Art in Progress - Scraptrich Pt. 3

Welcome back! Oh illustrious readers!

I hope you've enjoyed this sneak peak into the world of The Iron Phoenix as I finish off this series of 'Art in Progress'. This is something I'll be doing more of in the future, particularly with large projects.

Now... on with the tale!

As mentioned before, I thought that, at last, I had completed my work. Everything was in its place, head and wings and feet all where they should be.

But alas... upon arriving home with my completed work, I was horrified to discover that one of the welds on the face had broken. And since the ostrich's face was attached to the skull by only a few welds, this just wasn't something that could be overlooked.

Not only that... once I had a chance to step back and review my work and fully take it in, I realized that the sculpture was, indeed, not done. There were a few aspects of the design I just wasn't satisfied with.

The head was angled a little too far to the side. The eyes, with their faceted depths, looked odd and bug-like. With the way I had constructed the legs, the body bobbed just a little too much, which raised some stability concerns.

It seemed my work was not yet done. And as soon as I found the time, it was off to the studio I went!

The first thing on my agenda... Fix the Face.

The broken weld was repaired, and this time I made sure to solidly apply the weld across 3 pieces, as well as adding a couple additional welds to the top of the head. That way if one broke, the whole face would still be secure.

Next... I needed to fix those eyes.

I'd debated putting pupils on them. But after comparing various washers and discs, I decided that just wasn't going to work. I needed something that would narrow the view of the eyes, so they weren't so huge and round.

This is when I came up with the idea to put eye lids! Eye lids would soften the eyes and give them more personality, while also shadowing them and reducing the bug-like faceted quality of the gems.

Now, if you've ever made anything where you have to add eye lids... you'll know that doing so is not as easy as it seems. There's a bit of a fine art to adding eye lids and not making your subject look angry/dopey/worried/sleepy/something other then what you want/etc.... In this case, I wanted the eyes to look... kinda neutral. Or a little cheerful to match the big grin I had going with the beak.

What I managed to get... was something that looked a little... stoner-ish? From the side it looked cheerful and happy! From the front... a little odd. Like I said, creating eye lids is something of an art form all on its own, and one I have yet to master.

Buuut... it did do the job I wanted it to. The large, round eyes were softened, the gaze narrowed, so rather then looking bizarre and alien, the eyes now had a spark of personality and felt as if they belonged to the ostrich.

The eye lids also livened up the face and added some additional detail. While an actual ostrich head is basically just a pair of eye balls and a beak stuck on the top of a neck, I wasn't liking the way the face looked. It was too... simple. Too devoid of details. This is also why I went back and added some extra feathery 'tufts' around the head.

Another thing that had been bothering me for some time, was the beak. It was too flat and straight, and didn't quite feel right. So I gently bend the edges of the beak, softening the edge, which made it more organic feeling.

Once that was complete, it was time to fix that stability issue.

Unfortunately, with the way I'd crafted the legs, all the parts were welded onto the rebar frame, but because the pipe was in segments, rather then whole, solid pieces, the rebar was basically the only support. And seeing as it wasn't thick rebar, that made it flexible. I didn't want to add anything that was going to be really obvious, as that would defeat the whole purpose of having the segmented legs. So, I took a couple of 1/4in round bar, and ran them up the back of the legs, on the inside of the pipe, opposite the rebar (which was welded to the front half of the pipes) and welded the pipe segments to the round bar. While this wasn't a complete fix, it did prevent the lower legs from being able to flex so easily, which greatly improved the stability of the whole piece.

The neck was stabilized by adding scrap around the base, welding it securely, thus ensuring the neck couldn't easily move around.

With these repairs made, I was at last satisfied with my creation!

The finished product came out to be around shoulder height to me, which put it at around 5ft tall, give or take a bit. It probably weighed around... 40-50lbs maybe? I could carry it without assistance, though for ease of transport, I opted to be lazy and used a dolly.

The whole sculpture will rust in time, which should make it really pretty. The large green eyes, being glass, will not fade, so they should remain bright and green and really visible, which is what I was aiming for.

By the time I completed this, I think I put somewhere around 18-20hrs of work into it, plus another 6-10hrs travel time, just trying to find the various bits and pieces I would need!

And so ends this session of 'Art in Progress - The Creation of a Scraptrich'.

I hope you've all enjoyed reading about my adventure with this sculpture! This was a fun experience for me, and I learned a lot. Particularly the difficulty in acquiring materials. But large sculpture is something I would really like to continue doing in the future. I certainly have the scrap for it!

Next up on my Art in Progress.... The Whipple Shield

Art in Progress - Scraptrich Pt. 2

Welcome back everyone!

Hope you enjoyed the first look at the creation of my Scraptrich. If you're interests is still piqued, continue on!

Now that the body is completed, it's time to move on to the construction of the head, wings and feathers.

Now, here is where I delved in to a bit of research. I was an avid Discovery Channel watcher when I was a kid, so I'm familiar with a LOT of different animals, how the look, how they're shaped, and for the most part I can build them just off memory. But usually with a specific request, I'll go back and familiarize myself with the animal in particular, make sure I'm getting the designs right.

And this is where Google Image Search comes in!

This is literally how I 'research' just about everything I craft. I do an Image Search, then peruse the result and re-familiarize myself with my subject. Since what I'm crafting is sculpture and not meant to be realistic, I'm not worried about all the nitty-gritty details of my subject. I just need to know the basic overall look.

I checked a few things... like making sure Ostrich have 2 toes instead of 3 (though even if they had 3, I wasn't going to go chopping up the feet for 1 extra toe at this point), I looked at their feathers, at the shape of their heads, their beaks, their eyes, how their bodies looked.

Once I had an idea of what I was going to do, it was off to the shop!

Well.... ok, maybe not RIGHT off to the shop.... after all, now that I had the body done, it was time to round up the supplies I would need to craft the face. Which meant I needed a pair of eye balls.

