And the winner is...

So the final tally for voting on the new animal ornament is in. The Dumbo Octopus won.

However I already make octopus ornaments so really that is just a variation not a new animal. So here is what I'm going to do. I will make a dumbo octopus variation on my octopus ornaments but I still need a new ornament design so that brings us to the runner up: the Sea Otter.

So I'll be making otters as well as dumbo octopus. I hope to have some of the new ornaments of both designs in the shop within the next couple weeks.

Things are Getting Busy

Lots of upcoming events here at Noadi's Art. New holiday goodies are right around the corner, I'll be announcing the new ornament design tomorrow afternoon (go vote for your choice). I'm also making lots of new jewelry and ornaments, and I will finally be adding my seashell jewelry to the shop in the next couple weeks.

This is my busy season so there are lots of upcoming events and deadlines. Here's the timeline for the moment, I've also created a page here with all the information.

October

• International Cephalopod Awareness Days - October 8-10 - Sale on cephalopod jewelry plus a giveaway each day.
• Custom Order Deadline for Sculpture & Art - October 15
• Halloween at the Portland Flea-for-All - October 27-28 - Come shop for a last minute addition to your Halloween costume if you are in the Portland, Maine area. Flea-for-All hours are 10am-5pm.

November

• Custom Order Deadline for Jewelry - November 15
  
• Pre-Thanksgiving Shopping at the Portland Flea-for-All - November 17-18 - Flea-for-All hours are 10am-5pm.
• Black Friday-Cyber Monday Sale - November 23-26 - Kicking off the holiday shopping season in the Etsy shop.
• Holiday Shopping at the Portland Flea-for-All - November 24-25 - Flea-for-All hours are 10am-5pm.

Cephalopod Necklace Options

Etsy has rolled out a great new prototype feature so listing variations. This means that for some of my jewelry you can now select the length of the cord and it's material.

I'm still working on updating all the listings. When I'm finished you will be able to choose the length and cord material for all cephalopod, sea horse, trilobite, and horseshoe crab necklaces.

Specimen jars and Lovecraftian jewelry are still going to be resized by custom request only.

Just a reminder, you can still vote on which animal I create as an ornament this year.

Holiday Preparations

I'm ramping up production for the holidays and I'm asking for input. Every year I add to the roster of animal ornaments than I make, like the platypus and ceolocanth. Last year I added a beaver thanks to my brother mistaking on of the platypuses for a beaver.

This year I'm letting my fans pick. Go over to facebook and vote on which animal you want to see me make this year. If you don't like the options you can add your own. I'll use the animal with the most votes by Sept. 26 (in the event of a tie, I'll be the deciding vote).

Cthulhu Trivia #1

CTHULHU TRIVIA #1 Answer today's question correctly for a chance to win a 4"x5" Cthulhu Spawn Print. The question will be open from 12pm-8pm EDT. I'll randomly pick one correct answer to win.
Rules:

1. Open to US residents only (sorry). 
2. You must include a valid email address. 
3. You must answer the question correctly. 
4. You can only answer the question once, duplicate entries will be deleted. 
5. There is no 5.

Click here to answer the trivia question.

The Shadow over Labor Day

Monday, September 3rd, is Labor Day in the United States. Friday, August 31, I'll be the featured Artist of the Day for the Call Girl of Cthulhu Kickstarter campaign. They will be giving away a special Cthulhu figure to one person who support the project that day.

Since these two events are the same weekend and I usually do a small Labor Day sale I decided to make it a Cthulhu weekend. Here's a rundown of the weekend goodies:

• 10% Off Sale on Etsy
• Cthulhu Figure Giveaway from the Call Girl of Cthulhu project on Friday
• 3 Giveaways of a 4"x5" Cthulhu Spawn print on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Here's how the print giveaways will work: I will post a Cthulhu related trivia question each day on Facebook and Twitter with a link to the question on Google Docs at 12 pm EDT and you'll have until 8pm EDT to answer the question. At 8pm I will close the quiz, reveal the correct answer, and pick one correct answer randomly to receive the print.

