Happy New Year

Things have been pretty crazy here lately, between the holidays, running Noadi's Art (I had a very busy holiday season), and the horrible cold I'm suffering from. I hope you all had a great year and that 2009 will be even better! Once I'm over this cold I plan to do some retrospective blog posts talking about how 2008 went for Noadi's Art however right now cold meds are messing with my concentration.

I bought Noadi's Art a Xmas present: a postal scale. Should really save time and my dad's patience since I often ask him to do post office runs for me.

Running out of time to order

If you want to order anything from Noadi's Art for Christmas I must receive all orders by tonight. I plan to be up until at least 2am EST Friday morning packing up orders. After my mail run Friday morning I really can't guarantee anything I mail out will arrive by Christmas.

If you want to order after today please either email me directly at NoadiArt@gmail.com, convo me on Etsy, or use the "Ask the seller a question" link on eCrater and we can discuss expedited shipping which I'll need to invoice you for. Expedited shipping is generally quite pricey so please if you want to save some money, order today.

Stocking Stuffers

Looking for some lower priced gifts this year? I have some fun jewelry and ornaments for under $15. The lower price also means you don't need to feel guilty if a kid in your life breaks them, however I don't recommend my jewelry for very young children because there is a potential choking risk from the small pieces.

Cthulhu's Gems are inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and are gray tentacles wrapped around a glass gem. The standard necklace with a leather cord is $12.50, or with a sterling silver chain for $15.75.

Bubble Gem Cephalopods are fun polymer clay squid and octopus sculpted around a glass gem, I have both necklaces and pins priced at $10.

Dragon Ornaments are tiny dragons wrapped around glass gems and are priced at only $5.50. I only have a very small number of these left.

Clay Experiment and New Biz Cards

I had fun last night working with a new clay mix. I really love how it turned out. The mix is 1/4 block promo frost translucent clay, pinch of purple premo, healthy scoop of sparkle copper pearl ex (the larger sparkley pieces), and small amounts of misty lavender and true blue pearl ex.

I also just got some great brand new business cards that I ordered from Zazzle. I'm so happy with how they turned out. the quality of the printing is very nice.


I'm writing a review of Zazzle for the Handmade Business Blog tomorrow so keep an eye out for it.

Holiday Kick Off and Announcement

To kick off the big holiday shopping weekend I'm offering free shipping on all jewelry and ornament orders, reduced shipping on sculpture, and free tentacle charms with all cuttlefish jewelry between Friday November 28th and Monday December 1st. You can check out the deal on both my Etsy Shop and my eCrater Store.

My other announcement is of a new blog. I just launched the Handmade Business Blog. It'll be all about the business side of creating, marketing, using different websites, goign to craft fairs, etc. I really hope it becomes a good resource

Etsy Tips

I put together a little article about promoting an Etsy shop yesterday. Most of this information also applies to promoting any handmade shop online but I focused it on Etsy to highlight a few sites that only allow Etsy submissions.

Tips for Promoting an Etsy Shop

Another Post on Packaging

I know I've talked about packaging before but I'm going to do it again because I think it's an important way to make your customer see how much you care about the products you make. I have a whole Squidoo lens dedicated to the idea, you really should go check it out: Make your Handmade Products Stand Out.

The reason I thought about this subject again was that I attended an Etsy Virtual Lab Wednesday night on packaging and it was full of good ideas. One thing that was really stressed was that just sending out your products in it's pretty packaging isn't enough when you're sellign online. You should show your customers exactly the type of packaging that your product will be coming in. The best way is of course to include a photo of your packaging in the product listing.

Here are some examples of my packaging that I photographed last night:

And here is a new video I put together to replace the older one:

Branching off into hair jewelry

I don't know how obvious it is from my profile photo here on the blog but I have very long hair, down past my waist, and I love getting new barrettes and hair sticks to hold it up. So why not make some? Well that's what I've done.

First up here's some cuttlefish hair sticks, click the link under the pics to go to the shop page they're on.