Now, making eyes isn't really that hard. There's a lot of ways you can do it in a sculpture. The issue with this particular piece though.... was that I wanted eyes that would stand out. I didn't want eyes that would rust. Or that were a color that would 'blend in' with the dark silvers of the metal, or the dusky reds of rust. I wanted eyes that would be noticeable, irregardless of what color the steel was. Eyes that wouldn't fade, would discolor, wouldn't chip or flake.

I wanted marbles. Big blue or green marble eyes. Marbles are made of glass, and glass does not fade, does not chip or flake, does not rust, and the reflective properties of glass tend to give sculptures a liveliness that's hard to achive with just metal parts.

And they had to be big, because this is a large ostrich and ostrich have big eyes.

Now this is where things got to be a bit difficult... because I wanted a pair of eyes that were roughly
1 1/4in - 1 1/2in in diameter. They needed to be large so that I could recess them into sockets and mold the metal around them to hold them in place, yet still have them be noticeably visible. Unfortunately, marbles don't normally come in those sizes, if you can even FIND marbles anymore.

I checked online first, hoping to score a good deal. But none of the marble sellers had anything in that size, and the few large marbles I did find were either the wrong colors, were too decorative, or too expensive.

So with that idea foiled, I spent most of a Saturday afternoon driving all over the city trying to find a pair of glass balls. Found plenty of crystal balls of assorted colors. Some stone balls. But they were all quite expensive (I was not going to pay $40-$100 for a pair of eye balls). I finally managed to track down a pair of green 'gem cut' glass decorations at a rock shop. Wasn't quite what I was looking for, but they fit the size range I needed, so I decided to roll with it.

If you've ever look at an ostrich head... you'll notice that they're basically just a long neck with a pair of eye balls and a beak stuck on top. There really isn't a whole lotta brain power up there, nor decorative anything. So building the head was pretty straight forward. A pair of bearing sleeves were used for the eye sockets, since they were just small enough that I could set the eyes in and they wouldn't fall out. A great big beak (which was probably a little too big, but oh well), and a little, feathered cranium in the back.

With the head done it was time to attach it to the body.

About here was when I ran into another snag. I had positioned the feet too far forward on the base, which put the birds body too far forward, with its 'center of gravity' right about where the front edge of the base plate was (if you draw a line from the center of the birds body, roughly right in front of where the legs connect, straight down to the ground, you'll see what I mean). This made the bird just a little too forward heavy. It wasn't tipping over, but I was worried that it would be a little too unstable as it was. So it was off to the plasma cutter to chop it loose and reposition!

I wish I had gotten pictures of this next part.... because here is where I start adding feathers and wings and stuff. Buuuut... I forgot to bring my camera. So you guys will have to settle for some rough sketches and fill-in pictures.

In case anyone was wondering... I didn't use patterns for this sculpture. Other then the beak, everything was created free-form. I just find it easier to free-form designs a lot of the time. Unless I need to have a specific look, thus requiring me to take the time to actually make a paper pattern, I just build my large sculptures on the fly.

That's also how I usually how I make feathers. Most feathers don't NEED to have a specific look to them, they just need to have the right general shape so you know what they are. And it's just way too time consuming to draw out individual paper patterns for half a dozen different feathers of assorted sizes and shapes.

As I said, I forgot to take pics of this part of the process. But I drew a quick sketch to show how I draw the feathers on the metal. Since ostrich have large, fluffy, rounded feathers, I drew a lot of big, curved, rounded coma's, squeezing in as many as I could close together. The dashes are to indicate where to cut so it creates a much more feathery look then if I'd left all the pieces solid.

I don't have a picture of the finished feathers either, but you can see how they turned out here.

Since ostrich are raggedy looking birds, I fiddled with the feathering around the edges, bending them in different directions to give them a fluffier, more organic look.

With the feathers ready to go, I built the tail and then the wings. Since the wings needed to have more structure and stability then tail feathers (which were just welded onto the body), I used rebar for the wing frame, welding it in place just in front of the legs so that the rebar frame would all be connected.

If you've ever gone and looked at an ostrich, they have odd shaped wings. They're not quite like other birds that flex out like arms, they're more like an oval paddle with fluffy feathers (or at least that's how the look when the ostrich has them spread). So rather then making a V shape, I curved them like a bow, arching gently away from to the body in a relaxed pose. This way you could see the wings, but they weren't way spread out, which would've made the sculpture even more front heavy..

Here's some sketches of roughly how the wings were built.

Scrap was added around the base of the wings to help not only 'fluffy-up' the outline of the wing, but it also filled in the gap between the wing and the body, making the wings look as if they were part of the whole, rather then separate limbs sticking out the sides.

Again, I wish I'd thought to grab my camera and take pics, because at this point, I thought I was done. The head was built, the wings and tail were built and expertly fluffed. The body was modified to give just a hint of raggedyness. Everything was good.

Uuuuntil I took it home... and discovered one of the welds on the face had broken. And since the face is connected to the head/cranium by only a few welds, it had to be fixed. I was also told by a certain someone.... *coughmomcough*... that it's eyes were weird and made it look angry.

Upon further examination, I decided that yes, the eyes did make it look weird and bug-like. I also decided I didn't really like the way the head looked.

It's so much easier to notice flaws in a design once you have a chance to take it home, get out of the work environment, and just LOOK at it. Unfortunately, it was rather late at night and I had work the next day, so repairs would have to wait.

So, the following week, it was back to the shop!

To Be Continued....

Art In Progress - Scraptrich Pt. 1

Hello all my readers! I have got a surprise for you all today!

Doing something a little different here. This is actually something I've wanted to do for a while now, but have either not had a good opportunity for it, or have just plain forgotten to until it was too late.

But since I had a large commission come my way, it seemed a perfect opportunity!

I often get the question of "How do you come up with these ideas?" or "How did you make this?"