Call Girl of Cthulhu

I was asked to participate in a pretty cool project. The creators of a film project titled "Call Girl of Cthulhu" approached me to donate one of my Cthulhu Figures to be given away during the Kickstarter campaign to raise money to make the film. I don't usually donate my work except for the occasional local charity but it's a Cthulhu movie so it's a worthy cause in my opinion. Here's how they describe the movie on Kickstarter:

CALL GIRL OF CTHULHU

She's turning wet dreams… into NIGHTMARES.

A virginal artist falls in love with a call girl who turns out to be the chosen bride of the alien god Cthulhu. To save her, he must stop an ancient cult from summoning their God and destroying mankind.   

Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, "Call Girl of Cthulhu" is the result of months of research, aiming to create a gory, fun homage to the master of horror.  

The entire screenplay is one giant Easter Egg for Lovecraft fans. 

With endless slimy monsters, an ancient cult, and a healthy dose of T & A (tentacles and ass), we're going to need our biggest budget yet. 

If our Kickstarter campaign is successful, "Call Girl of Cthulhu" will be the sixth feature film from our Baltimore based production company, Midnight Crew Studios.  

I decided to use this project as a way to see if I could improve my Cthulhu Figures a bit. First thought was to use some of the black swarovski crystal rhinestones I have for eyes and then I thought a base would be a great idea (one I've had before and just never did). I'm really happy with the results and I do plan to make more with bases but not the rhinestone eyes (like the effect but not enough to deal with the headaches of setting them evenly.

The giveaways for the Kickstarter project will be starting around August 28, and 35 Etsy artists have donated items to giveaway to backers of the project. You can follow Call Girl of Cthulhu on Twitter and on Facebook to find out more.

Clay Vacation is Over! Also Other News.

So my 30 days vacation from touching any clay whatsoever is officially over. As I wrote before though I'm still not going to be making any new jewelry for a little while, I'm spending a few weeks working on sculpture and continuing to paint. Since the clay vacation is over I won't be producing as many paintings as I did in the last month but I have a goal of at least one new painting a month. I'm hoping to have some fun new sculptures by the end of the month and be completely refreshed and ready for the holiday rush.

You can still get the free printable bookmarks for signing up for my mailing list (in fact those aren't going away unless/until I create something cooler to download).  Please send in pics of the bookmarks colored by you or a kid in your life by August 18 and I'll post it up on the blog and email you a coupon code for 10% off in my Etsy shop.

One last update: since I'm in redesign mode I'm in the process of creating a new theme for the official site at Noadi.net that I hope to launch sometime this weekend. It's lighter and brighter to go with the new photos and has some cool new features. Here's an early sneak peek:

Etsy Shop Redesign Complete

If you've visited my Etsy shop recently you've probably noticed that it was looking a bit strange. The survey from a couple weeks ago was pretty overwhelmingly in favor of the new lighter photo backdrop so I've rephotographed everything and have been switching photos over the last week. The redesign is now 100% complete and I'm really happy with the look.

Next on the agenda is getting Noadi.net overhauled with a new theme and more content.

Free Printable Bookmarks

So I'm nearing the end of my vacation from clay and my latest project is a series of bookmarks. Once I finished inking the drawings before painting in watercolor I scanned them in black and white.

I decided to make the bookmarks available as a free printable download to anyone who subscribes to my mailing list*. If you are already a subscriber, check you email inbox, I sent out an email for all current subscribers so you can download it too.

Since they are in black and white have fun coloring them! If you color the bookmarks and send me a photo or scan by August 18th (that's two weeks from now) I will post it up here on the blog and send you a coupon code to use in the Etsy shop.

I do plan to finish these bookmarks in color and have them printed to sell in the shop. I don't have an ETA for that yet since I haven't finished painting them and the printing company I use can be a bit slow sometimes.

*of course if you want the bookmarks but not the newsletter I will forgive you for unsubscribing