While y'all are doing Nanowrimo...
I'm doing Nano-eye-mo....
The li'l steampunk eyes I made and gave to Denver Doll to see if they were interested ... well, six of the seven sold in three days. I think the seventh just hasn't sold because DDE announced more were coming so people are waiting to see their options. It takes me two weeks to make a batch of eight (more than that and I get bubbles and things that I miss in individual ones that mess up the piece).
On the fourth day, I got a note from someone who wants to run a set of limited ed eyes on a specific theme for presentation at IDEX in late January. I told her I can try, since I can use the time after I get back from ALA to run off her prototype pieces.
On the sixth day, I got a note from a doll magazine editor who wants me to *present* at IDEX on steampunk in general, my art stuff, and the doll eyes. She has an agenda to make IDEX open up more to BJD's, and I am her targeted tool of the moment.
Which would all be great if I weren't already preparing for a gallery show (yeah, Sam!), a guest of honor spot at ALA in January, trying to get an etsy shop going (keeps getting pushed down the priority list) and getting the next set of eyes done for DDE (which take about two weeks to do a batch of eight or so if I don't cancel the rest of my life to do them). I told the lovely lovely doll magazine lady that I have no money to travel (even selling doll eyes at my best pace is not going to bring in much at 8 x $15 my end take x every two weeks and I've just spent $600 on findings, watch parts and chain this month anyway) and that I've already taken time off from work for the con at the beginning of January and told them I had to because I was a guest of honor there, and she says "We'll make you a GoH at IDEX too!" Um.... (((0.0)));;; Of course she means give me a title, not pay my way out or my room, which would be more achieveable *laugh* But I will crack up if somehow I make some amazing amount of money on combined projects and choose to spend $700 of it to go to Orlando and end up with two GoH positions in one month of my life. Very nice lady to talk to in any case, we went over all kinds of tangential info that had nothing to do with dolls, she is 67 years old and a total powerhouse. If I can't find someone else going to IDEX who might present for me, maybe I'll go next year (2011).
So... I spent the last three days sorting two giant batches of watch stuff to try to find ones that are good for eye use (there are parts I wish I could get again, but multi-$100's and multi-pounds of gears later, no repetition - I'm learning the names of a ton of watch parts and can now immediately ID a balance staff (of which I now have approximately 10,000 thanks to a bulk estate lot of watch parts, and which are really not terribly useful for my work since they are three mm long with a 1mm bulge in the middle and spiky bits on both ends so mostly functional for things like making a millipede or the world's smallest bed of nails), a winding stem, an arbor (which sounds impressive but is actually a 2mmx1mm steel stick), an hour wheel, a second wheel and a dozen other bits, but some things come without labels and are never repeated). Five hours last night to assemble a bunch of eye "pupils" out of teeny gears. Tonight I'll get groceries, do laundry, and do a new resin pour for the real human jewelry. Tomorrow, create glue bases for the next lot of eyes (to seal the bottom and hold the "pupil" while doing the resin pours on the back side). Wednesday work on redoing/finishing some human pieces, Thursday do the last (? hopes) pour on a set of human jewelry that is in progress, Friday Boba and working on finishing human pieces/starting gluing egg warriors for the panel at ALA, Saturday out to DDE to determine with them what size SS finding really is what size doll eye and then come home and start a new run of eyes, and take some pictures to get at least a couple of items up on etsy for the people who were waiting since NDK. Sunday find trading cards for five people I've put on hold when they sent me wish lists, clean the living room a little, work on the egg warriors, possibly get a second pour done on the eyes if they are dry enough from the first one, work on the ghosts and demons panel for ALA. Monday definitely ok to do next eye pour, read for Japanese mystery writers' panel at ALA. Continue until death, skip Nanowrimo this month.
One eye =
put in glue, use it to position the gears
do a pour from the back to set the gears in the right spot (we hope, since we're working upside down at this point)
do another pour from the back to fill in the eye space
do a final pour to get a smooth surface on the back
place button shank on the back, do a pour over it to merge around the edges with the resin already in the eye and seal it on
turn eye over, remove glue from front
do a pour on the front to seal eye face
do another pour on the front to dome the ball of the eye and give it a little magnification effect
I'm debating dipping the entire thing in resin when basically done. Why = it would seal the brass so people don't forget that brass tarnishes and then freak if their eye tarnishes. Why not = if they fiddle with it a ton they'll start to strip off the outside layer of resin and then freak that they have stripped resin. Also while drying a final layer over the whole thing will either make an irregular bump on the front of the eye where it drips down if it's dried upside down, or will make an irregular mess at the back of the eye where it drips down if it's dried right side up. Possibly possible to work around, but possibly also a way to destroy two weeks of eye work (and my findings and gears). erg. >.<;; I may just make a "care and feeding of brass" slip to go with each eye when sold.
