Hey Joanie!

Does this look like anyone you know? This work-in-progress is the second in a trio of portraits I've taken on in a trade deal with Joanie Berkwitz, the uber-amazing custom glaze specialist (she is happy for me to talk about her here - Hi Joanie!). I just looked through my previous blogs and can't find the post showing the first portrait, so here is a pic of that one (the scanner makes it look more contrast-ey than it is, but you get the idea). I've made a lifestyle change recently; going part time with my "day-job" means I am able to dedicate two solid days a week to my artwork, sculpture and casting. I've had to learn to see things slightly differently as I now HAVE to earn at least a small amount each month in order to top up my income, but so far so good.... (she says confidently! hehe!). This does mean that I'll be taking on more and more portrait commissions over the next few months, I spent a few hours Thursday designing my fliers, they're ordered now so we'll have to see how well that bit of advertising goes. I'm totally new to this type of business so it'll be quite the eye-opener seeing how much publicity is needed to get an order.

In he mean-time, I'm enjoying working on this second portrait a bit more than I expected - after the first I developed quite a phobia towards my white pencils for a little while, hehe! It's likely I'll take on a paid commission next, before tackling the third in the series, partly as this is a trade deal I need to get funds too, but also to avoid that phobia returning!

Latest news

Lots of new things have been happening recently! Bruno is growing like a weed, we went to visit the family in Birmingham last weekend and took him for a walk up at the Lickey Hills, it was pretty misty and with all the fun he was having playing with the other dogs there he was absolutely soaking when we got back to the car. Bruno is my first dog, I can't help but wish I'd made it happen sooner, he is everything I wished for and I am thoroughly enjoying having him in the family! Amber is pretty confident around him now, but Deeley is still very timid. We'll get there though - I just thought, in our house now there are 14 legs!!! Hehe!

I started by new job last week too, I was quite entertained when I saw my "office". We're in the middle of an office move so I'm just working at a spare desk, it's lost in the massive room. I'm enjoying the peace and quiet though, at my old job it was very open plan and echo-ey, here I have perfect peace and am working so much faster, it's lovely! The job itself is mind-blowing, using cutting edge technology and state of the art equipment. I can't put too much here yet (it seems some people at my old place have grudges to bear, sigh) but this job could be the making of me, and at the same time it may well bring my high-tech employment and my low-tech hobby together in a most exciting way (ooh, I wish I could say now, but...)

Here's a happy photo. I LOVE colour, so when I knew I'd be making a number of molds for the Snowflake Frodo run, I needed to keep track of them so colour-coded them. I actually have a brown mold complete now to add to this selection and next up will be a white and a black. Unfortunately the snowflake combined with the texture of the pony are pretty tough on mold rubber, I got over 50 models out of each of my Little One molds, but I don't think these will be anywhere near that many, so I'm planning about 25-30 per mold this time round. The molds have all come out well, apart from the blue one - the model moved while the rubber was curing, so I put that mold onto a little stack of wooden tongue depressors (large lollipop sticks) to make sure the model still casts perfectly flat.

I caught myself having a bit of a moment a few days ago, when I was tidying all my mold-making kit away to make room for the casting stuff. I was looking at my rubber mixing bucket and admiring all the little bits of coloured rubber that have survived my attempts to clean it. Somehow I just felt it had a story to tell. Apologies if the picture is sideways, I'm still working out the kinks in Blogger and Picasa.

I found out some exciting news today, it's to do with my "Little One" sculpture - I've had a cool idea - more details on that when I know more myself! Til next time...

Little Ones all Painted Up

Finally, here are some photos of Little Ones painted by artists from all over the globe.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Madrabbitwoman/LittleOne

I've been quietly working away throughout the Summer on a few projects. Jasper is progressing at his usual leisurely pace, here's a link to his latest photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Madrabbitwoman/Jasper02

Earlier this year I donated a new variation on the Lawrence/Claude/Baldy medallions; called Romeo, to be turned into clinky gifts for the NAN Donation artists. Barb Ness took the medallion and turned it into these lovely clinky models, click the photo below to see all the copies that Barb sent me as a lovely thank you gift.