These are questions I secretly have a desire to ramble endless on about (because what artist doesn't enjoy talking about their work?), yet I often dread hearing them, because they are so... hard to answer concisely.
How do you explain the creation of something when it's something really obvious? Like my Horseshoe Frog. It's just a horseshoe with some eyeballs and legs stuck on it. What's there to explain?
Or conversely; how do I explain how I craft something complicated like my Beagle commission? It was based off the owners actual pet, and I spent a good, solid week putting it together, making sure the shapes were accurate, having to make adjustments on the fly, taking extra care to get the coloration correct and put fur texture on it, etc...

These questions have a lot of different answers. As many answers as I have designs and sculptures. But, I am not here to try and explain every single one. I am here to talk about my current project. And perhaps answer some of these questions for all you curious minds.

The Great Scraptrich

 Ok, teeeeeechnically, this is an ostrich. But I like calling it a Scraptrich, in the scrap theme I've been rolling with on similar sculptures.

To start at the beginning....

Towards the start of summer (2012) I was given a commission from a local pottery yard where I sell some of my artwork. A customer was looking for a large ostrich sculpture, and the owner was nice enough to pass the request on to me.

The request itself was simple and open-ended in its design. The customer wanted an ostrich about 4-1/2 ft tall, and they sent me a few images for reference.

Both these designs are very different, but what I got from it was that they were looking for something with a lot of detail. Something that was going to be decorative and interesting to look at. Something more interesting then just a simple cut-out, or a wire frame. They also wanted an ostrich in a 'relaxed' pose. Head up, and either standing or walking.

I like getting commissions like this. It gives me a loose frame work on which to build, but leaves me free to do whatever I want with it.

So, with these design ideas in mind, it was time to get to work!

Time to bring out the time-honored brainstorming tool of any artist.

The Sketch Book

One of the most basic tools of an artist, the sketch book is where ideas are jotted down, designs are fleshed out, themes are experimented with, and in general, it's where an artist does much of their most important preparations prior to beginning on a project.

Of course, if you've been following my blog, you'd know that I am a terrible sketch-booker and don't bother wasting time with all that 'professional brainstorming' silliness.

Since I'd gotten the commission at the start of summer, and didn't actually start working on it till beginning of September, I'd had a lot of time to think over what I wanted to do with it.

I knew right off the bat that I didn't want it to be exceptionally details. There was no way I was going to sit there and cut out 49075642905705739-270 feathers for this bird. I highly doubted they'd want to pay me for the amount of work and time that would take, not to mention the hell it would be actually welding them all together.

Fortunately, I already had a design concept in mind. One I'd used several times before with great success.

I also wanted this sculpture to be partially found object. Not only did this save me from having to create patterns for specific body parts, but it made the overall sculpture more interesting to look at. People always enjoy seeing every day items built into a sculpture and used in unique ways.

Since they didn't say anything about what kind of base they wanted (or lack thereof), or where they were planning to put it, I wasn't quite sure if I should make it free standing or mount it.

I eventually opted to set it on a small, simple base. That would give it better stability then if it was free standing, and it would give the customer the option of adjusting the base according to however they wanted it displayed.

Once I had the general idea of where I wanted to start, I rounded up the materials I needed that I already had on hand.

Pic of my work table here with some of the stuff I was using. 

Rebar for the frame.

The large domed lid was used as a template to mold scrap around it for the body. By welding 2 halves together, it makes for a sturdy, oval-shaped body.

The 13in x 1/4in round plate I used for the base.

Pair of 2-pronged tractor parts. Makes good bird feet.

Lotsa bike chain for the legs.

Pipe for the neck and legs.

Pair of pliers for bending the sheet metal.

Pile of scrap for constructing the body.

Assorted other bits and pieces and tools.

I started off building the body. I didn't have my camera with me, and didn't think to snag my phone, so no pics of that. But I built it the same way I build my Scrapowl/itty/puppy, by taking assorted bits of scrap from around my shop and bending them around the outside of this large serving lid. I welded a few more large scraps along the inside, which gives the body more texture and depth then if I'd left the interior hollow. Once the halves were done, I welded them together, and tada! Body done.

Next was making the basic frame. This is where the rebar comes in. I cut 3 pieces, each 3ft long. Two were bent in half for the legs, the 3rd was gently curved to form the neck. Once I had the rebar legs situated on the base where I wanted them, I set the body on top and welded it in place before attaching the neck. Since I wanted the whole frame to be attached for greater stability, I added a pair of bars branching from the neck to the legs. Then I attached the feet.

Or course, if I'd paid attention to the nagging thought in my head, I wouldn't have fully welded the legs to the body since I was going to string pipe on the legs. But paying attention to nagging thoughts was never one of my strong points. So I ended up cutting them off later.

At this point I needed to flesh out the legs and neck before I continued. Which meant tracking down pipe of the proper size. Too small and the neck and legs would look thin and spindly. Too large and they'd look thick and bulky compared to the body. The pipe also needed to have thin walls, since that would reduce weight. I didn't have anything at the shop, so off to my favorite steel yard I went! And as fate would have it, they had a bunch of pipe in their scrap section, cut at 10ft lengths in the exact size I needed.

Once I had the pipe, I measured it out in 3in lengths in preparation for cutting. I'm a big fan of making things that have a lot of texture and details without actually having a lot of parts or extensive designing. This is why I didn't want the legs or neck to be made with solid pipe. Straight, solid pipe is just not very fun to look at, nor does it lend itself to organic curves. I also don't have a pipe bender for making something like... oh, say, the neck. 

So the pipe was chopped up. During that process though, I would take several sections and string them along the rebar to see how it would look. This is why I decided to chop several smaller sections. The 3in segments just didn't look very good when that was all you had. It didn't flow properly. So I turned part of the pipe into 1-1/2in segments, chopped off a few 2in segments for transition pieces, then chopped most of it into 3in pieces. 