So yes, lovely that people noticed and want more of them. Amazing that people want me to do a separate artist series and to be a GoH at a doll show. But good lord, even if it's "cry me a river" this goes under the category of "everybody slow down!!!" LOL Or possibly under "I need to stop with the great ideas." >.<;;
The li'l steampunk eyes I made and gave to Denver Doll to see if they were interested ... well, six of the seven sold in three days. I think the seventh just hasn't sold because DDE announced more were coming so people are waiting to see their options. It takes me two weeks to make a batch of eight (more than that and I get bubbles and things that I miss in individual ones that mess up the piece).
On the fourth day, I got a note from someone who wants to run a set of limited ed eyes on a specific theme for presentation at IDEX in late January. I told her I can try, since I can use the time after I get back from ALA to run off her prototype pieces.
On the sixth day, I got a note from a doll magazine editor who wants me to *present* at IDEX on steampunk in general, my art stuff, and the doll eyes. She has an agenda to make IDEX open up more to BJD's, and I am her targeted tool of the moment.
Which would all be great if I weren't already preparing for a gallery show (yeah, Sam!), a guest of honor spot at ALA in January, trying to get an etsy shop going (keeps getting pushed down the priority list) and getting the next set of eyes done for DDE (which take about two weeks to do a batch of eight or so if I don't cancel the rest of my life to do them). I told the lovely lovely doll magazine lady that I have no money to travel (even selling doll eyes at my best pace is not going to bring in much at 8 x $15 my end take x every two weeks and I've just spent $600 on findings, watch parts and chain this month anyway) and that I've already taken time off from work for the con at the beginning of January and told them I had to because I was a guest of honor there, and she says "We'll make you a GoH at IDEX too!" Um.... (((0.0)));;; Of course she means give me a title, not pay my way out or my room, which would be more achieveable *laugh* But I will crack up if somehow I make some amazing amount of money on combined projects and choose to spend $700 of it to go to Orlando and end up with two GoH positions in one month of my life. Very nice lady to talk to in any case, we went over all kinds of tangential info that had nothing to do with dolls, she is 67 years old and a total powerhouse. If I can't find someone else going to IDEX who might present for me, maybe I'll go next year (2011).
So... I spent the last three days sorting two giant batches of watch stuff to try to find ones that are good for eye use (there are parts I wish I could get again, but multi-$100's and multi-pounds of gears later, no repetition - I'm learning the names of a ton of watch parts and can now immediately ID a balance staff (of which I now have approximately 10,000 thanks to a bulk estate lot of watch parts, and which are really not terribly useful for my work since they are three mm long with a 1mm bulge in the middle and spiky bits on both ends so mostly functional for things like making a millipede or the world's smallest bed of nails), a winding stem, an arbor (which sounds impressive but is actually a 2mmx1mm steel stick), an hour wheel, a second wheel and a dozen other bits, but some things come without labels and are never repeated). Five hours last night to assemble a bunch of eye "pupils" out of teeny gears. Tonight I'll get groceries, do laundry, and do a new resin pour for the real human jewelry. Tomorrow, create glue bases for the next lot of eyes (to seal the bottom and hold the "pupil" while doing the resin pours on the back side). Wednesday work on redoing/finishing some human pieces, Thursday do the last (? hopes) pour on a set of human jewelry that is in progress, Friday Boba and working on finishing human pieces/starting gluing egg warriors for the panel at ALA, Saturday out to DDE to determine with them what size SS finding really is what size doll eye and then come home and start a new run of eyes, and take some pictures to get at least a couple of items up on etsy for the people who were waiting since NDK. Sunday find trading cards for five people I've put on hold when they sent me wish lists, clean the living room a little, work on the egg warriors, possibly get a second pour done on the eyes if they are dry enough from the first one, work on the ghosts and demons panel for ALA. Monday definitely ok to do next eye pour, read for Japanese mystery writers' panel at ALA. Continue until death, skip Nanowrimo this month.
One eye =
put in glue, use it to position the gears
do a pour from the back to set the gears in the right spot (we hope, since we're working upside down at this point)
do another pour from the back to fill in the eye space
do a final pour to get a smooth surface on the back
place button shank on the back, do a pour over it to merge around the edges with the resin already in the eye and seal it on
turn eye over, remove glue from front
do a pour on the front to seal eye face
do another pour on the front to dome the ball of the eye and give it a little magnification effect
I'm debating dipping the entire thing in resin when basically done. Why = it would seal the brass so people don't forget that brass tarnishes and then freak if their eye tarnishes. Why not = if they fiddle with it a ton they'll start to strip off the outside layer of resin and then freak that they have stripped resin. Also while drying a final layer over the whole thing will either make an irregular bump on the front of the eye where it drips down if it's dried upside down, or will make an irregular mess at the back of the eye where it drips down if it's dried right side up. Possibly possible to work around, but possibly also a way to destroy two weeks of eye work (and my findings and gears). erg. >.<;; I may just make a "care and feeding of brass" slip to go with each eye when sold.
So yes, lovely that people noticed and want more of them. Amazing that people want me to do a separate artist series and to be a GoH at a doll show. But good lord, even if it's "cry me a river" this goes under the category of "everybody slow down!!!" LOL Or possibly under "I need to stop with the great ideas." >.<;;