From Romeo

I am also currently working on a project commissioned for the Midwinter's Night Ball show in January, run by Shannon Southard. It's not publicly known about just yet, so Please do not link or copy any of the photos from this album, but I'm having a "ball" myself working on it. I love colour and really enjoy experimenting and discovering new shades and techniques, so this project is right up my street. I will be casting over 250 of these medallions, in various cold and Wintry shades, but as I am experimenting I'm getting colours of all shades, types and effects.

From Snowflake Frodo

Finally, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, Bruno. He came to us mid-August and is a real character. There are loads of photos of him in his album, there is a link below.

From Bruno and Friends

Many Many Little Ones!

Well, I've been casting away like fury this week and am pleased to say that the 100 copies of Little One will be achieved. Moreso, the mold is holding out exceptionally well (considering I had orginially hoped for just 35 copies from each!) and I think I may have a few more copies available by the time the mold finally gives in. Here's a photo of where I'm at so far (these are all RAW casts, I have to tidy them up yet so if they look a little rough it's because I've not got them ready to go just yet).

In the above photo, there are 87 copies of Little One, also there is the original (on the right hand side, next to the dark grey copy), three seconds which is (thankfully) all I've had, and one copy I decided to pigment in grey (which I'll keep): and a bunch of models I've been casting alongside Little One to use up any surplus resin I mix (I hate wasting materials!). 10 copies of Little One have already sold and been given to their new owners at the Live Show I went to a couple of weeks ago, which means I have already cast 97 good copies of the model! The mold is still looking as good as new so I'm really confident I'll be able to increase the edition from the 100 I've currently limited it to, though I don't know by how many.

If you'd like to be informed when any additional casts become available, drop me an email to savagebyname @ hotmail.com (remove spaces) as I'm keeping a no obligation reservation list and will be informing the people on the list first, should any additional casts come after the 100.

You may have noticed in the above photo that one of the models appears slightly different to the rest, if you look to the left hand side of the photo you might be able to see that one is a very slightly different colour...

This is what I call an "Opel" model. It is made from the same resin as all of the others, but due to a combination of (for want of a better word) "errors", I find that about one copy out of 100 comes out this intriguing colour. I won't sell this copy, I'll hang on to this one as I don't know if the resin will go a bit odd over time, but also because I regard them as a bit of a lucky charm. The model truly comes out an opel colour, translucent with lots of diffuse colours mixed in there. You never know when an Opel model will pop up, this is only the third I've cast (one Fly Fishing and One Pickle V2 came out opel) and I have to admit there's something a little magical about discovering one!

Quick Update

Hi all!

Just a quick update as I sneak five minutes in-between castings. The response to "Little One" has exceeded my expectations in many ways - it's now about 90% sold out even though the first mold has given me over 50 crisp casts (I expected about 35, so am confident for an edition of over 100 now)!

I've just poured the second mold, I'm using a firmer rubber for this one so with a bit of luck it should hold out even longer (I'm classing L.O. as sold out when orders hit 100, I daren't take any more than that until they are all cast). Since changing my materials supplier (half way through production of Fly Fishing) I've notice a huge difference in the reliability and durability of my molds and casts - so far I have managed a 100% good-cast rate with Little One, which I thought was impossible!!

Interestingly, and huge proportion of the Little One models will be off to their new homes...in Germany. I've not sold a great deal of medallions to European countries before now, but Little One seems to really appeal. Perhaps medallions are unfashionable in Europe? Dunno, but thank you to all my German, Swiss and Worldwide customers :o)

A new development has occurred with Little One, something that I have only dreamt about before now. I won't say anything more about it yet as it needs to stay a secret for now, but I'm very excited about it and can't wait to tell everyone!!