As you can see, even though the pipe is the same, it gives the legs and neck the impression of transitioning from strong and sturdy at the base, to slimmer at the top.

Once all the pipe was in place, I welded the legs back together (see above comment about having to chop them off the body) and started in on the fun details.

Since I wanted knee joints to be prominent, which also serves the purpose of giving the legs a defined angle, I couldn't use the pipe. It would make the legs look too... noodly. So it was off to my assorted junk bins!

Here is where I have to give my Uncle kudo's, because he had this old weight set he wasn't using and he let me scrounge a bunch of parts off it. At the time, I had no idea what I was going to do with these round, black, clampy whatever things. But I figured they'd come in handy for something. And it turns out, they were just the right size and shape for ostrich knees.

Last but not least, the coup de grace!

Ostrich are known for their powerful legs. So I needed to give his bird some impressive looking stompers. The pipe on its own just wasn't going to cut it. It's a good thing I like bike chain. There's just so many fun things you can do with bike chains! I've got a whole box full of chain! And in this case, they made perfect scaling along the lower legs, giving them that touch, rugged look you'd expect from a bird that spends its whole life running around.

Now that the legs were done, and the neck was done, it was time to start building the head and fleshing out the body.

To be continued....

Oh the Joys of Summer Colds

Well.... here it is. Sunday afternoon. 2nd day of September.

Its been a bit tough getting back into the swing of things again. As you all know, my "BIG EVENTS OF THE SUMMER!!!" turned out to be a whole lotta disappointing. It hit me pretty hard, and I was really depressed there for a bit after that. I just didn't want to work on anything. But after a few days of letting it stew and feeling frustrated and unhappy, it worked its way out of my system. Just in time for my Aunty Chris and cousin Tabetha to come up for a visit, and for an awesome case of con-cooties to set in! Woo!

Nothing says AWESOME like getting a cold.
This one, fortunately, wasn't that bad... especially since I had this great nasal spray that kept my sinuses clear. Afrin is great stuff.

No, the bad part was when the cough set in. Tried to go to the shop and get some work done, but being around all that dust and fumes and crap just killed me. Spent most of that evening trying to hack up a lung, which is always a ton of fun, as I'm sure you know.

So here it is... September 2nd... and I haven't really made much headway into my work. Between being sick, work, and depressed, these last couple weeks have just not been super productive.

It was fun seeing my aunt and cousin though. They never come up for visits so this was a nice surprise. And it gave me a chance to go over some of the commission detail with my aunt about her dragons. That's going to be an interesting project this winter.

I also have some better details on that shield I'm going to be making. Already I can picture what I'm going to be doing with it, and it's going to be pretty freakin cool.

And I've been racking my brains for designs with that ostrich. I have it partially built, but I really want it to look nice and detailed. So we'll see what I can throw together with what I have.

Now this weekend has been a bit more productive.


I had a chance to run up to the Midway Swiss Days yesterday (Saturday) to check that out!

This was another show I had applied for but didn't get into. And I nearly missed seeing it this year, because I just completely spaced the date. I thought it was later in September, so it wasn't until I heard someone else talking about it that I realized it was this weekend!

I had heard from other people that some vendors will go up during the festival and set up shop on the side of the road to do some sales. So, after throwing a bunch of stuff into my truck, I cruised up there to check it out and see if I could make some money,

Well... turns out it's not that easy.

Apparently, street side vendors have to make prior arrangements with the property owners surrounding the festival. Most property owners also charge rent on the spaces, and many artists end up paying as much to set up as they would've in the festival.

Maybe I was just on the wrong street... but it didn't seem that setting up a little stand was going to work out at all. But, I did get a chance to wander around the festival itself. And that was fun and enlightening.

There were absolutely TONS of people! This was the kind of festival I'd been hoping for!

I'm going to have to do some serious overhauling on my show registration content. Get me into some of these big shows next year!

I checked out the various booths. Chatted with a few acquaintances. Eventually ended up in the booth of an artist who also crafts steel sculptures.

I think I must've easily spent 20min just wandering the booth looking at everything.

Some people can completely engross themselves in photography. Others in paintings. Or poems. For me, it's sculpture. And their work is so fun and whimsical... I find it inspiring. If I'd had the money, I would've happily splurged $300+ on that booth alone.

I ended up purchasing a small hanging Opossum, a Flat Cat, and a Flying Cat. I REALLY wanted to purchase the Peacock, Armadillo, Rooster, and large Fat Cat.

Now, I know what you're thinking.... why buy metal sculptures when I could just craft it?

This is a trap I find myself falling into. Not wanting to purchase work from an artist because I could just make it myself. But I remind myself that those artists were once just like me. Struggling to make a living out of their work. Trying to figure out where they fit in, how to sell, how to price, how to advertise, how to run a business, etc...

It's not easy. There's no instruction manual. And it's so hard with art because each artist is unique.
Each artists will have different needs, different expenses, different styles, and thus different methods of running their studio.

As an artist trying to make it in this world, I've come to realize how important it is that we fellow artists help each other out. So I like to buy a few things whenever I go to a show now. Even if they're small things... I'm still helping to support my fellow arters and crafters.

Plus... they're pretty dang cute. I love the style. And they're really great for inspiration. Helps me find new ways of looking at designs.

Now I just need to find somewhere on my wall where I can hang my Flat Cat.

Summerfest and Gencon 2012 Recap

Been a while since I've been on here to post. The last couple weeks have been busy-busy-busy, what with the Bountiful Summerfest, followed up by Gencon in Indianapolis.

I wish I could get on here and rave all about how awesomely great the last 2 weeks were, and how all my hopes and excitements and expectations of the whole summer were fulfilled. I could do that... but that wouldn't be an honest representation. It would be sugarcoating events that didn't live up to what I was hoping they would, and what good is recording my thoughts and experiences if all I did was pretend they were all great?

