Come! Take a Tour with Me!

Hi Everyone!

I've got something special for you all today!

Given how slow its been the last few months, I realized I needed to write SOMETHING other then "Eh, I made a few things. That's it." and fretting about finances.

So gather 'round, all yea who may be interested, and join me on a quick jaunt through the merry world of my creative spaces!

Our journey begins about 20min drive from my house, in a seedy, run down strip of town where all manner of unsavory types like to roam (also commonly referred to as an 'industrial area'), you stumble across a small, humble construction company.

Here, I was introduced to the nice owner, who was gracious enough to let me have a small corner of the welding building for myself (big white building in the back).

Recently, I reorganized my corner and put in some new shelves. Before this, all I had was a table to set things on, and some lockers, which meant almost everything was stored on the floor and shoved under the tables to keep them out of the way. Didn't leave me much room for adding more things. Since I had a bit of extra money, I went out and picked up some heavy duty shelving, so now my misc junk actually has some place to go! Even if it does make my corner look rather cluttered!

Tada! And here is where all the magic is made!

Most of the building is used by the construction welders, so I'm pretty much confined to this little corner. Everything has to be kept stored in this area when I'm not there, so they can get their forklift in and out, so things like my anvil, shaping log, large sculptures, etc... are moved about on dollies when I need to use them, but otherwise are tucked away in corners.

For ease of explanations, I've written labels across the major items around my shop. You can see my current project there on the right side of the picture! It'll be an impressive dragon by the time I'm done.

Now that you've gotten the overview of my work space, lets take a closer look!

This here is my work table! Built it myself, back when I first started getting equipment and putting a shop together. Since I'm 5'10" tall, this table is a bit taller then your standard tables, so that I could work at it without hunching over. And it's around 6ft long x 3ft wide, so I have a pretty decently sized space for setting large sculptures on.

For those of you who're tall, and wish they had a work stool that wasn't built for short people, I bought mine from Lowes. It was the tallest one I could find, and has proven to be quite comfortable.

I keep a lot of stuff around my work tables. Thing I use often and want to keep in easy reach.
Under my table I have 3 buckets for holding scrap. You can see the 'large scrap' bucket right now. I have 2 other buckets on the other side of my char that hold 'medium scrap' and 'small scrap'. Since I've recently begun crafting rock animals, I have to have something to hold rocks! So I have my rock bucket there, and next to it I have a bucket of horseshoes.

Now, for those of you who might be wondering why I have a shopping car under my work table... it kinda just showed up there one day. I came into work, and there was this little car left in front of my station. I'm guessing one of the construction welders hauled it over and left it there. It now serves as additional storage space, and a carry-cart for when I have to haul in a lot of small things from my truck.

As you can see, I was in the process of building armadillos when I took these pictures.

At the far right corner of my table is where I keep all my hand tools, hammers, clamps, etc... The organizer stores all my small, commonly used decorations. Washers. Nuts and bolts. Marbles. Nails and screws. Bells and rings. Short pieces of round bar. Wire. Safety goggles. Etc...
I use to store beads in there as well. But I rarely use beads on my work, and many of them were getting scuffed and damaged from being in close proximity to welding/grinding, so I removed all that.

This is the storage space located on the right side of my table.

With these new shelves, I was finally able to put all my commonly used supplies within easy reach.

There you can see my lovely little welder! The big air compressor is actually not the one I use. That one powers all the other equipment in the shop that the construction guys use. My compressor is on the other side of the wall.

More scrap buckets. This one holds unused patterns, long pieces of round bar, misc bits of angle bar, flat bar, etc... The bucket on the shelf there is full of silverware. Some day, it shall be reincarnated into a large silverware dragon. But for now, it rests on the bottom shelf, safely tucked out of the way.

The big green drawers were something I picked up from my previous shop, and I store all my various small odds and ends in them. These ones hold all my surplus washers/nuts/bolts/marbles/beads/glass/brass tid-bits/keys/misc small pattern parts/ornamental cast iron/etc... just about everything I might need for crafting sculptures.

Above the drawers I store my 'scrap molds'. You know all those scrap animals I make? Well... I've got to have SOMETHING to shape the scrap around to ensure it has the proper form. So I have a few ice scoops, bowls, and a platter lid that I use for this purpose. I also store my bike chain and misc springs and decorative bits on these shelves as well.