A little personal info now; I was made redundant this month. I wasn't enjoying my job too much so when the opportunity arose to take an enhanced voluntary redundancy I decided to go for it. Being on Garden Leave this month allowed me to complete Little One and get it released, which is fabulous! The success of Little One now means that when I finish Jasper, I can pay for his casting up front, so no pre-orders or long waits for buyers wanting a copy! Jasper is a HUGE job to get finished but I'm hoping to make good progress on him in the coming weeks; but he has to wait for now while I spend my days (and nights, hehe) casting and cleaning Little Ones. I'm looking forward to going to the Post Office with dozens of boxes containing little foals ready to embark on their journeys!

Right, Little One number 50-something should be about cured by now, time to go make some babies (yey!).

New Resin release - "Little One"

...And here it is, please allow me to introduce...

Little One

Little one is a Traditional scale foal. Just a few days old the foal is all curled up, contemplating the world.

The model pictured is actually the original model; once the mold was taken, it was sent to the talented Emily Prouse (also known as ChaChaCrazy) for this beautiful soft baby bay paintjob.

Emily met my (rather unreasonable) challenge and had this one finished in an amazing 24 hours! She interpretted my demands on colour and shading perfectly, and I am so pleased with the results!

Little One is a two mold run, so the edition may be anywhere between 50 and 100 copies but once the molds are cast out, the edition will close.

Pricing details are as follows:

£30 - UK - £4 p+p

€40 - Europe - €7 p+p

$50 - US - $8 p+p

Any other country - please contact me.

Little One is making it's debut at the Shropshire Live show this weekend. I am travelling tomorrow and away until Sunday. I may not be able to reply to emails until then so please be patient.

All comments are welcome, I'd love to hear what you think of the model, and all comments on the finishwowk will be forwarded to Emily.

Upcoming announcement

Welcome to all new members of this blog!

* * *

At some point over the next 48 hours I will be announcing a new resin release. To hear about this release when I do, you need to either subscribe to this blog (using the box above, no spam), or check back here regularly!

* * * This is all I'm saying about the release for now apart from that it will be a 2 mold limited edition and is priced to be affordable to most. * * * Watch this space ;o)

I appear to have lost a few months!

Wowsa, doesn't time fly - my last blog was about the snow and suddenly Spring has sprung and the BBQ season is in full swing!

This is only a quick update to let you guys know I'm still ticking, life has been busy lately and work has been hard, things won't be calming down for a week or two yet so for now here's just a quick summary of what I've been working on:

• Jasper: progress has been made, I've been educating myself on equine anatomy which has really been more theroy work than practical, but as I've been putting a couple of things into practice I've found the theory work has really helped! It's just a matter of finding enough time to get to work on the big guy, but also having the space to work on him - see below bullet about the foal...
• Little One: more progress has been made on this model than with Jasper, due to the fact that this model is far more portable. I've spent a lot of time on trains lately and this little foal can be carried about along with all the tools and reference materials I need all in one bag, so I have been making far more progress on this one. I am starting to get to the point where I need to know more about anatomy - ah. Learning about horse anatomy is one thing, but it seems foals are far more than just taking the nrmal anatomy and making the legs longer! They are funny little creatures with near-impossible joints and muscles that can bend in surprising ways! I'm enlisting the help of my fellow RESS members, so fingers crossed this is one model that may well make it into resin form in the foreseeable future!
• Medallions: I received a rather enormous commission (we're talking hundreds rather than donzens) for one of my medallions. It will be adapted for the purpose in-mind and will make a great project! Once things have settled down soon, progress will be made on this one. I feel it could also make a great Christmas special too, watch this space!
• Another medallion has already been created (another adaptation sadly, I just haven't had enough time to dedicate to new ones which is really starting to bug me now, I feel a fresh new one bubbling up and wanting me to create it!), this medallion has gone off to be cast in clinky form! The lady I've been working with has been very kind (with my terrible time-keeping tendencies) to me and has also agreed to send me a couple of glazed copies of the finished article, which is very exciting, especially as one of those with be a realistic glazed one!! As a collector of medallions and a fan of clinkies, but as I've rarely got much moneyto put towards custom-glazed beauties, this is great news!
• Little Girl: from my earlier post you saw I had made a start on casting the little girl I had been working on as a companion for Jasper. I'm afraid there's been no progress with that recently, but she'll be "finding her legs" and also having her hair finished (she has no fringe) at some point. I don't feel rushed to finish her as Jasper still has a way to go yet.

