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.

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.

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

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.

Getting Ready for Halloween

I know it's only August but if I waited until October to get the shop ready for Halloween it would be too late. I've started adding some new H.P. Lovecraft inspired jewelry and brought back the new and improved Frankenpods.

First up I have a new smaller Cthulhu Cameo, it's 1 1/8 inches across (the larger size is 1 3/4 inches) and Cthulhu is facing forward rather than in profile.

I've also started creating sculpted Cthulhu jewelry and larger Cthulhu figures in the same pose. The pendants are 1 inch tall while the figures are 2 inches tall (a hanging loop and ribbon can be added to these by request if you'd like to hang them from a tree/hook/tentacle).

The first non-Cthulhu design added to my Lovecraftian jewelry is a pendant based on Lovecraft's story "The Hound". In it a young man and his friend are haunted by a demonic winged hound summoned by an amulet they stole from a grave.

Finally I've brought back the Frankenpods. I first created one of these several years ago and liked the idea but all my cephalopod designs hadn't quite come together yet so I only made one. I've now revived the idea and created not just a cuttlefish one but also squid, nautilus, and octopus frankenpods.

The Original Frankenpod

New and Improved Frankenpod Cuttlefish

Frankenpod Squid

Frankenpod Nautilus

Frankenpod Octopus

Halloween Sale

To celebrate Halloween I'm going to be running a sale for 15% off all my Cthulhu jewelry October 30-31 (that' next weekend). In addition all orders will get a free tentacle charm no matter what you buy.

New Cthulhu Jewelry and Free Shipping

Today is my birthday and so in celebration I'm offering free shipping on all jewelry through Friday in my Etsy shop.

Also I have new Cthulhu jewelry in my shop. I sculpted some tiny cameos for earrings, cufflinks, and tie tacks that I'm starting to add to the shop to go with the necklaces.

New Years News

So 2009 is almost over. This has been a real whirlwind year for me, the business has grown far faster and further than I ever expected. At the beginning of the year I had only a single line of cephalopod jewelry, the cuttlefish, and that has expanded to octopus, squid, and the nautilus. I've scrapped the old trilobite design for a new one and added horseshoe crabs and the specimen jars. My monthly sales have gone from around $300 a month to over $1000 monthly before the holidays and exceeded $2000 in both November and December.

Looking ahead to 2010 there's a load of stuff coming up. I just bought a new camera and I'll be redoing a lot of photos with it. I'll also be shooting with the intent of putting together an art book later this year that will be self-published (probably with Lulu.com) and hopefully a lot of fun.

Speaking of books, the Regretsy book is looking like it's coming together really fast and I'm probably going to be featured in it.

I have some new jewelry planned. One is a Cthulhu cameo pendant that will be press molded from polymer clay, fairly inexpensive and fast to produce. The other will be on the higher end. I've had some precious metal clay for a while and I'm hoping to get the silver cephalopods coming along soon.

In personal news, I'm looking for an apartment right now so I'm really excited about finally getting out on my own. Just me and my dog.

Merry Squidmas!

So it is finally Squidmas/Cephalopodmas/Cthulhumas take your pick of the tentacled one you prefer. In celebration I will have 1/2 off shipping for all cephalopod items in my Etsy shop along with a free surprise goodie with each order.

To get you all in the mood, here's a wonderful video of the song "It's Begginning to Look a Lot like Fishmen" from the A Very Scary Solstice CD.

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.

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.

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.

Lots of Itty Bitty Cuttlefish

I don't know why but I haven't had the patience to work on any big sculpts lately. I blame my brother, he's home on leave from the Air Force for a month so it's been a lot busier here than usual. I love having him home, I've missed him a lot but my ability to concentrate has gone on vacation.

So I've been working instead of lots of little projects, mostly jewelry. The past couple days I've been making these adorable little cuttlefish earrings. I like them so much that today I'm making a pair for myself to wear that will look like the green ones. Of course they are up for sale here: Cephalopod Earrings

I think these guys are probably too cute for anyone to call baby Cthulhu like my Perma-Pets have been.

What Makes it All Worth It

So my best friend took me out to eat at a Chinese restaurant yesterday after we dropped her husband off at work. While we were there our waitress complimented the Cthulhu's Gem necklace I was wearing and I told her I made it and showed her the little pocket portfolio I keep in my purse. The way she looked at the photos and tried so hard to tell me what she thought about them even though her english wasn't very good nearly made me cry. Then she brought over one of her co-workers to look at it too. Selling my sculptures is great and for my own survival I need to do it but it's reactions like hers that really get me motivated and shows me that what I'm doing makes more people happy than just myself.

Also there's something to pay attention to here. Always be prepared to show people your work as an artist. You can get a pocket sized photo album just about anywhere for a few dollars, business cards or postcards are cheap to have made, if you can wear your art in some way as jewelry, t-shirt, button, etc. do it. You may meet people that way you never would have otherwise.

Trying to Figure Out the Whole Marketing Thing

I'm an artist, business just isn't something that comes naturally to me. So trying to figure out what I should produce to actually make a profit is difficult. Another problem is how much should I have in inventory? Hopefully I'll be able to figure this out before the show and festival that I'm doing.

What I've got so far.

Original one of a kind sculptures. These sculpts like my Wood Nymph, Satyr, and An tEach Uisce.

One of a kind sculpture series These are one of a kind sculptures that fit into a set theme. So far this only consists of my Perma-Pets.

One of a kind jewelry series. These are my Gargoyles and Cthulhu's Gems necklaces.

What I'd like to add.

First of all of course I'd like to increase the numbers of everything I have so far.

One of a kind sculpture series I'd like to come up with at least one more one of a kind series. So far I've got no ideas for this, I'm trying really hard to come up with something.

Cast sculptures. I have some resin and ordered some hydrocal and mold latex. I'd like to start with some small cast plaster pieces. One of the ideas I had was to expand on the idea of my Mermaid Bust and do a full figure. A baby Cthulhu has also been floating around in my head.

Larger scale sculpture. Odin's Runesong right now is my largest sculpture to date. I'd love to do some even larger work, in the 3-4 foot high range. Due to the limitations of the size of my oven any really big work would have to be either sculpted in sections in polymer clay, mixed media, or cast. I have a few ideas for this right now one is the Wild Hunt and also the Man in the Moon as a large moon globe that opens to show clockwork and a little guy operating it.

Future online sales.

Right now I'm focused on local sales, the festivals and gallery. I really hope to get into selling on ebay in the near future, I've set up my account and I'm looking at other sculpture auctions to see how I want to present mine. I think that ebay will probably be something that will remain in the works for a few months, the Moore Art Festival is August 11 so it will probably be after that. I just think trying to learn both things at the same time is just too much on my plate.