So, I apologize in advance for the grumpy attitude. It's been a little rough on me here, without any real outlet or direction for that irritation.

Also... this is a VERY long post... so I hope you like reading!

As you all know, if you've been following my posts on Facebook, or reading my blog, Bountiful Summerfest was anticipated to be my big event of the year. It was my first real art festival.
 I spent... all summer preparing for it. I poured most of my shop's resources and supplies into preparing for it. I spent tons of money improving the look of my booth.
I skipped out on several weekend camping trips in order to spend time at the shop.
I put several large commissions on hold all summer so that I could devote all my free time to preparing for this one big event.

This was suppose to be my big break. The event where I would finally do really well at. I was anticipating huge crowds, lots of sales, possibly some commissions. I was anticipating and relying on this event to recoup all the money I'd spent over the summer preparing for it.

What I got instead... was stifling hot, muggy weather, followed by rains, and then burning heat. The crowds were anemic at best... not many people were there, and most of the ones who were, were either just window shopping or were spending money on cheap fluff.

I had been told that Bountiful Summerfest was suppose to be a really good art festival. And indeed, the festival itself was very nice. BDAC did a great job of setting it up. They were all very friendly and accommodating. The park was lovely, filled with trees so the vendors had plenty of shade. And there was tasty food and lots of water within easy reach. The other artists who attended were also wonderful. I met a lot of really friendly, really nice people who kept me company during those 3 days.

But as nice as everyone was... it doesn't make up for poor crowds. Indeed... even the other artists said that this year was very slow, and more then a few were hurting for sales.

You can imagine how... disappointing this was for me. I did make some fairly good sales and walked away with a small profit. But it wasn't anywhere near what I'd been expecting. What I was NEEDING it to be. As I said, I poured almost all of my resources into this event, anticipating making most, if not all of it back. I needed to in order to pay for the supplies I needed to start on my big commissions.

It did not make for a good ending to my week.

But, even though the crowds were small and sales were slow, the event had its good points.

As mentioned above, I met some really nice people while I was there. An artist across from me crafts silver jewelry and we spent much of the festival chatting (he had a pair of earrings I really liked, so I traded him my original Wise Luck Owl for the set).
The ladies next to him, who featured paintings, handcrafted drums and jewelry, gave me some good advice on displaying multiple forms of artwork.
Another jeweler down the way was selling some wonderful copper earrings that, had I had the money, I would've snatched up in an instant.
And another couple of ladies further up featured some of the prettiest, most decorative silverware jewelry I've ever seen (I ended up trading a flying pig for one of their fork bracelets).

I also got to know one of the food vendors there. It was a fish and chips and funnel cake booth run by a family, and their daughter absolutely fell in love with my mini flying pigs, and ended up buying one by the end of the festival.

I also ran into a pair of fellow gaming and geekery nerds on my first night, and we spent a long time chatting. They ended up purchasing a whole ton of stuff, which was awesome, and I may have found another gamer for our weekly RPG, as well as some fresh commissions.

And the coolest part of the festival... I won a ribbon! My booth was awarded a "Highly Recommended" ribbon for its awesome layout. And I must admit... I did a pretty good job! I am thoroughly pleased with how it all turned out.

Summerfest was a 3 day event. As soon as it was over, I was off preparing for my next voyage. Because that very next week, I was heading to Gencon in Indianapolis!

Gencon was not a business trip. Sadly, I did not have the money or inventory to attending Gencon as a vendor. Rather, I was attending as just another guest, accompanying my boyfriend and his podcast group, who were there as media covering the event. I haven't been to very many cons in my life, and Gencon is one of the biggest, so I couldn't pass up the chance to go and do that.

Like Summerfest, I had been looking forward to Gencon all summer long. I was excited for the huge crowds, the barrage of awesome cosplay costumes, all the vendors, the games, the events. And of course, being able to spend 3 days with my significant other as well, because this was his first major con too!

And though I wasn't a vendor, I made sure to bring along my Dragon Binder to show off, a stack of business cards to hand out, and I crafted an awesome little Iron Phoenix Dragon to perch on my shoulder. After all... I was attending a gaming convention! It just wouldn't be right if I didn't bring along some of my work to show off!

Unfortunately, it seemed some goblin of mischief tagged along with me, and was determined to turn what should have been a exciting trip into a series of mishaps, mistakes, and miseries.

Nothing seemed to go right for me this trip. Within an hour of leaving my house, part of my shoulder pauldron tore loose, and I didn't have the tools to fix it. I had a couple of my tools (I was gonna bring a pair of pliers, in case some part of my sculptures broke while I was there) confiscated by the airport because they were 'too long' to go on the plane. As soon as we arrived at the hotel and started to unpack, I accidentally caught my fluffy hat feather (the hat cost me $80 btw, I had gotten it from the ren fair in AZ) in the zipper, sucking a huge chunk of it into the zipper, and I was forced to rip it out in order to get it free.

It was not a good start to the trip.

The next day it was rise and shine at 6am (after going to bed late) so that we could get to the con on time. I decked myself out in my new shoulder dragon, my slightly mangled hat, and my Dragon Binder, all excited and looking forward to a great day of exploring and showing off.

Of course... as is often the way with me... I discovered, as we were walking to the con, that the new capris I had just bought were too big for me. Like... falling off my hips too big. And I had no belt. No safety pins. No nothing. This was not good. Unless I wanted to spend all day hiking my pants up, I would need to locate a belt, and fast. (I ended up buying a belt from the first vendor I came across. $30 for a plain, utterly boring leather belt. In hindsight, I should've searched a bit more and found something nicer. But at that point in time, I was desperate)

Well... we got to the con, and ended up parking 2 1/2 blocks away. We didn't know what door to enter into the building, and I ended up getting sent off to what I thought was the entrance, only to find out that, that entrance was just for vendors, so I had to back track. Then it was waiting in line to pick up all my passes and tickets. I got to show off my Binder a bit, and got lots of compliments on the dragon. Already the weight of that Binder was starting to get to me, and I began to wonder if bringing it was such a good idea...