One of the reasons for my pitiful lack of posts recently has been the Grand Designs Exhibition at Excel, in London. My company has a stand there and I am playing "expert" for people using my day-job skills as a Designer (architectural type stuff) to help with thteir designs. I was there all last weekend, and am there again all this weekend (including Bank holiday Monday), whilst still working full time 5 days a week (plus overtime). I don't want to moan as I love my job, but it has left me with very little spare time recently, and really cramped my creative style!

So there we are, a quick roundup of the last few months.

I hope to blog again in a couple of weeks once work has calmed down and I've had some sleep with a much better (photo-packed) blog!!

Kelly

It worked!!!!

THANK YOU to GJ Berg for the advice - it worked - I could just HUG you right now!!! :o)

Snow, Secrets, and New beginnings (and an ending)

Ok, today I'm trying out HTML style paragraphs, lets see if I can nail this thing! (thank you for the comments :o)

Today it snowed!! The heaviest snowfall the UK has seen for 18 years so we're told, I think they mean in the whole country in just in one day, it's deep, but not too horrible (here, anyway!). Just enough to play in, I got some great pics at work (forgot to bring my SD card home though, doh! They'll have to wait). Here's a pic of Adam - snow means RC truck!!!

I had to include this photo - it looks like "Lost in Space", its just a pic looking up into the snow though, with flash - pretty cool I thought!

So, on to New Beginnings!

After my unfortunate email embarrassment earlier this week (for non-blog subscribers - I accidentally sent a private email to the entire subscription group this week, with details of this...) I should share the details on my most recent creation. I'll be keeping this to the blog though, as I don't want to advertise it just yet.

Meet... well she has no name yet - but this is my sculpture (unfinished) of a little girl, she is a companion model to go with Jasper when he finally gets finished. I thought he was such a friendly looking guy that he needed a little pal to go with him. My plan (not sure if it will come to fruition yet though) is to create three companions for Jasper, so those who'd like one have a choice, as I know not everyone likes human sculptures.

I'm told she looks like she is fly fishing, which is quite ironic, really!

As the little girl is a bit of an awkward shape for casting, she will be cast in two halves - top and bottom. This is why the photo shows the three poor legless copies, and it should go some way to explain the unusual photo (showing a pair of legs sticking out of a piece of runner) my subscribers were accidentally sent! You will probably also notice she's got a bit of a big forehead - this is because I'm not done with her hair yet, but I want to be able to experiment without ruining the face, so will try out a few styles on the resin copies.

Now, the ending I mentioned in the title - this is to do with Frodo (the big one) - here is his mold. That's it, no more! I think I got 30 copies in all, all of them cast in different colours and materials - no unpainted resin ones! Jessica Fry cast the resin ones, I know she was closing her edition soon too, so if you want one, get in touch with Jessica asap!

The mold is very speckly - this is because the final cast was a metal one, and the residue left on the mold went rusty! Seemed like a good time to stop the edition.

And finally... another New Beginning! This is a rather dd photo showing another recent project - this is a Pickle V2 resin, but cast in the magic GROWING resin. You have to soak it for a week or so to grow fully, and as you can see it grows at different rates depending on the thickness of the part - this photo illustrates how quirky these thing look part-way through the process. I think she looks like a charicature version of Pickle.

Aha - I have just given a clue as to what Pickle V3 may turn out to be...