Here is the shelving along my back wall.

This holds all my large items and tools. On the top shelf I store all my patterns and paper. I also keep all my non-metal decorative items up there too, such as faux fur, gloves, leather, wood, etc... things I don't really want within easy spark-reach.

The green drawers hold all my hand tools. Replacement welder/plasma parts and wire. Measuring tools. Envelopes, pens/pencils, batteries, masks, etc... Di-grinder accessories and grinding/flap wheels for my angle grinder.

I keep my welding hood and cleaning supplies on these shelves. Large pieces of scrap sheet metal. Large pots, pans, woks, etc... The big tool chest on the floor three holds saw blades, old tools, barrings, gears, large springs, etc... And next to that I have my ox-acetylene torch kit.

The big pipe there on the left side is actually a tool! That is my spring stretcher! Since most springs are tightly sound, and thus not very practical for turning into things like Springenese, my grandpa designed this cool little tool that would allow me to hook a spring up with a wench and crank it along the pipe, stretching it out.

This is my cutting station. Again, this is a table I built back when I first started getting this business going.

Fun Fact:  They do not sell just cutting tables. You can buy an automated plasma cutter, which is built into a big tables, and those start out at a measly $10,000. But I neither had that kind of money, nor did I have the space, so I built my own.

Since I don't have a lot of space in my little corner to store big/long things, the space between the table and the shelves is the designated 'rod space'. This is where I keep all my rebar, round bar, flat bar, pipe, angle iron, etc... I use to store all of my pots and pans under the plasma table, which made this area super cluttered. But with the shelves I was finally able to move them somewhere else. Now the only thing under the table is my quench bucket, which I fill up with water when I need it (though I think its gotten a hole in the bottom, so I may have to replace it soon).

The big lockers here were once part of a big bank of lockers that were being used by the construction people to store a few odds and ends. But they didn't really need them, rarely used them, and so they gave me a few of them to use. In here I store things that I don't want coming in contact with sparks. Paints and patinas. Electric hand tools. The wench for my spring stretcher. I also store a lot of misc tools, pots and pans, kettles, ceramic pots, etc...

This is also where I keep my table grinder and chop saw. Both can be moved about as needed.

And there you have it! That is my shop. The place where I create all the fun creatures you see.

But... that I not the only place where work is done!

While my shop is well suited for constructing sculptures, its ill-suited to decorating. The place is dirty, and cluttered. The lighting is poor. No place for performing fine ornamentation. That is why I have a small work space at home.

Not too long ago, my work space was the floor, and whatever I dragged down to work on. Then one day my dad came into my room and saw me sitting on the floor, banging rivets closed with a hammer and a piece of broken cutting board, and he said "Hey! Why don't we make you a table!"

And so... a table was made...

The big black tool chest you see on the floor is my portable art show supplier. It holds everything I might need for a show: lights, tape, biz cards, wiring and rope, canopy wall panels, hooks and hangers, bungee cords, bags, etc...

The organizer keeps track of all my small things: beads/glass eyes/marbles/popsicle sticks/biz cards/super glue/small jewelry tools/colorful wire/sanding pads/nail polish pens/etc...

On the left is a tool box, essentially. In here I store hand tools, epoxy, wax bars, cloth, tape, anything large.

On the right I have my hammer and board for riveting. Pencil sharpener. And tucked away on the floor is my drawing board and large sketch books, for drawing patterns.

Once a sculpture is completed and its time to take pictures, I bring it over to my little photo areas.

Super fancy, right?

I don't have a good space anywhere in the house that I can set up just for taking pictures. So this works alright... but the lighting is pretty horrific, and I'm not sure how to get rid of all the fold and crease lines in the shower curtain there.

For the most part though, this works fairly well. A small fold-out table forms the base, and then the curtain is pinned up on the wall. I added the lamp to try and get some better lighting. Along the right side of the wall there's a few black shelves that I can use to store completed sculptures.

And that completes the tour of my studio spaces! I hope you all enjoyed seeing where it is I do my work.

February Musings

Well hello readers!

I know, I know.... here I was all determined to be better about updating my blog more often... and I haven't touched this thing in a few weeks.