Night Sky Cuttlefish Hairsticks with Moonstone

Green Cuttlefish Hairsticks with Aventurine and Snowflake Obsidian

Next up is an experiment, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with this series yet. It's a nudibranch (sea slug) barrette.

Blue and Yellow Nudibranch Barrette

Noadi's Art Included in Gift Guides

This is pretty exciting I was featured in two holiday gift guides this week. The first is from Bird on a Wire's Favorite Things 2008. The link will take you to the page for the guide but the actual gift guide is in PDF format.

The second is this very cool video gift guide from Polymer Clay TV.

Cuttlefish Experimentation

So the election and post-election celebration so back to your regularly scheduled Noadi's Art programming.

I recently finished a couple new cuttlefish that were experiments in new techniques.

First is this Violet Cuttlefish. I've done a cuttlefish in this color scheme before but the change in this one is that instead of painting the cuttlefish I used a purple blend of premo and super sculpey with just a little bit of painting for accents. The varnish has misty lavender pearl ex mixed in.


The slightly bigger experiment in colored clay is this Ancient Bronze Cuttlefish. I blended up some green and browns in premo and super sculpey and mashed them all together but didn't blend the colors much to give it a mottled look. Then I rubbed pearl ex powders on the raw clay in super bronze, aztec gold, and spring green, trying to keep the green on green spots and the metallic on brown spots then popped it in the oven. A coat of varnish makes all my cuttlefish shiny and also seals in the powder and paint.



I also rethought my cuttlefish bracelets and have two nice looking ones now that I'm happy with.

Obama has won

I haven't been able to vote all that long, I'm only 26 but this is the first election I really been excited and uplifted by the result. That's all I have to say, someone else once put it much better than I could:

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Go here for the full speech. We did it Dr. King, we elected a black man because he was the best candidate not because of his race. I wish you had lived to see this day.

Get out there and VOTE!

No sculpting related news today I just want to urge everyone who can vote in the US elections to get out and vote! Participate in our quirky form of democracy. Don't forget your local elections and referendum questions as well.

As this post is scheduled to go up I'll probably be out casting my vote for Obama. Hey, I'm a godless liberal what did you expect?

more animals

Commissioned Sculpture Update

This commission has been giving me headaches lately. I don't know why such a simple pose is giving me so much trouble but it is and I feel guilty that I'm not further along than I am.

Packaging Video

Happy Halloween!

I put together a little video on how I package my jewelry when I ship them out. Hope it gives you some ideas and make sure to check out the Squidoo lens I have on the topic: Make your Handmade Products Stand Out! Using Creative Packaging

New Cuttlefish Complete

So here are the newest cuttlefish. As you can see the translucent ones turned out quite well. I also made a much darker cuttlefish as well. This was also an experiment with colored clay, this time pure black clay colored with just a little red paint and Pearl Ex powders in Super Russet and Blue Russet.

Goodies Arrived

My supplies arrived today and I'm all excited to start making stuff with them. Click the picture below to go to flickr and see it all labeled with what everything is.

Also in the package were a couple other cool things with the package. First this is what I saw when I opened the box which I thought was really great. Also this incredibly bright pink tote bag, cute but not my thing so I gave it to my mom.

Translucency Test

Now that I have some test cuttlefish with this new clay blend I needed to test just how translucent it really is. I'm very pleased with the results. Here's a photo of the cuttlefish pendant held up to a candle.

I eyeball amounts when mixing clay so this isn't exact but the mix is basically 1/4 of a 2oz package of premo frost, a pea size ball of white premo, a smidgen of blue premo (maybe 1/6 of the size of the ball of white). You want to add just enough white and blue to make the premo frost look whiter, it's normal color is a little beige or cream colored but much less so than normal translucent premo.

Next up is painting these cuttlefish. I need to be very careful to only slightly tint them with paint and pearlex, I don't want to hide the translucency at all. I'll probably wait until after my new beads arrive to start painting because I want to be able to compliment the bead colors nicely.

