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.

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.