So, I can't tell whether the paragraphs have worked in this post until I publish it, so here goes (wish me luck!)....

A busy week!

• Sorry, I'm bulletting again, I tried to avoid it by working in Html code last time, but even THAT didn't work! Sigh, I wish I knew what was going wrong with my paragraphs!
• So, I apologise that my last blog came through as a single, jumbled paragraph, please know I did all I could to avoid that! (grumblegrumble!) So, on Sunday I held a sort of mini-Workshop at my home, for two young up-and-coming artists. We had a blast and the time flew by, BUT I can't actually share photos of what we made until I receive some copyright permissions from Breyer, soooo, that report will have to wait.
• In the mean-time I've been busying myself with quite a lot of new projects!
• Firstly, I have to show this off - it's my new camera! I was quite happy with my old camera, I discovered this week it had taken over 27000 photos for me (wowsa!) but it was still going strong... however, new technology waits for no man (or woman!) so the new camera, which is effectively an up-to-date version of the last one, has even more bells and whistles!

Next up is a work in progress, you may remember this blog, well I've been pretty slow in getting started with this one (partly due to the unplanned Workshop at the weekend, the preparation for that took me a week!). Well I finally got cracking last night and have got this far with the portrait of "Casper".

• This is only a very early photo, the intention was to get everything into the correct position and block in the colours very crudely. I used the white pastel from a new Sennelier set I got last month, and the difference between that and the hard, square pastels I like is incredible. The only way I can describe the softer pastel is "buttery"! I'm very pleased, as although I will use the harder pastels later on, geing able to get the foundation colour down in the softer pastel made for much faster, more enjoyable work.
• Poor Casper looks a bit like a Terrier at this stage, but once his nose and mouth are blocked in more he should begin to take shape.
• Casper's owner tells me she likes beach type colours, so I've chosen this Sandy colour, a pale grey and a light brown. This paper is 12"x16"

• Another little project I've been working on - this is my "secret" project, though I'm pretty awful at keeping secrets so most people who know me know what I'm up to, hehe!
• I couldn't help but post this shot, it's just rather funny!

• More little projects - this bunch of ugly looking things are all potential future models. Pickle is due for a V3 version, and for a long while I've been wanting to make her a tad bigger, to make her a perfect model for Arabian tack-makers. Sadly V1 and V2 were just a touch too small, so, armed with my magic growing resin (the green coloured stuff) I took a cast of Pickle V2 and am now watching it slowly grow.
• I also took a cast of just one side of her face (the other green blob), which I'm wondering about turning into some kind of medallion.

• The cream coloured blobs are casts made from the magic shrinking resin. I took a cast from the Pickle mold and also from the Fly Fishing mold. You can see how the two kinds of resin work when you consider that all three Pickle casts in the photo are from the same original mold! The effect will be very noticable when the two cream models are fully shrunk; then they will be a brown colour, like the Halfling Frodo was after fully shrinking which takes about 2-3 weeks, but as it's winter could be as long as a month.

More to come!

My First Artist's Retreat

Well, I didn't know I'd be doing this last week, but this Sunday, I'm holding a little Artist's Retreat! A young sculptor hobbyist contacted me last week; she is working on a SM size sculpture and wanted to know about resins, rubbers, mold-making and so on. We got chatting about the different types of materials and their characteristics and I said "wouldn't it be great to meet up and go through all these things as an experiment together"... So, this Sunday that's exactly what we're going to do! I've asked along another friend of mine so it's turning into a group event. I'm really looking forward to it now; I've ordered a good selection of materials (that I'd have ended up buying at some point anyway, so no cost implications there) to add to those I already have and given how I love to experiment, that's quite a few! I'm now doing a little research into Health and Safety, just to make sure everything is legal and safe for the girls who are visiting, as they are both 16. Just in case I've ordered some water-based non-toxic resin, so at the very least they'll be able to do a spot of casting. I hate to have to think this way, but I would hate it more if there was an accident! I shall report back after the event, and will try to remember to take lots of photos so you can see what we got up to, whatever it will be, I think it will be colourful!!