Winter Cuttlefish Test

So I've sculpted the first winter cuttlefish pendants and earring bases. Took me a bit to get just the right blend of clay, I wanted translucent but needed it whiter so I added a tiny bit of white and even tinier bit of blue premo to premo frost so get my mix. Here's what they look like compared to my usual peach base.

Winter cuttlefish may not remain the name of this line depending on if I decide to keep making them throughout the year. Haven't decided on an alternative name though (anything but pastel cuttlefish).

New ideas and waiting for supplies

So I ordered some jewelry supplies Thursday night. Lots of nice goodies to play with when they arrive. I ordered from Firemountain Gems and they have lots of cool stuff and an even cooler assortment deal. I had picked out 12 items that I wanted and it came to about $46, little notice on my shopping cart said that if I ordered 15+ items I get the discounted prices for them, so I picked out 3 more things and guess what? The cost actually dropped to $37! Now that's pretty cool.

So I'm still waiting for my stuff to arrive, according to FedEx that will be Thursday. In the meantime since my wrist still hurts I'm planning new designs that will use my new goodies. Some of the things I ordered are little glass bottle pendants, I'm thinking tiny Perma-Pet necklaces.

I also got some nice pastel gemstone beads and I was thinking about making some winter cuttlefish using translucent clay mixed with a little blue and white and tinting with pearl ex in various wintry colors.

Not entirely sure how I'm going to decorate them yet but I ordered some blank barrettes and hairsticks.

I'm sure other ideas will come to me once I have my little paws on my new supplies and can start playing with them.

Rather frustrated with myself

So I had this rather cheap chair for use at my desk, a couple weeks ago I noticed the seat was slightly tilted and I knew that wasn't good. I had been planning to buy a new chair but had been procrastinating. Last night I learned why that was a bad idea.

The chair broke completely dumping me on the floor. I'm sure it probably looked absolutely silly and hilarious but it also really hurt. I landed with all my weight on my right wrist and sprained it rather badly. So no sculpting for me for a few days at least and now I have no choice but to go buy a new chair this weekend so I can return the one I'm sitting in right now to the dining room.

Behold the Xmas Platypus

This idea has been floating around in my head for actually a couple years now and I just never found the time to do it. I was thinking this week that I should start getting ready for holiday sales and what better way to start? I don't take Christmas or other holidays seriously so I like strange and silly stuff. He's sculpted in polymer clay and painted in acrylics with holly leaves and berries on his tush.

This is up for sale, you can find it in my Etsy shop.

Want a free necklace?

Running a quick promotion for my new Etsy Shop anyone who buys anything at all from my shop in the next 24 hours (ending 9pm eastern time tomorrow) gets a free Cthulhu's Gem necklace with a leather cord.

Happy Cephalopod Appreciation Day

Today is the 2nd Annual International Cephalopod Awareness Day!

You all know how much I love cephalopods so I'm celebrating. So where has my obsession gone since last year? Well I'm still making Perma-Pets and now I have the Cuttlefish Jewelry to add to the mix as well as Ammonite Jewelry celebrating fossil cephalopods.

So since people ask on occasion why I like cuttlefish so much (everyone knows squid and octopus) here's a list of the cool things about cuttlefish:

• Cuttlebones for buoyancy
• Many species have amazing skin changing abilities
• Some cuttlefish even hypnotize their prey with a flashing skin pattern
• Green-blue blood
• W-shaped pupils
• Pfeffer's Flamboyant Cuttlefish's muscles contain a powerful toxin

More on Cuttlefish from Wikipedia

You can find my cephalopod art and jewelry both on my eCrater StoreEtsy Shop.

Finally made up my mind.

It took a while but I did finally make up my mind about what to sculpt for the center of that lavender necklace: a seahorse. I managed to match the colors quite closely with premo (didn't paint this one other than the eye and clear coating it) and added some pearl ex powders in micro pearl, misty lavender, and interference violet.

I also made a small pair of matching earring with two more of the briolette beads. It's up for sale on Etsy.