The podcasters in the mean while, were off doing interviews. That first day was very busy for them, and there was rarely time for us to meet up. Which only made my situation worse, because they had the keys to the car, which was my only course of respite.

Have you ever had to spend all day carrying around 20-30lbs of dead weight? It's not fun. Especially when that 20-30lbs is hanging off of a single strap from your shoulder. My muscles burned. My joints hurt. My shoulders were absolutely killing me. My tendonitis was flaring up, making it harder to keep a firm hold of that binder. It felt like my arms were being ripped out of their shoulder sockets and there was no relief. The only time when I wasn't in constant pain was when I could sit down and rest. But I couldn't very well sit forever. And the keys to the car... oh, the wonderful, life saving car... was in the hands of my podcasting companions, who were all busy. At one point, they had to leave in order to pick up either other colleague from the airport and I wasn't able to catch them in time, so I was forced to wait even longer.

The pain of lugging around that massive piece of steel shit was pretty much consuming  every moment of thought at that point. I couldn't focus on anything beyond how much I hated that thing and how fucking BADLY I wanted to get rid of it.

You ever have those times where you are so miserable, so frustrated and angry, that every thought you have is punctuated by cursing and swearing? Yea... that was how my day was going.

FINALLY!!! I was able to get the car keys! Salvation was in sight!

But... they had interviews to do... and couldn't accompany me to the car... so off I went, carrying that horrific beast of misery for 2 1/2 blocks, my muscles screaming at me till I thought I might not be able to make it up there cuz my arms would give out. I finally made it to the parking garage... only to realize that I had no idea what level we were on. I ended up walking up and down the levels about 3 times before I finally located the car (this is AFTER I called to find out where it was parked). By this point I didn't give a flying rats ass about showing anything off, I just wanted it all gone. So everything got shoved in the trunk, and I made my slow way back to finish off the night. Which, also, didn't turn out as planned... since the workshop I'd signed up and paid for coincided with a special invitation only cocktail party that I had planned on attending with the BF. Try as I might, there weren't any other time slots available for any of the other workshops, so I had to skip the party (and never did get to show off the dress I bought for it, since I don't really own any decent clothes).
I did make a pair of scalemail bracers though. Which... I kinda screwed up on, and need to fix. I also made a pair of D6 gamer dice earrings.

I also forgot to grab my camera. So no pics that day.

Another late night followed by an early morning. Not much sleep going on during this trip, and after the previous day, I was dragging hard. But there were things to do, and seeing as they were my ride, I had to be up when they were.

This time, I brought only my dragon. I left the hat and the Binder at the hotel. The dragon, I figured, was small and light enough to not give me much issue. Plus... everyone freakin loved it. How could I not bring it??

On this morning we had the privilege of attending Tracy Hickmans 'Killer Breakfast'. It's a sort of live-action story telling, where Tracy sets up the scene, and the participants have to come up with inventive, funny, stupid, or courageous actions to deal with it. The whole goal is to keep Tracy entertained, otherwise you're 'killed off' and the next contestant takes your place.

Of course, everyone ends up dying at some point! But it was incredibly entertaining to watch, and I got a free T-shirt out of it!

As soon as that was over, I rushed off for my workshop of the day; "Build your Own RPG in an Hour". I was pretty excited about this one, thinking it was going to be some sort of constructive class where we'd build our own little adventure and learn tricks for doing it.

As it turned out... it was basically just 2hrs of brainstorming, where ideas were voted on by the class, and whatever was popular is what we rolled with. Which ended up being some sort of 'Roaring 20's featuring Mechs and Fighting Rings', using lego's that I had absolutely no interest in whatsoever. Total waste of $6 and 2hrs.

Once that finished up, I headed back to the vendor room to begin what would become something of an epic journey for me. You see, this year Dungeons and Dragons were revealing info for their 5th edition. And to commemorate this, they had a special, limited edition, Drow-themed dice set you could collect by doing a series of events.

Personally, I didn't find the dice all that exciting looking. But, I decided that I was going to go for it. I would collect the whole set!

This turned out to be quite a significant challenge... one that would consume most of my free time. I spent a loooot of time sitting around, waiting to get into the events. Since I wasn't signed up for them, I had to buy general tickets and then sit around and HOPE that a spot would be available.

It was during this waiting that my period decided to start up. Middle of the day, at the convention center, with no feminine products on me.

Awesome.

Thank you stupid body for adding insult to injury. Few things irritate a woman more then having their period start up in the middle of vacation in an inconvenient place. Especially a vacation already fraught with mishaps.

I ended up missing my other lecture that day so that I could sit around and try and get those 2 dice. I finally finished up by roughly 5pm when BF and company contacted me. Seemed they'd been having a rough day as well and wanted to get out of there and relax.

Now... here is where my bad day got even worse. I was already in a pretty foul mood, so after we picked up dinner and some beers (they all drink), we headed back to the hotel. Apparently everyone EXCEPT me had brought swim suits. It hadn't even occurred to me. So while they all tromped off to go swimming and sit in the hot tub, I got to sit in the hotel room and take a shower. Then they came back, broke out the beers and a new game and proceeded to have a roaring good time getting drunk and attempting to win their little taverns the most prestige and gold.

I, meanwhile, sat huddled up on the bed cuz they had the A/C cranked up and I was freezing. I worked on putting together my 2nd scalemail bracer (since I hadn't finished it), forcing myself to stay awake, even though my vision didn't want to focus and I was forcing my hands to stay steady. I was really frikkin tired and just wanted to sleep. I don't drink. The game is set up for only 4 people. And I was so tired and cranky, I didn't even want to play. I would've been no fun.