Happy 2009!!! Time to get creative!

• Hi all,
• Well, we're careering into 2009 at one heck of a rate, aren't we?! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a fun New Year! Mine was one for family and as always it was extremely manic! I think I'm about recovered from it all (now we're nearing the end of January!), so it's now time to get back to all things creative!
• Below are details on my current project; it is for a fellow member of the Model Horse community, Joan Berkwitz. Joanie is a ceramic artist who not only creates some of the most incredible glazed pieces, but also casts china models (a subject which mystifies me!). In particular, she has control over the edition of these models. More photos of this model glazed by Joanie and other artists can be found on Donna Chaney's Animal Artistry website here and here.
• I am quite an avid Animal Artistry collector, and have more recently begun to collect bone China and Earthenware pieces. This particular model has been on my grail-list, as due to the cancelled Pour-Horse run it has technically never been released! There are a number that have been sold, but those people who have them must really love them, as they very VERY rarely come up for sale!
• The reason I'm talking so much about china models and not drawings, is that Joanie has VERY kindly agreed to glaze a copy of this model for me, in exchange for a set of portraits of her three German Mittle-Spitz dogs; Casper, Bear and Yasha.
• I'm being very lucky with the portraits I've been asked to do, in that they've all been of incredibly gorgeous animals! These dogs continue that pleasant trend, so I would like to introduce you to:

Casper

Bear and Yasha

• These images show how I begin the portraits. As you can see they aren't perfect, but for the purposes I need them for, that's ok. What I've been trying to work out is the composition. I've always struggled with getting the elements in my drawings into a good composition, so taking this step saves me an awful lot of time and mistakes! So, I put the chosen photographs into a photo editing software, and then remove the background, add in a coloured background which I can easily change (these probably won't be on brown, but I usually start with this colour) and then I remove bits, add bits and generally "fiddle" with the images until I'm happy with the overall balance, and in this case, the harmony between all three images. As you can see, we've chosen three photos that can be displayed side by side, and as one dog looks slightly left, one slightly right and one mostly front-on, they should make for a nice arrangement whilst still looking balanced alone (should Joanie decide to display in separate places).
• I also get to play with the brief I was given, and with any effects or styles. If I mess up at this point it's easy to press UNDO, so now is a good time to play! The information I'm aiming to convey (in addition to as accurate a portrait as possible, and some other points) is as follows:

1. Casper is an "old-style" American Eskimo dog. He is smaller than the two younger dogs and his features are more pointed. Casper has tear-stains by his eyes, which although undesirable in the breed (they are hereditery), they are a part of him so these will remain and just be slightly reduced as this photo was taken at a time when they were quite strong.
2. Bear is the biggest dog, he is masculine and strong, but laid back. He has a more pronounced "ruff"(mane) than the other two dogs.
3. Yasha is a "new-style" Eskie, like Bear. She has more dainty features, and has very, very soft fur.
4. Casper is thirteen years old, whilst the two youngsers (brother and sister) are both about two and a half. I don't want Casper to look really old in his portrait, but he does have a glint of wisdom in his eyes that I really hope I can portray.

• I avoid making any changes to the details of the dogs; it's vitally important to make sure that I draw "Casper, Bear and Yasha", not just "three white dogs". Saying that though, at this point it is really handy to be able to remove any undesirable elements. I get terribly distracted by bits I don't want to draw and can get quite frustrated , so being able to clean up any little flecs on the picture, or unwanted tangles in the fur can really help me.
• So, this is where I'm at now. I have to admit this project has me quite worried as white fur is so very difficult to portray well. I just hope I am able to master it, or that precious little clinky horse always will remain a grail!

More on this project to come, and also more on recent sculpting endeavours including the revealing of my "secret model"!