Announcing my Etsy Shop

Yep, I've finally worked out some issues with registering for Etsy and have now opened a shop there. I'm really excited about this, Etsy is the biggest site out there for selling handmade products.

You can check out my shop at noadi.etsy.com.

Can't Make Up My Mind

I bought some really pretty glass beads last weekend, lavender briolettes (teardrop shaped with a hole through the point) and oblong frosted clear beads. I put them together with some clear size 6 seed beads, those are the larger of the two common sizes, on my bead board into a very pretty necklace design. I also made wire-wrapped dangles with 3 of the briolettes, 2 are for earrings. The third is where my problem comes in, I want to sculpt a central pendant with that briolette hanging from the bottom.

I have no idea what to sculpt! I'm totally drawing a blank, about all I've decided is that it should be in the same general color palette as the beads. This is a very different design in color and mood than what I normally do so it's really frustrating me, flowers come to mind but so many designs use flowers.

Gearing Up for the Holidays

I'm working on new stuff for the holidays, mostly jewelry, some ornaments, and small sculpture. What would you like to see more of?

I don't know if I've announced this before but if you wish your order to be gift wrapped just tell me so in the notes when you order or drop me an email right after ordering to let me know. Please don't wait long, I'm likely to have already packaged it up and shipped it. I can also include a card if you let me know what you'd like to be written on it.

I've Been Blogged

I was blogged about today on Smitteniche, a very cool blog that shows off the work of indie artists and designers. They featured my Perma-Pets and I love what the writer Jess says about them:

I’m one of those folks who can’t seem to keep a pet fish alive for more than a week at a time, so these Perma-Pet Sculptures (one of a kind mixed media creations by Noadi’s Art) really captured my attention!

Perma-Pets are sculpted polymer clay sea creatures, suspended in clear acrylic resin inside a little jar. Each pet is a one of a kind, hand-painted piece — and it’s guaranteed to “live on”, no matter how often you forget to feed it! *Shuffles feet and whistles innocently*

Smitteniche » The Daily Bite: Noadi’s Art

Some Announcements

A few things going on to let you know about. First of all Noadi's Art has undergone a complete redesign and I'm now using wordpress to run the site which makes things much easier.

Next, my shop is being featured on the Savings-Online.com holiday shopping guide. It's pretty cool so check it out.

Also my work will be featured in an upcoming episode of Polymer Clay Podcast which will be their holiday gift guide. I'll post a link to the episode when it is up.

Green Dragon Ornament

I sculpted this a few days ago and rather like how it turned out even though it wasn't what I planned. Originally the dragon was on a glass ball that I painted the inside so it was all gold and green. I kind of dropped the ornament after baking the dragon so I had to carefully remove the dragon from the broken glass and made the egg to attach him to. I only dropped it about 6 inches onto the counter taking it out fo the toaster oven but it doesn't take much to break a piece of hot glass.

The dragon is sculpted from various shades of premo polymer clay tinted with pearl ex pigments. The egg is scrap premo painted in acrylics. It's about 3 inches tall with a satin ribbon hanger. It is up for sale here.

More changes to my store

I'm continuing to reevaluate my prices and what jewelry I'm going to continue to make. I've already stopped making the cephalopod bubble gem jewelry and marked those down to $10. Now I've dropped the prices on my Cthulhu's Gems necklaces, $12.50 for the ones with the leather cords and $15.75 for the ones with silver chains. I've wanted to have a broader range of prices for a while but I've been agonizing about exactly what the new prices should be but I think I've come up with reasonable prices for the complexity and time involved.

Been Busy This Week

When I'm stressed I work even more than usual, it gets my mind off things. My uncle is in the hospital and this are just generally awful with that. So this week I did quite a bit of work.