I don't blame them for wanting to relax and blow off some steam. But their blowing off steam was making my night really miserable, and short of getting angry and being a snarly bitch, I had no way of venting that frustration.

That was a very long, late night. Followed yet again by an early morning.

Again... I forgot my camera. Again. So no pictures the 2nd day either.

Third day: My Mission: Find my Uncle Kenneth!

I had received word from my dad the previous day that my Uncle Ken was at Gencon! And so, determined to find him, I spent a good chunk of the morning trying to track him down before heading to my chainmail workshop (yea, I signed up for quite a few of these. Figured if I had something to do, I wouldn't get stuck sitting around bored).

This turned out to be harder then I expected, and eventually resorted to calling my grandma to get my uncles phone number so I could call him. But once I did, I swung by and said hi, showed off my shoulder dragon and my Dragon Binder (yes, I brought it with me that day. But only for a little while to show him).

Part way through the day, I hooked up with one of the podcast cohorts and we made a trip out to the car to unload the days shopping (or in my case, my Binder), and then it was back to the con.

With the day mostly over, a workshop still to go, and a short list of interviews, I knew I was running out of time to get my last dice.

And so, after picking up the supplies to build a Scalemail Dice Bag, I skipped out on the rest of the workshop so that I could devote that time to the last 2 dice events. To my horror, I discovered that the last 2 events, one 1hr long and the other 2hrs, were going to take significantly longer then I had thought. And with the podcast crew planning on finishing up between 5-6, I didn't have 4-5hrs to devote to this!

Starting to feel a bit panicked and worried, I explained to the girl overseeing the game room what my situation was. If I'd had the time to do both events, I would've totally sat there for the wait and gotten them done. But time was not on my side, and neither was my ride home.

Luckily, she was very nice, and after agreeing to do the 1hr event, she said she'd give me both dice.

Score!!

And so, I was able to complete my set! In the end, I spent around 6-7hrs, and $8 attaining it ($12 if you include the 2 tickets I didn't get to spend). And of our little group, I was the only one to do it.

I also got to stomp a snotty teenager into the ground playing a round with the new Underdark miniatures. He was being a cocky snot, expecting an easy win against me. Thus, he blew everything he had in the first round trying to kill my Drider. I ended up losing a bunch of moral in order to save my minion, but it was worth it.

At that point, the kid gloves came off.

I'm usually a pretty nice player in games, not being a particularly competitive person. But if someone's gonna go and try and screw me over right off the bat, getting all cocky expecting an easy win against a girl... well... I wasn't going to take that lying down.

I proceeded to trick him into wasting his one defensive card on a minor attack, then destroyed his hound. His spider quickly followed. His Drow was too far out of range, but the deaths of his minions had cost him too much moral and he couldn't summon any more. I meanwhile, had summoned up 2 more minions, hadn't lost any, and would've slaughtered his remaining forces if we hadn't run out of time.

Our GM said that, that was the first time he'd seen anyone win by killing off the others forces. hahaha. Though 'technically' the fight had ended in a tie, with both of us having 7 moral. But I pretty much considered myself the winner in that case.

By this point the podcasters had finished up for the day so I joined them. I was pretty tired at this point, my feet hurt, and I had some feminine things that needed taking care of. And of course, I had forgotten to bring said feminine things with me *facepalm*.

The guys though... having been busy most of the con, wanted to look around now that they were done. So off we went, giving the vendor room one last look-through. Then it was outside to wander around downtown for a bit, checking out the big monument and the motorcycle rally going on. We eventually made our way to a sports bar to eat dinner, where we encountered a rather unusual food.

Ever seen a deep fried hamburger? Well, now you have!

I was in the mood for pasta, so I ordered this Asian, Chicken Meatball, Spicy-something Pasta. It wasn't as good as I was expecting... a little too tangy, and a little too spicy. But still good.

My feet really needed the rest, because they were really killing me. So sitting down for a while to eat was great.

And then, it was off to the hotel to get packed up and ready to leave.

On this day I actually remembered to bring my camera!! Sadly, I was so busy all day, I didn't have time to really get pics of anything. Couldn't find any big Gencon banners to stand next to. No pics from the D&D booth. All I managed was the one pic of me with the big green balloon dragon, some images of the monument, and the above hamburger *sighs*.

On the plus side, we did see a black chicken limo on the way back to the hotel.

Best. Limo. Ever.

4:30am, Sunday morning.

I had gotten maybe 4-5hrs of sleep. But, our flight was at 8am, so off we went.

As I'm sure you've noticed, I've pretty much spent most of this trip in a stupor of grumpy. I was very much ready to go home and have the whole thing over and done with.

Of course, the mischief goblin decided to make one more hit on me before I could make it to the safety of home. Airport security confiscated my tube of hair gel because it was 'too big'. The same gel I've brought on planes and traveled with before without an issue. The nice, salon hair gel that I'd bought around a year or so ago and wasn't even close to finishing.

That... really urked me.

Yea, I was SO done with this place.

In the end, Gencon ended up being a mix of good and bad. I did have quite a bit of fun. The throngs of people and the costumes were fun to see. The vendors room was full of amazing things. The D&D events, while time consuming, were fun to play. I got to see my uncle, chat with some acquaintances, spend some time with the BF, get a limited edition set of dice, handed out all the remainder of my business cards, and received tons and TONS of compliments on my dragon.

Seriously... I'm pretty sure I caused more then a few cases of whiplash. That Iron Phoenix Dragon... he was pimp. Everyone loved him.

But Gencon was also full of a lot of bad things, miserable things, mistakes and frustrations. So I'm left feeling disappointed and irritated, not sure if the trip was a good one or not.

At least I got some souvenirs... I guess.... 

