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.

Shy, Novice, and Closeted Art Show 2008

For the 3rd year in a row I'll be participating in the Shy, Novice, and Closeted Art Show at 18 High Street in Bethel, Maine. It will be on July 5th from 9am to 4pm. It's been a lot of fun every time I've done it, so if you are in the Bethel area that day for the big art show on the Commons make sure to drop by this smaller show too.

To help promote the show because I enjoy it so much I put together a Squidoo lens for it, even has a map on how to get there.
Shy, Novice, and Closeted Art Show

Here are some pictures from last year's show:

Writing About My Business

Not my personal business of course, I mean Noadi's Art and even more specifically how I do things. It's been a slow evolution for me to become really serious about my artwork as a business. First I just though if I get better at sculpting I'll make money, well that's not really how it works. There's so much more that goes into this that I didn't even imagine when I started a few years ago.

Marketing and branding my business were things I never even considered. I started this blog just as an easier way to keep people updated on what I'm doing than updating my main website all the time. Now I understand that blogging can be a big part of letting people know who I am and promoting my artwork.

It's getting into that time of year when art festivals start cropping up locally and I have to decide which ones to participate in and do a lot of preparation for it all. So all of these things have come together in a series of Squidoo lenses that I've been working on. Partly to help other people and partly as a reminder to myself of what I need to be doing. I hope you check them out and I really hope you learn a couple things.

Make you Handmade Products Stand Out!
Preparing for an Art or Craft Festival
Branding you Handmade Products

I will be participating in a few art festivals, still working out details on which ones but I'll let you know when I know.