First some jewelry stuff. Here's the list:

• Green Trilobite Necklace
  
• Blue Trilobite Necklace
• Round Ammonite Pendant
• Teardrop Ammonite Pendant
• Blue Trilobite Earring Drops
• Green Trilobite Earring Drops
• 4 Watermelon Cuttlefish Earring Drops
• Watermelon Cuttlefish Pendant
• Jellyfish Earring Drops
  
• Faux Fossil Fern Pendant
• Wire Wrapped Faux Stone Pendant
  
• 8 little polymer clay cabochons
  

Second, I've been working on the sculpture commission some more and it still looks all rough and weird but it's coming together some more.

Brand New Jewelry

So I've been busy this week making jewelry. First are a brand new design I made using some new premo frost along with purple and yellow premo and some pearl ex pigments. They are tiny little jellyfish earrings and they are quite translucent and almost glow when back lit.

I also sculpted 10 cuttlefish pendants and 30 tiny cuttlefish for earrings (told you I was busy). Here are the first batch I've finished painting. If you notice there's onyl one pair of earrings, that's because I ran out of earring hooks and need to buy some more this week.

From left to right. Top row: Violet Cuttlefish Necklace, Watermelon Cuttlefish Necklace. Bottom row: Mechanical Cuttlefish Jewelry Set, Midnight Cuttlefish Necklace.

I also put together this little video of some of my cuttlefish jewelry. These are all slightly older ones since I did it before finishing these new ones.

Bubble Gem Cephalopod Jewelry Sale

I've decided to stop making my bubble gem cephalopod jewelry and to clear out my inventory of them to make room for new projects. To help do that I've lowered the price, you can now snap them up for $10 a piece, down from $25. Bubble Gem Cephalopod Jewelry

Follow me on Twitter

I've recently begun using Twitter more. If you aren't familiar with Twitter it's basically a mini-blog/social network where you can have conversations or just see what someone is up to. I use it for all those little things that aren't worth a full blog post here (like announcing a new listing in my shop) or is off topic. So, if you would like the most up to date news on what I'm doing or to get a heads up on new stuff go over to my Twitter profile and follow me.

Update on the Commissioned Sculpture

Here's a little update on my sculpture commission. This is the sort of messy, ugly looking stage that I hate showing but just wanted to show everyone reading that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth and have made progress on this sculpt.

The body and neck still need a lot more filling out and you can see that I've constructed the basic shape of the drapery. I've left a lot of room to be able to build up the folds, under a very thin layer of clay is some wireform mesh. I love that stuff, it's you've never tried it, wireform mesh is made by Amaco and is a very flexible fine aluminum mesh that you can cut and shape really easily (heavy duty scissors will do the trick). Great stuff for fabric, wings, and other thin areas that need support.

Started on New Commissioned Sculpture

So I've begun my latest commissioned sculpture, Mike is a wonderful client to work for since he really didn't specify anythign more than final cost and that he'd like a full figure (he already has a bust I created for him). Things are still very rough right now, only an armature but I have an idea where this is going to go. I ran across these gorgeous stock photos on DeviantArt by Lockstock while browsing for reference photos last week.

I'm going to be doing a combination of these two poses and all that lovely drapery, it's size is 1/8 scale (a little over 8 inches). Here's the armature, it's mostly aluminum wire though the weight bearing leg also has a piece of much stiffer steel wire reinforcing it and helping anchor it into the base.

It doesn't show that well in the photos but the fingers have some extremely fine beading wire wrapped aroudn the fingers and then secured with a little super glue. I always have trouble getting clay to stick well on fingers and when I saw this wire I thought it would be perfect, it's really not much thicker than a hair or piece of thread that's how fine it is. Since I'm going to be doing so much detailed drapery in this sculpture I made the arms so they can be removed, the head can also be removed to make working on it easier.

I used a little aluminum foil for bulking and then covered it all with Sculpey Ultralight which after baking is much more secure than just foil and I can write on it. You can see the center lines I drew on the chest and head as reminders of the positioning I want.

To support the drapery I'll be using some wireform mesh, it hasn't been added yet because I had to order more (probably won't arrive for at least another week, a few things are backordered) and I also think it might be easier to get some of the torso roughed in before adding the mesh.

