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Nov. 1st, 2006 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afmetalsmithHappy (belated) Halloween!
Despite the holiday- one of my favorites- I have gotten some work done. I'm focusing on the enameling right now. I have a pair of experimental earring dangles (pierced and slightly filigreed plique) ready for their final clean-up; I have a second pair of ancient Egyptian-inspired lotus earring dangles progressing well so far (experimental since they are 20-ga. and generally 16-ga. is recommended for plique that will be fired without a support; if I need to, I can fire it on a ground, but so far, so good)- BTW, the userpic here is my first version of these; I have finished the basic enameling of the sunburst/chrysanthemum plique pendant that will have a citrine set centrally, so it's off to be cleaned up; and I began laying in the colors on the plique January-themed thimble I started as my first 3D plique piece about 18 months ago, more or less.
The latter is giving me a bit of a hard time. The theme means that there will be a lovely large garnet cab set in the top, and the sides are decorated with snowdrops (the January birthstone and flower). Fair enough; that bit's easy! What's harder is determining the colors for the background of the sides (at the moment, I'm favoring a very dark green transparent), and the various border bits. I know the top one is a light green and white; but then there's the corner, where it transitions from the top to the sides (1 color), and another border at the top and bottom of the sides (2 colors each). I am leaning toward red/white for the top and bottom of the sides, and either a red or a medium green for the transition. But I'm not yet sure... and after laying in colors and then washing them out a couple of times now, I think I really need to figure out what the hell I'm doing before I continue to do it! :)
Also, I added a couple of things to my Etsy store (http://www.afmetalsmith.etsy.com). I just got a notice that they're revamping their software, and so will be down over the weekend; the new stuff does seem like an improvement over the old, though, so the fact that they're doubling the posting fees (from 10 to 20 cents, so not really horrible) and decreasing the active time for a piece from 6 months to 4 is probably worth it. At the moment I haven't sold anything through them, but stuff posted there does seem to attract a reasonable amount of attention, so it's something to consider. I think my stuff tends to be expensive for the venue, and that's certainly a part of my "sold" rate! So I'm still pretty favorably incliined, despite my current lack of sales.
Despite the holiday- one of my favorites- I have gotten some work done. I'm focusing on the enameling right now. I have a pair of experimental earring dangles (pierced and slightly filigreed plique) ready for their final clean-up; I have a second pair of ancient Egyptian-inspired lotus earring dangles progressing well so far (experimental since they are 20-ga. and generally 16-ga. is recommended for plique that will be fired without a support; if I need to, I can fire it on a ground, but so far, so good)- BTW, the userpic here is my first version of these; I have finished the basic enameling of the sunburst/chrysanthemum plique pendant that will have a citrine set centrally, so it's off to be cleaned up; and I began laying in the colors on the plique January-themed thimble I started as my first 3D plique piece about 18 months ago, more or less.
The latter is giving me a bit of a hard time. The theme means that there will be a lovely large garnet cab set in the top, and the sides are decorated with snowdrops (the January birthstone and flower). Fair enough; that bit's easy! What's harder is determining the colors for the background of the sides (at the moment, I'm favoring a very dark green transparent), and the various border bits. I know the top one is a light green and white; but then there's the corner, where it transitions from the top to the sides (1 color), and another border at the top and bottom of the sides (2 colors each). I am leaning toward red/white for the top and bottom of the sides, and either a red or a medium green for the transition. But I'm not yet sure... and after laying in colors and then washing them out a couple of times now, I think I really need to figure out what the hell I'm doing before I continue to do it! :)
Also, I added a couple of things to my Etsy store (http://www.afmetalsmith.etsy.com). I just got a notice that they're revamping their software, and so will be down over the weekend; the new stuff does seem like an improvement over the old, though, so the fact that they're doubling the posting fees (from 10 to 20 cents, so not really horrible) and decreasing the active time for a piece from 6 months to 4 is probably worth it. At the moment I haven't sold anything through them, but stuff posted there does seem to attract a reasonable amount of attention, so it's something to consider. I think my stuff tends to be expensive for the venue, and that's certainly a part of my "sold" rate! So I'm still pretty favorably incliined, despite my current lack of sales.
