Tag: Art

Not Ready but Doing It Anyway

I’ve been quiet, I know. I’ve been doing my best to get well and get back on my feet so I can start working and creating cool things again. So, even though I haven’t been posting, I’ve been busy.

Thank you all for being patient with me.

I don’t really feel like I’m ready to “put myself out there” again but, when I think about it, I wasn’t ready the first time either and it came out all right. So I’m just going to climb back on this horse, clumsily, and probably backwards and trust that you’ll understand; I’m doing my best.

I’m not quite back into making swords yet. I decided to start small this time. I was sick for a few years so a lot of my resins and other materials are expired. Some are unusable and have to be thrown out. I don’t really have enough of my usual “goo” left to make full swords. I’ll need to make some money before I can re-stock my supplies.

I’m really nervous but I’m going to take a leap of faith and try again. The folks who have bought things from me and followed my crazy crafting adventures have been kind and I hope that will continue to be the case.

Here’s my latest project:

These are meant to be worn as decorative buttons on a backpack, hat, jacket, or similar piece of clothing, or fitted with a magnet to be displayed on the refrigerator, filing cabinet, or similar metal furniture items. Hopefully, you can tell what they are.

I’ve avoided any association with politics in my business for years because I know you’re here for the art and not any heavy discussions. I don’t intend to talk about world events much at all, even now. But things have been going poorly for a lot of people lately, and I’m one of those people. I’ve got to try to make magic for you on a shoe-string budget this time. Things are financially tighter than they’ve ever been before.

Before you close the door on me, let me just say that I don’t want anything crazy or unreasonable. I just think that everybody deserves to have food, clean water, a home to live in, and medicine when they get sick. I think that people who work ought to be paid fairly for their labour, no matter how humble that job might be. That’s all.

As far as I can tell, if you’re a human being, we’re on the same team, even if we disagree on some stuff. I don’t want you or anybody else on Team Human to have to worry about where their next meal will come from, or where they’re going to sleep tonight. If you can agree with that simple statement of brotherly love, please stick around.

These decorative items are inspired by the French Revolution (1789-1799). They were made with resin and local Finnish pine wood.

I left one of them the natural wood colour and painted the other a bright red. I’m currently experimenting with what looks best.

These items are 100% made by hand. No AI has been used and I do not have a 3D printer so all the sculpting you see has been done by my own two hands, and a lot of swearing.

Here’s a brief view of my process. There was a lot of experimentation. A lot of mistakes. A lot of profanity. And a lot of learning.

Where do we go from here?

Well, I’d like to hear some of your feedback if you don’t mind. If you could comment either here or on my Facebook page, I’d be very appreciative. I need to know some things like:

  1. Can you tell what the image is supposed to represent? If so, what’s it called?
  2. Do you think it looks better with the natural wood, or painted?
  3. What other colours would you like to see?
  4. Does it look nice with a shiny finish, or should it be matte?
  5. Does the image need to have the bit of rope between the blade and the top or is it clear enough what it is without it?
  6. If you bought it, would you like it to be a button or a magnet?
  7. If you wanted to buy it, where would you like me to sell it? On this website? On Etsy? On eBay? Somewhere else?
  8. Would you like to have the design on something else such as a pendant, silicone stamp, sticker, decal, embroidered patch, etc?
  9. I’m thinking of making a version with some text on it to support the message it’s intended to convey. For example: “I’m hungry.”, “Do you hear the people sing?”, or “Water the tree.” Would you be interested in such an item? If so, what would you like it to say?
  10. How much would you be willing/able to pay for an item like this?
  11. Would you be interested in an item like this that has a different design? For example: a burning match, a peace sign, a heart, etc. Please tell me your suggestions!
  12. Would you be interested in seeing a video on how I make these items?

Thanks everybody for your kindness and support through this wild journey. It means a lot to me. I wouldn’t still be crafting and making art if it weren’t for some truly lovely people reaching out and encouraging me, giving me great ideas, and offering tips and tricks that make my job easier. You’re all amazing. I hope to post again soon, but until then, take care of yourselves.

Testing Products & Trying New Things

Hi folks! As promised, I wanted to give an update on things I have in the works and talk a bit about how I do research.

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Here’s a peek at my desk where I’m testing new products I haven’t used before. This is a scrap piece of acrylic that I’ve milled a few grooves in the top and applied some different coatings to see how they behave.

I found while I was making Heosphoros that the engravings on the blade needed some more opacity to stand out from the rest of the blade. But I couldn’t just paint any old substance into the grooves without knowing if it would stay there or melt the acrylic or crack … You get the idea. As you can see, the different substances have different opacity, different thickness, and different texture.

The varnish didn’t work at all. It just rubbed off when I touched it. The faux snow was ridiculously hard to work with and ended up really chunky. The … Glitzershnee? Don’t ask me to pronounce that. I can’t speak German. Anyway #2 was pretty cool but dried kind of soft. #1 was a kind of lacquer for colouring stained glass but I accidentally picked up the crystal clear stuff instead of the white. (#5 is the white stuff which turned out to be too opaque)

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So what ended up working the best? The liquid acrylic (which smells like the Devil’s personal port-a-potty) and a semi-sheer nail polish with mica particles in it for a very fine glitter. Gosh, it would have been great to know that before I spent 30 euros and several hours poking a piece of plastic with weird goo. Ha! But that’s just the way it goes. I still have to test stuff before it goes on the final product. Even the nail polish. Different companies use different chemicals to produce their stuff so you can never be sure if something will play nicely with the acrylic. There are SO MANY kinds of plastic guys. o_o So. Many. And by the end of my life I’m sure I will have smelled them all.

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So I’m working on a witchlight… It’s more complicated than I thought it would be. It’s really hard to get the right stiffness so that it lights up when squeezed so I’ve been thinking of a completely different way of engaging the light switch. The one you see here is 100% silicone and there’s a big ol’ air pocket around the light inside so it’s a no-squeezy. I have to actually fish the light out of the thing to turn it on and off. Too inconvenient. Plus I hate that the light rattles around inside. It really takes away from the “magic” effect.

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Plus … WHY THE H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS DID THE SILICONE CURE TO THE ALUMINIUM FOIL?! Ugh. Maybe because some derpface forgot to give the foil a coating of petroleum jelly before plopping the silicone on it. Silicone is confusing guys. I’m just sayin’. Chemistry class did not prepare me for this.

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Anywho I do like how the opening is pretty well hidden until the silicone is squeezed and then it opens up like one of those rubber froggy coin purse things. It’s progress toward a witchlight I’d actually be pleased to sell. It’s not there yet, but the experimentation taught me a lot about the way silicone behaves and what it’s capable of.

I went out and purchased some actual powdered mica to mix into the silicone/plastic/whatever I end up making these things out of because I found that when the light is off, it doesn’t look so much like a rock as I would like it to. In fact, my first attempt at the silicone witchlight ended up looking like a big white booger or maybe somebody’s pet slime. … actually I might put googly eyes on it and just keep it as my shop mascot. Ha!

As I’ve said before and I’m sure to say it a hundred times more: art is about 90% problem solving. You get an idea, and then you have to figure out how to make it real. The other 10% is kind of a mix between stubbornness and insanity.

That’s all from me for now folks. I’ve go to get my butt to the workshop and polish up a Jahoel. See ya later!