Which would imply that I've been having lots of exciting and interesting things going on! And I simply didn't have time to update this!

*le sigh*  I wish.... Its actually been pretty quiet here on my end.

I've been spending a lot of time over at my other job. With the flu season still in full swing, there've been a lot of people calling out sick, or calling out/going home early to take care of sick kids. So I've been picking up a lot of extra shifts.

On the art work front... working on my Aunts dragon. This thing is going to be REALLY impressive once its done. I'm considering whether or not I want to set some stained glass in the gaps along its spine plates. I have no idea how to work with glass, so whatever I do will be very simple. Hmmm...

I wish I had some pictures to post here today. But I keep forgetting to take my camera to my shop... hopefully this next week I shall remember to do that!

Lets see... what else have I got going on? As I said, it hasn't been a terribly exciting few weeks. I've applied for a few art shows, as well as a farmers market, so I'm waiting to hear back on those. I applied for the Rocky Mountain Gun Show in June, and seem to have been accepted into that! So that's pretty exciting for me! This will be a new avenue of sales for me, so I'm really hoping I do well with all my fish and bears and outdoorsy things.

Oh! I did finish up another large commission!

Behold! The terrible Scrapvulture!

This was a request given to me by the same lady who'd ordered the Scraptrich last year. This time she wanted a large vulture, roughly 3-4ft tall, with closed wings.

Since this request came in around the beginning of November, and holidays were kinda crazy for me, I wasn't able to get to it till January.

The vulture is intended to sit atop a large boulder, with a rock set on the base to keep it in place. So I set the vulture's feet right at the edge, to leave as much of the base plate free as possible for a large rock. This is also why it has such lovely long legs!

I wish I had some pictures of this while I was building it... because it was pretty amusing. Without wings, this fella looks like a tall, long-legged penguin! It was not attractive... hence why I flared the wings a bit. Birds look much more impressive if you can open their wings up, and I wanted this bird to be impressive.

The eyes were a lucky break. The lady had asked for black eyes. And from my previous adventures in finding the green eyes for the Scraptrich, I already knew that large, black marbles just weren't going to happen. But... during a Christmas shopping venture into a small local toy store, I found a rack of colorful marbles.

They had some really pretty marbles. I am really tempted to go back and buy a bunch.

And as fate would have it... they happened to have a couple bags of jumbo-sized marbles. And those bags happened to have these dark, navy blue marbles with gold and light blue swirls. Not exactly black... but it was close enough. And in fact, I found out later that the customer REALLY loved those eyes. They loved the swirls and how you can spin the marbles in their sockets to get different facial expressions. Good thing I decided not to glue them in place....

Back view of this lovely bird. The tail is also set high up on the body and angled back, with the intent of leaving as much room under the bird as possible for a rock or brick. If need be, the feathers can be bent up a little more to make more room.

I've really been enjoying making these large scrap sculptures. I'd definitely like to continue doing more this year, even if they're not by commission.

2013 - A New Years Resolution

I know, I know.... this is a bit late for a New Years Resolution.  But better late then never, right!

2013 is a new year.

New challenges.

New opportunities.

New beginnings and new ends.

I spent quite some time thinking about what my goals will be for this next year. What I wanted to improve on. What I wanted to aim for. What I wanted to get done.


~ First and foremost... I will strive to be more productive in my art this year.
This is something I've been allowing to slide far too often the last couple years. While I am a hardworking, timely, and dedicated worker when I'm employed by someone else... I am far less disciplined in my own life. When I'm the boss, and the only person I have to answer to is me, I'm far more likely to waste time then I should.
Because of this, my production time suffers and it takes me far longer to complete projects then it should. I don't get as much done as I should. And if I want to be serious about making The Iron Phoenix a stable business, then I need to improve on that. Especially because I only get 8-12 days out of the month to work on my art.
So this year, I will strive to make better use of my time. To spend MORE time at my shop on the days that I'm there. To take less days off. And to get projects done in a timely manner.