All in all... it was not how I was expecting those 2 weeks to go. This was suppose to be the highlight of my year. I was going to Gencon! My first art festival! I was finally going to have a huge success with my art! I was gonna geek out at one of the biggest gaming/fantasy/scifi con's in the USA! I was gonna enjoy my geekdom with my BF, and I was so excited for the great things they were going to accomplish with their podcast!

And while they did indeed have a wonderful time... well... I can't quite say the same sadly. One big disappointment on top of another has left me feeling pretty drained and unhappy with all the time and energy I wasted preparing for these events.

This should've been an amazing 2 weeks. Instead... it's just a huge, frustrating disappointment.

But, I suppose such things happen and you live and learn and move on. I definitely learned that I'm just not going to attend conventions with them anymore. Or if I do, then I'm going to acquire my own car, and if necessary, my own room. That way I'm not forced into their schedules and they're not forced to wait on me.

I also have a much clearer idea of the kind of events I need to be aiming for next year.

Now... it's 2am. I've been writing this for about 3hrs now. I think it is time to head to bed.

2 More Days!

Till the Bountiful Summerfest! Woo!!

My first official art festival! I'm pretty excited... and nervous! I've been making tons of different things, new things, big things, small things, and lots of things in between. I'm honestly not sure what will sell and what won't. I haven't had really great sales of anything anywhere to really be able to gauge which of my designs do well and what don't.

I also don't have a lot of small, very cheap things... most of my 'cheap' items are in the range of $30-$50. Which is ok I guess... but I feel like I should have some really affordable things... but I really don't know how to make small, easy things that don't look like crap! I've tried... it doesn't work out very well... I don't even have any designs for really small, easy things.

Soooo... we'll see. This is a big iffy for me, because I've invested so much time and money and resources into this event, and I'm really hoping it works out well.

As a reminder to you all, Summerfest will be taking place in Bountiful, Utah (200 W. 400 N.) from August 9-11. Events start at 5pm-10pm Aug. 9, then will run 11am-10pm on the 10th and 11th.
You can find more information on it here:
http://www.bdac.org/summerfest/summerfest.htm

In other news... *sighs*....... I have really been failing at this summers art shows.

I was SUPPOSE to enter the American Fork Steel Days Art Festival... and I COMPLETELY FORGOT about it...  *facepalm*  For some reason I'd gotten it into my head that there weren't any more art shows in July, so I didn't bother to check my calendar, and thus missed it... then this last week was entry dates for the Midvale art show. This one I remembered... but ended up not entering because it overlapped with Summerfest, and pretty much all my sculptures are coming with me, and the ones that aren't are retired.

The next (and last) art show of the year will be the Sandy Art Show in a few months. That one is pretty decent, so hopefully I'll have something really good to put into that.

Lets see... what else has been going on... hmmm...

Pretty much just preparing for Summerfest. Haven't really extended the 'feelers' much looking for other sales avenues, which I really SHOULD be doing... but I have a few places lined up to check out once this is settled and done with.

Having an actual art festival to attend has done wonders for my little booth. I haven't been terribly picky about my look to date, because all I'd been attending were little farmers markets where you don't have to look great. But for a major event... I've had to step up my game.

It's still far from perfect, but I've been actively trying to improve the look of my booth. Table clothes for my tables, racks and hangers to display my lawn art and hanging sculptures.
Better organization of supplies.
Square card reader so I can now process credit cards.
Real bags! I actually went and ordered a bunch of the heavier plastic trade show bags, so now people actually have something to carry their artwork away in!
Gonna try out these nifty glue dots my cousin gave me... so that I can attach my business cards directly onto sculptures, rather then fiddling with the little plastic tabs.
I also went out and bought a few 49gal. and 32gal. storage bins. That way I can have actual containers to load my artwork in, rather then shoving it willy-nilly into the back of my truck, or storing them wherever there's room in the house.
The one thing I still really want to get, is a fully enclosed canopy for my booth. The one I currently have just has the top cloth, but it doesn't extend over the sides. I really want something where I can fold it down, tie it closed, keep the sun out, etc... but that may have to wait till I have a little more money.

 In terms of other sales... I've been doing surprisingly well on Etsy this last month or so! Quite a few sales, as well as a few special requests, which is pretty awesome. I've also made a few things here and there over the month. Small commissions and requests, many of which I've liked enough to incorporate into my inventory.

Following Summerfest, I'll be out of state attending Gencon in Indianapolis. Sadly, not as a vendor... that is a trip that will have to wait for another time when I have more resources. But, if I have any fantasy-themed artwork left over, I'll take it out with me. Maybe scrounge up a few sales while enjoying the nerdness!

Participating in a Contest

So, today's little blurb isn't so much about my shop or my artwork... actually, it's part of a contest I'm entering over on DeviantArt. haha!

This is the first contest I've tried my hand at on DA, and really, it's the first one I've had any interest in participating in! And so, I must give it my best shot!

The contest is being hosted by the amazing duo Worms and Bones. They specialize in making sculpted plushy monsters and I LOVE THEIR WORK TO DEATH!!  ^__^  It's on my "Hit List of Cool Artists to Buy Stuff From"
http://wormsandbones.deviantart.com/

And here is the information on the contest itself! It'll explain why I'm posting this info up on here. And while you're checking that out, cruise through the comments and see what other people have submitted. There's a lot of great talent there to be appreciated.
http://wormsandbones.deviantart.com/journal/Barbary-Whelp-Contest-is-Open-312879006

Now, since this blog IS mainly for my studio and my art, I do feel the need to jot down some of my thoughts on contests and such.

Hosting a contest is something I've considered a bit, but haven't actually put into progress. It seems to be a good way to get the word out about the artist and give people the opportunity to custom make something they wouldn't otherwise have a chance to purchase otherwise. So I've been taking notes while working on the above contest. Checking out other artists awesome submissions, considering possible rules and restrictions and timelines and such for if I ever decide to do sometime similar.

It's something to keep an eye out for in the future! In the mean time... enjoy the creative works of these 2 talented artists.