Creating a Lighted Sculpture Display - UV Lighting the Puppercabras

In the studio casting

After being sick for way too long I'm in the final push to finish casting the Lady of Innsmouth for my Kickstarter backers. Here's a video of the process and the reason I'm building a lot of arm strength and need a massage therapist on call.

Of Cold Casting, Tentacles, and Conventions

Halfway through a very busy fall. Watch for more about what's been going on.

The Lady of Innsmouth Kickstarter has Launched

It's been an amazing less-than-24 hours. Since I launched the Kickstarter yesterday (a day earlier than planned) it's already hit half it's funding goal.

The Lady of Innsmouth is 8 1/2 inches tall, I started working on her around March of last year and just recently finished her. My goal through the whole process was to mold and cast her in resin, once I added up everything I was going to need to do the casting run I realized it just wasn't in my budget. Thankfully Kickstarter exists and lets me raise money to create a project in advance. If you back the Lady of Innsmouth you can select from several reward options that will get you a completed Lady of Innsmouth statue in three different finished (white resin, limited edition hand painted resin, and cold cast bronze) as well as some lower cost rewards like bookmarks, and art print, or a resin tentacle. So go ahead and check it out.

Patreon Monthly Treasure Chests

You can now support Noadi's Art on Patreon. If you choose $25 or $50 a month you get a box full of goodies from me, it could contain everything from necklaces to sculpture to sketches. You can also choose a smaller amount and get a piece of original art.

New Art and Upcoming Events

Contribute to my Indiegogo campaign.

Lots and lots going on right now so here's a brief run down of my schedule as it looks right now for the rest of the year:

• September 6 - Lewiston-Auburn Mini Maker Faire in Lewiston, ME.
• September 20-21 - BangPop Comic Con in Bangor, ME.
• October 8-12 - International Cephalopod Awareness Days
• October 25-26 - Vermont Comic Con in Burlington, VT.
• Novermber 1-2 - Rhode Island Comic Con in Providence, RI.
• Nov 28-Dec 1 - Black Friday/Cyber Monday

Doing so many events in a short period of time is a huge financial commitment for me. So I’ve set up and Indiegogo campaign to try to offset some of those costs. Every little bit helps so if you are a fan of my work or want to support an independent artist please pitch in (there are perks including a custom sculpture for $500). If I can make this fall a success it will give me a chance to further expand range of events I can attend next year. My goal is to not have to rely solely on sales from my Etsy shop while the shop does well sales are very seasonal.

I've also been busy creating new art and jewelry. The piece I'm most proud of right now is Bastian and Teddy.

Cuttlefish Wedding Cake Toppers

Cake Topper Mark I

Some of my favorite projects are the ones that customers come up with. A couple years ago I was asked to create a cuttlefish wedding cake topper. It was something I had never done before and I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing but the result was better than I had hoped for.

Fast forward to this year and I've been asked to create toppers for two more weddings. While the basic design for each was the same the resulting look couldn't have been more different due to the color schemes for each wedding.

If you would like to order a custom topper for your wedding check out this listing on Etsy. I can create one in your choice of color theme and combination of top hat, veil, or no head gear.

Creating Glass Squid in Resin

Itsy Bitsy Specimen Jars

I've been busy working on new ideas for jewelry lately, including casting transparent Glass Squid in resin. While I was creating the first one I made videos of the process from sculpt to molding to casting. The first three Glass Squid necklaces should be available in the shop next week.

Also joining them will be the first 3 pairs of new Specimen Jar Earrings! Check out this photo of the finished jars before I attached the earring hooks. They are super tiny, less than half the size of the jars I use for the Specimen Jar Necklaces.

Glass Squid Pendants

And  now for the videos. I hope you enjoy seeing how these necklaces came to be.

Octopus Print Giveaway

Octopus in Kelp Forest print

Update: Due to some issues with the entry form (now fixed) I'm extending entries an extra 24 hours. You now have until the end of Oct. 13 to enter.