~ Since this is a new year, I will be trying new avenues for sales of my artwork. I will attend the Wheeler Farm Market during the summer, at least a couple times.
 I will be applying to art festivals here soon, and hopefully will get into at least one. I will not be applying to as many as I did last year... seeing as I can't really afford to drop $300 in application fees. But I will be applying for the Utah Arts Festival again, as well as a couple in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and maybe Nevada, and California.
 Speaking of Cali... there is apparently some famous tourist pier out in San Fran or LA, and every week, artists and vendors can come down and set up booths and sell things. I've heard from a couple people that this is a really good opportunity, so I'm considering looking into that.
I'd also really like to get into one of the Gun Expo's. Either the Southwest Expo, or the Rocky Mountain Expo. Booth fees are very affordable, and these events draw massive crowds. I'd be selling mostly hunting, wildlife, and dog sculptures. But it's a very doable option that I really want to look into.

~ Another thing I need to get back into the practice of... is just making NEW things! Most of the 'new' designs I made this last year weren't really my ideas, so much as they were commissions I was filling for other people. Or revamping old designs. I'd really like to spend more time just creating new things. It's a skill I need to keep honed. Its surprisingly easy to dull the creative spark that allows you to come up with new and interesting ideas on the spot, if you're not actively doing it.
It's also a lot of fun being able to sit down and just MAKE something for the sake of making it, instead of creating someone else's idea, or worrying about pricing, or time, or resources.

~ On the shipping front... I'm going to start looking into other methods of shipping to try and bring my S&H fees down. For most of my artwork, I ship through USPS, and I use their "If it fits, it ships" priority boxes to base my fees on. Unfortunately... this hasn't proven to be as accurate as I'd hoped. I've had some sculptures that shipped for less then I expected, and other have cost a lot more. I've talked with the people there at the post office, and they've given me some suggestions on how to cut my shipping fees down. Such as using my own, unmarked boxes (since I don't want to buy boxes, I'll likely be doing some dumpster diving this year). I've also consulted with Fedex about shipping, and have found that they are the best place for shipping large packages. USPS and UPS will nail you with a large 'oversize' fee on large packages. But Fedex is pretty good, provided you make sure your box exactly fits whatever it is you're shipping.
I have also come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to pass on international shipping. Canada and Mexico aren't too bad. But shipping over-seas is hugely expensive, and I haven't found anywhere that will allow me to do that for a reasonable fee. Sorry Europe!

~ This is more a personal goal... but I'd really like to get in better shape this year. I've let myself slide for several years now and my weight has gotten to the point where.... I am just not happy with it. I don't feel as good as I'd like. My clothes don't fit as well as I'd like. And if I keep going the way that I am... I'm just going to keep getting heavier. And I don't want that.
This is probably going to be the hardest thing for me to work on. Because I LOATH exercise. I really do. I HATE the cold, so you're not likely to get me outside in the winter unless necessary. I don't have anyone to help me.... and considering my terrible powers of self motivation, it's all too easy for me to just up and quit, or forget about it.
I also like to eat... I like food. I have a terrible case of the munchies. I'm poor (healthy food is freakin expensive). I don't like to cook. And the thought of reducing everything that is food to a mere calorie number makes me shudder.
So yes... this is a goal I want to complete, but I'm honestly not sure how, or how long I'll even be able to keep myself motivated to do so.


I'm pretty sure there were some other things I wanted to go with this... but I am literally falling asleep right now and it's making it hard to stay focused. But these are my major goals for this next year. Lets see how many I'll be able to get done!

A Christmas of Commissions

As you know from reading my blog, I've been worrying a lot about finances and work and what I'm going to do with myself during the 3-4 months as 2012 ends and 2013 begins. The new year especially has me worried because it's a very slow time for businesses.

I am very happy to say that a bit of good luck has rolled my way and I had orders come in for the holidays that kept me busy and put a bit of money into my business so I'll have a buffer heading into this new year.

I think I ended up with a grand total of.... 7 or 8... orders to fill by Christmas! Which isn't very much... but when I only work at my shop 3 days out of the week, 8 orders can take a long time.

3 of those orders came from my landlords. Have I mentioned how awesome my landlord is? He's been really great about working with me about rent and supplies. Once in a while, when I know money will be tight, we work out an arrangement where I make him a few things and he doesn't charge me rent. Thus was the case this holiday. 2 months rent-free in exchange for 2 mini-flying pigs and a fish sculpture.

Have I mentioned how awesome my landlord is?

