad news is I didn't sell one damned thing.  The good news is that I made a lot of contacts, and handed out a lot of business cards.  The prints of Fire and Water are also now available in my Artfire studio.  I'm putting stuff into the Student Show at school next week, and I expect to have at least one more element done by then.  From here on out, it's about prepping for ApolloCon in Houston at the end of June.

Norwescon

I blame prep work for Norwescon for my forgetting the Sunday night post.  It's been display-building and mat-cutting all week, and I'll probably be late again this week for recovery from the convention.  There's a good chance I'm going to tweet about the goings on on the @nrs_jewelry feed.  See y'all next week with reports on the convention and how the prints of the elemental creature pieces went over!

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.

engineering for expanding products

So far, I've been doing my enameling in a very on-the-fly manner, and for most of what I've been doing, that's ok.  But now I'm starting to look at *very* heavy use items like cabinet pulls/knobs, functional buttons and closures, and belts (which take a lot of abuse being banged against counters/etc), so I'm looking at ways to reinforce the enamel and especially protect the edges form cracking.  I've tried making the enamels and bezel-setting them, but bezels are time-consuming to get just right.  It looks like I'm going to be putting wire rims on the borders of my pieces now.  It's a couple of extra steps, but nothing like the pain of getting a bezel-set smooth.

Once I get a handle on the enamel, I can get a handle on the mountings, and I'm looking at systems where I can make the enamels and then set them as knobs, brooches, pendants, or whatever.  I've got some ideas, but they definitely still need testing.