On A Roll and Paintbrush Cleaning Tip

My sales have been picking up lately which is really great. However now I need to make some more jewelry to replace the pieces I've sold.

I'm also solidifying an idea for my commissioned sculpture, I'll share it once I'm happy with my plan. Now I need to order supplies, I'll be doing that this weekend.

Got some a cool new sculpting Squidoo lens to share Introduction to Sculpting in Polymer Clay.

Tips for all of you who paint with acrylics. Get some Dawn Power Dissolver it clean brushes beautifully, even ones that have paint caked in them of you let them soak in it for a while. I cleaned up all my brushes last night and even managed to salvage a few I thought were done for. I have no idea if it will work for paints other than acrylic but it's worth a try and if it doesn't work you can clean pots and pans with it (works great on those too, I cleaned my countertop grill with it today and that is usually pretty tough).

Got a New Commission

So I received a sculpture commission this week from the same client who commissioned the Lionfish Mermaid. I want to do a full figure sculpt for him, it'll probably be about 6-8 inches high. Only problem is I have no idea what I'm going to sculpt right now. He doesn't want it until around Halloween so I have plenty of time (he lives in New Orleans and wants it shipped after hurricane season which is completely understandable). I've got a few ideas floating around in my head but nothing that has solidified yet into something I want to sculpt.

I have to say I've had such an amazing couple of weeks that I haven't really come down off it yet. A free plushy, art shows, an award, sales, and a commission. Also apparently there's a surprise in the mail for me from bdkz for being a giant squid on Squidoo.

Norway Sidewalk Art Show Recap

Now that I've had a couple days to recover from the art show it's time for a recap.

I got to the show about 8am, signed in and dropped off Odin's Runesong for judging then headed over to my spot to set up. I have to say that I hate my canopy, it takes forever to set up and it's not as sturdy as I'd like. I got two folding tables for my booth and it became very clear that I need another one next time, I just didn't have quite enough room for everything. Since I do jewelry as well as sculpture my spot was with several other jewelry artists. I had a great time talking to them and swapping ideas.

The show started at 9am and that's about when people started coming by. I have no idea how many people came through during the day but it was quite a crowd. Early in the morning I heard someone at the next jewelry booth talking about eCrater so I popped over to check it out and found out it was another eCrater seller that I know from the forums.

I brought along some little bookmarks I'd made with a rubber stamp I'd made from carving an eraser and gave those away to little kids (if you're curious the stamp is of an octopus). That was a big hit. I know a lot of kids like my sculpture (especially the animals) but how many parents are going to get their 5-year-old a $65 Perma-Pet, so the bookmarks I thought were a way to make them a little less disappointed and it worked. Another big hit was the little brochures I printed out aboout my work. I lot of people snagged those so hopefully some will then visit the website and buy something.

I didn't really sell much, just a couple of my small ornaments. Several people were very interested in my sculpture, including one person who said if he wished he had $750 in cash to buy An tEach Uisce (I made sure he left with a business card and brochure, who knows maybe he'll call to buy it).

About 1pm show volunteers went around handing out the announcements for the awards. I just about had a heart attack when I saw that I had won the Honorable Mention award for Odin! Obviously that was the highlight of my day.

About 2pm I had to go up to the gallery for picture taking. I had my picture taken with Odin for myself. For the local paper I had my picture taken with the other winners, US Senator Susan Collins, and some of the show organizers. Afterwards I brought Odin back to my booth and got a round of applause from the booths around me.

The rest of the day went pretty well, and I wrapped things up around 4pm. I'm still recovering a bit, it was a long exhausting day and I got a terrible sunburn even using plenty of sunscreen.

Here's a slide show of the photos I got.

Big Eye Dummies

Well I had been planning to write today about preparing for the Norway Sidewalk Art Show but I got a surprise in the mail today.