I also had an order off my Etsy shop for another mini-pig. My pigs have started to do pretty good on there. I'm hoping sales for next year keep going up! Also hoping I start getting some variety orders. Most of the Mini-Pig orders I've received are just for plain pigs with a bell collar. But I offer customization options... ear and wing patterns... different collar designs... hair designs... etc... You can even make special requests, since it's almost guaranteed I won't have any in-stock and will have to make it for you. So I am hoping for some orders like that... bit of variety is always nice.

The next item on my list was a small Elk. I'd actually been given this order by my dad a couple months ago. It was to be given to his hunting guides who he goes with when he's Elk hunting. I wasn't sure when this was due, so I'd had it on hold until he got back to me with an actual date.

Well... I happened to be bumming around the shop, and I'd finished some other work and didn't want to go home yet, so I made the Elk up real quick. Turns out this was a good thing because his Elk hunt was that weekend (thanks for not telling me!).

I've been wanting to make a 'leaping Elk' sculpture for a while now, so this was the perfect opportunity to do that. Most of my elk designs so far have been pretty static, in that they're usually walking or standing. I wanted this one to have a bit of movement.

Speaking of right before... had one last Etsy order roll in at the very last minute (so to speak)!

Sold my first posable feathered dragon! Woo hoo!

Since it's the holidays, it takes at least a week for a package to get anywhere, and the order came in about a week and a half before Christmas. So I had to put a priority on shipping sculptures to make sure those were finished and sent off in time to arrive for the holidays.

Isn't he handsome?  Up to this point, I'd only made one posable dragon; my Iron Phoenix Dragon. And because that was the only one I had, its been serving as a placeholder image on Etsy. But my Iron Phoenix dragon is my own personal design, so I'm not going to recreate that for anyone. But the customer wanted a feathered dragon. So a feathered dragon I made! With a few modifications...

I actually have another posable dragon I made... this was a spiny one with wings... but I can't post images of it yet because the friend I sent it to hasn't received it. And that would ruin the surprise if he saw pictures of it online before seeing it in person!

Well, that WAS what I was planning to say... and then I forgot to post this blog right after Christmas. Heheheeeeee..... go me!

My friend has since received his gift, so now I can finally post images!

This big boy was a lot of fun. Not only did I put together a new pattern (which will be my default 'spiny dragon' pattern now), but I tried out some new designs.

Thanks to a inquiry on Etsy about a wyvern-style dragon, I decided I'd give that a try. The notion of building one of these with wings instead of forelegs had piqued my interest. And since this was going to a very good friend of mine, I wanted to do something special for him.

As you can see, I painted this guy instead of heat-coloring. But I found it still looked a little plain, and there wasn't a lot of contrast between the segments. So to fix this... I took my Migi Nail Art Pens (aka- nail polish in a pen! Great stuff!) and decorated all the spines, wings, and face. Made a huge difference in the dragons overall vibrancy and really made it stand out, where as before it was just a big blue lizard.

Lets see.... 3... 4...6-7... 7! That brings me up to 7 orders so far!

Hmmm... guess I had 9 to craft this month. 2 more to go!

These were my 'big projects' of the month. Special orders from customers here in Salt Lake City. Since these were local orders, and could be picked up in person, I finished them up last.

I think it was the Wheeler Farm Farmers Market where I met Michelle. She is a local artist specializing in painting and paper machete, and she has a studio called 'Blackened Raven'. We'd talked a bit about crafting a scrap Raven at the time. But I didn't hear back from her until the end of November when she contacted me about making a sign for her studio.

This sign is about 2ft x 2ft in size and hangs on the wall. With a little creativity, you could find a way to attach chains to the loops on the back and hang it, in case she ever goes to shows or markets.

The Raven itself was fun to make. To date, all I've made for scrap birds are Owls. An Owl is very different then other birds, with its flat round face. They're easy to make, instantly recognizable, and I can throw together a head and weld it to a body and it's done. But a long-faced bird like a Raven requires a little more work. You have to have an actual neck. You can't just cut out a round face and stick a beak on it. It won't look right.
I've made long-faced birds before... mainly Phoenix... so I used that basic design idea for this.