This year for Cephalopod Awareness Days I wasn't able to do my usual giveaway every day so instead I'm doing three giveaways today*. I'm giving away one 8"x10" print and two 4"x5" prints of my Octopus in Kelp Forest painting. To enter go to this form and answer the questions. I'm awarding the prizes this way:

• The 8"x10" print is going to the best answer to the question "If you could have any cephalopod trait (bioluminescence, ink, chromataphore skin, etc) what would it be and how would you use it?" Keep the answers PG please because I will be sharing the winning answer here on the blog and on Facebook.
• The 4"x5" prints will be awarded randomly among the remaining entries.

Today is also the last day to save 15% off in the Etsy shop in celebration of cephalopods so go visit.

* Here's the fine print AKA the rules.

1. You must use a valid email address to enter, it's how I will be contacting winners.
2. If you are one of the winners you must provide a US mailing address.
3. All entries must be received between 6am and 11:59pm EDT October 12, 20013.
4. No purchase necessary.
5. Winners will be announced Monday, October 14th.

Lewiston-Auburn Mini Maker Faire

Noadi's Art will be participating in this year's Mini Maker Faire in Lewiston, Maine on September 28. I'll have a booth there selling my jewelry and artwork as well as discussing my creative process with anyone who is curious. The Faire runs 10am-4pm at the Bates Mill Atrium/Museum L-A (off Chestnut St).

Glow in the Dark Necklaces are Here

Continuing to explore the possibilities of my cell culture necklaces I bought some glow in the dark pigment powders. The results have been pretty fantastic and now the necklaces are going up in my Etsy shop. So head on over and check them out.

PortCon is just a week away!

So my big event of the summer, PortCon, is coming up fast. I'll be in the Artists' Alley June 21-23 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in South Portland, Maine. The hours are 9am-10pm Friday and Saturday and 9am-1pm on Sunday. If you're at the con please stop by (I would suggest on Friday or Saturday, I'm going to be pretty fried Sunday morning).

If you're never heard of PortCon it's a huge celebration of all things geeky, there's anime, scifi, fantasy, roleplaying games, video games, comics, etc. and it's a load of fun. I'm going to try to catch a bit of con fun on Thursday night after setting up my table since I'm not going to have time the rest of the weekend.

In somewhat related news I have some new cell culture necklaces that glow in the dark and Cthulhu rings. They will be available at PortCon and afterwards in the Etsy shop.

Now for Something Completely Different

A man with a tape recorder up his nose-- Wait, that's not right.

I've been working on a project lately, just for fun really, and now it's ready to share. It's a short story, in the vein of the Dresden Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that I plan on expanding into a number of stories since I really like the characters I've created. It's been a lot of fun writing it and I hope people really enjoy it.

The basic premise is that Calliope Bránán is a blood mage who has been asked by a friend to help find a child. When she discovers who has taken the little boy, she and her partner Lucas must rescue him.

The first part of the story will be going up tonight (5/6/13) at 8pm EDT. Go check it out.

Small Pricing Change and Custom Orders

Time Cuttlefish

Just a quick heads up about pricing. After looking at the numbers I'm changing the prices of my jewelry and shipping. Prices on cephalopods and a few other pieces are going down and I'm getting rid of free shipping. What does this mean? Honestly not much, the total price paid will be the same but I'll be able to offer the same prices both online and in person instead of having two different pricing systems. The changes should be complete by the end of the day.

As I wrote in my last post I enjoy custom orders and Etsy just made it easier to make a custom request. Now on every item page (like this octopus) there is a button to make a custom request.

Feejee Mermaid and Stuff

One of the few problems with how much time my jewelry business takes up out of my day is that I don't have as much time to create full sculptures as I would like. So when someone commissions me to make a sculpture for them it's great, an excuse to spend time on a big project instead of the usual hour or so a day I spend on personal projects (which is why those always take months to finish).