A while ago I came across this Squidoo lens on these really cool designer plush animals called Big Eye Dummies. I thought they were really cute and I left a comment saying so. The concept is great, they are cute, comical, plush animals with interchangeable magnetic eyes and mouths.

Today when I checked my mail there was this package for me. I wasn't sure what it could be, I haven't ordered anything recently. I open up the box and there's Hanna Hopper and a very nice letter from the designer thanking me for my kind words.

Also this cute robot drawing.
Big Eyed Dummies Official Site
Big Eyes Dummies Blog

YouTube Video about the Dummies

Shy, Novice, and Closeted Art Show Recap

So I've recovered from the show, so now for the recap.

Everything started around 9am Saturday, I arrived with a bunch of flowers to help decorate Janet's house. People started arriving almost as soon as we started. Along with the art we had some very yummy goodies, coffee cake, cookies, and limeade (that was a big hit).

There was so much great art at the show this year, and a nice variety of mediums. We had oil, watercolor, and acrylic paintings, photography, metal sculpture, jewelry, polymer clay, paper mache, mixed media. It's amazing the amount of talent in the area!

I got a lot of compliments and great feedback on my artwork even though I didn't sell anything. The consensus was that I should graduate to the big art show on the commons because I'm no longer shy, novice, or closeted. It's a huge compliment and I hope it happens.

Speaking of the Bethel Art Fair on the commons, I took a walk up an looked around. Some great art but definitely lacking in sculpture. Tom White had his bronzes there and they are amazing (and I had a nice chat with his wife who is goign to send me some info on foundries) but that was about it. There were a few jewelry artists but no one doing anything in polymer clay. So I'll definitely stand out if I do the show, whether that would translate to sales is difficult to know.

Overall it was a fun and very exhausting day. Huge, huge, thanks to Janet Willie and everyone else involved with the show!

Here's a slideshow of pictures from the show.



Shy, Novice, and Closeted Artshow on Squidoo

Shy, Novice, and Closeted Art Show Today!

It's currently just before 8am a time when I'm usually quite asleep. I'll be leaving for the art show shortly. It's running from 9am to 4pm though I probably won't be home until well after that. Remember if you're in the Bethel, Maine, area stop by to see my art.

In related news Noadi's Art Shop has been put on hold for the day since some of the items for sale are also at the show. The store is still there and all the items, but the buy now buttons are gone, it'll be back tonight when I return from the show. It will also be on hold next Saturday as I do the Norway Sidewalk Art Show.

Update: I'm home, the store is no longer on hold. I'll write a post about the show tomorrow, right now I'm in desperate need of sleep.

Tentacle Bug WIP

Finished sculpting this little tentacled bug Monday night. It's sculpted from super sculpey and is about 2.5 inches long. Turned out kind of cute actually. He still needs to be painted and I want to make little terrarium of his "natural environment" as a display.

Rainbow and Sculpey Ultralight

So yesterday was one of those days when the weather just can't make up it's mind. It switched off and on between light rainshowers and sunshine. Now that's a perfect recipe for a rainbow and about 8 o-clock PM (yes, I am far enough north that the sun is still up at 8pm this time of year) I caught this one. I've tried taking photos of rainbows before usually without success but these photos came out quite nicely.

Now to something about sculpting. A few weeks ago I picked up a package of sculpey ultralight to try out for making armatures. There are just times when aluminum foil isn't the best choice for an armature. For example sometimes the foil can show through when using translucent clay, like on my cuttlefish pendants and permapets. I decided that for large armatures that what would probably work best is still to use aluminum foil and maybe cover it with ultralight when using transluscent clays (I wouldn't bother with opaque clays like my gray super sculpey mix unless I really needed to cut down on weight). I just realize one very useful benefit of this clay as an armature tonight, I can draw guide lines on it.

The downside of ultralight is that it's a little chalky and not as strong as other armature materials like axpoxie sculpt so I wouldn't use it to support weight, only for bulking out so I may not use if much for really large pieces. For things like my cuttlefish earrings where weight is a big consideration for the wearer's comfort it's perfect.