Most of this sculpture is uncolored. Welding the texture onto the branches darkens the metal naturally. If you don't put a clear coat over it, it had a dusty grey-brown look. When you clear coat it, it turns this dark grey and looks like bark. Really pretty, and one of my favorite textures to do.

The raven I heat colored, since Michelle wanted the bird to have that rainbowy, oil-slicked look, rather then solid black. Had to be careful with the torch on this one. Because this is a Raven, I wanted the colors to be dark as possible over the whole body. Thin metal can be tricky to heat color because it'll go from gold (the 'just starting to warm up color) to neutral blue (the 'too hot and won't change color anymore' color) in a second if you get it too hot. Purples and deep blues are the mid-to-end range colors.

I kept the letters plain for contrast. Instead of taking a flap disc to them and grinding them shiny, I buffed them with a wire wheel instead. This kept some of the rust-induced-texture in-tact, while also shining the metal up just enough that it'll stand out, especially in lighting.

Michelle been doing the artist thing here in SLC for much longer then I have, so I spent some time chatting with her about places to go and networking and things I could try. It was a good opportunity to learn more about the artist community here in Utah, which I've been struggling to find and fit into. I will have to look into the places she recommended this next year.

The last sculpture I crafted was for an acquaintance friend of mine from a few years ago. She contacted me out of the blue at the beginning of December (we hadn't talked to each other in years at this point) and asked if I could craft something special for her family.

She and her siblings wanted a special sculpture representing their parents and them. It would feature a pair of bike riders (the parents), along with their pet dog (this great, big, black, brown and white fluffy of a dog), and 3 tulips for their children. The actual lay-out would be up to me.

I knew right away I wanted to make this a multi-directional piece. What I mean by that... is that there's not a definite 'back side' to it. I wanted it to be something you could set in the center of a table and it would look good from any direction.

And as a bike-themed sculpture, I wanted the figures on it to be moving. After all, that is what bikes are for! They are for riding, and moving, and racing down hills! I wanted this sculpture to give the impression of figures in motion. And what's one of the favorite places to go bike riding? Why... down a trail! Or a park path!

In this case, a cobblestone path.

Since time and customer finances were limited, I decided a stick figure theme would work best. Humans are surprisingly difficult creatures to craft, and trying to build a bunch of sheet metal figures was going to take too long and cost too much. At the same time though, I didn't want them to be plain, unadorned stick figures. They needed to be recognizably male and female. To that end, I crafted them some simple clothing and hair.

The dog also got the stick figure treatment. He probably should've been fluffier... but that design didn't quite look right. Plus... he's a stick figure!

Again, because I wanted this whole sculpture to have the impression of movement, the dog couldn't simply be standing. If you've ever owned a dog, and ever gone bike riding with them, they like to romp all over the place. So I wanted this dog to look like he's been racing all around the park along side his owners.

The tulips, I think, are the most important feature of this whole sculpture. I was given specific directions on what type they should be and how many.

The tulips represent the 3 children of the family. Their specific coloring and design though is from a particular breed known as the Parkinson Tulip (pink petals with white edges). You see, her mother has Parkinsons Disease, and so my friend wanted to represent that with the flowers.

I hadn't originally planned on this lay-out. But once it was done, I really liked the significance of it. Because you look at this and you can see the parents and the 3 children they bore and raised between them, and the dog they brought into their family. But you can also see how this disease has crept into their lives, creating this separation between their mother and the rest of their family, as she falls behind and they continue on ahead.

I'm not much for symbolism, but I do like little things like this. To have this happiness, this peace, this family together, and yet you look at the other side of the story, and there's this sadness and melancholy, and have it all wrapped up in this one sculpture.



EDIT:

OMG!!! I almost forgot to add this!

Ok... one last sculpture!

Since the above bicyclist sculpture was a pick up, I needed something to do for a few hours while I was at my shop waiting for them. I'd told my boyfriend earlier in the week I'd make his nephew a little dragon, since he was having a hard time figuring out what to get his nephew for Christmas.

I'd originally planned on making a cool little bike chain dragon, with claws and spines and stuff! Buuut.... after all of 3 tack welds... I ran out of welding wire. It was the middle of the day on Sunday, so everything was closed. I didn't have any spare wire. And I was working all day Monday, so no time to finish it up then.

I had to do something! So... I got creative with rivets!