My latest commission was a Feejee Mermaid. The original feejee mermaids were taxidermy fakes in sideshow carnivals (P.T. Barnum supposedly had the original but it was lost when his museum burned down), they were made with paper mache, the upper body of a jevenile monkey, and the body of a fish. I based mine on a dogfish and (loosely) a juvenile rhesus monkey. I sculpted the mermaid from polymer clay. To make it a bit more fun and interesting I added spines and rabbit fur to the head and back. After painting the whole thing was put in a large glass jar and submerged in the same resin I use for my Perma-Pets.

Her happy owner has named her Salma. If you're interested in requesting a custom sculpture or any other custom work drop me an email or contact me through my Etsy shop.

I've also been working for the past 6 months or so on a piece I'm tentatively calling the Coral Siren. If you want to see more of my works in progress follow my WIP blog on Tumblr it's where I post quick snapshots of what I'm working on when I don't want to write a full blog post.

In somewhat unrelated news I'm trying to pick up extra cash since I need to move when my lease is up in May. I like the place I'm living but I can't afford it on my own and while my ex-boyfriend and I are still good friends it's a little awkward living together. So to that end I've joined Fiverr which is a site that lets you set up little mini jobs that you can do. So if you are looking for someone to make an Etsy banner, proofread your listings, design a business card, or edit your product photos for you you can hire me to do it.

General News and Updates

Just a bunch of snippets of news.

The cell culture necklaces are up for sale in my shop. Actually I listed them a few weeks ago so this isn't fresh news but important anyway. I have both bacteria and mold necklaces (the mold is actually fuzzy!) in some really great colors and more are on the way.

Etsy just made some improvements to how coupon codes work, now when you order a thank you coupon will be emailed to you automatically. I've been sending a printed thank you coupon since Etsy first started offering coupon codes but this makes it that much more convenient.

I've been confirmed for the Artists' Alley at PortConMaine this year. Last year was a blast and I'm really looking forward to June. The Artists' Alley will be running June 21-22 at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel near the Maine Mall in Portland. You can preregister for PortCon on the website, it's $35 is you preregister and $40 at the door. Aside from the very cool Artists' Alley there are panels on all sorts of geeky topics, game rooms, free music and other shows, and lots and lots of people in cool costumes.

Getting Ready to Start New Jewelry

The petri dishes for the new Cell Culture Pendants arrived today. I'm so excited! I haven't created a completely new jewelry line from scratch in quite a while. I've created new variations and expansions pretty regularly but starting from just an idea that came to me while half-asleep listening to This Week in Microbiology is so much fun (and who thought that my bedtime playlist would inspire new jewelry?).

New Jewelry Coming and Wholesale Information

Cell Culture Prototypes

2013 is off to a busy start for me. I've been developing some ideas for new jewelry than I'm pretty excited about. The big one are the Cell Culture Pendants. I've made a few prototypes of this new deisgn, they're real small petri dishes filled with resin to look like microbiology specimens. The prototypes were made with some votive candle cups to test out the idea, the real petri dishes are on their way and as soon as they arrive I'll start making these necklaces.

I also have new specimen jars coming, with a new axolotl specimen (big thanks to the person who custom ordered one last year, I just loved the idea so much). Also along the same vein I bought some resin jewelry molds and I'll be using them to create some new designs using the specimens that I think are pretty cool.

On a different note I've finally put together some proper line sheets for wholesale customers. I would love to have more wholesale business but without line sheets it was hard to give a good overview of everything I make and the available colors and styles. They're available on my website and also on Google Docs.

Sea Otter Ornament Video

I had a little fun playing with animoto this morning and made this short video for my sea otter ornaments. My last holiday shipment will be sent out Thursday morning (Dec 20) so you only have today and tomorrow to get in any last minute orders.

Free Shipping Day

Today is Free Shipping Day and while I offer free shipping on most items in my store already today I'm offering free shipping on everything in the shop, including Perma-Pets and paintings on canvas.

Delivery by Trilobite Mail not included