You mean what is WHEN???

Mom was nice enough to remind me FenCon is next weekend.  She's got some art show space that she's sharing with me (because Mom's awesome like that) and I'm in full-on panic mode.  I don't feel like I have enough work, and the work that I do have is a little all over the place with a ballpoint pen drawing, found object sculpture, 3 necklaces, and a couple mini journals.  Worse yet, I can't keep elf ears in stock (terrible problem, I know) and I feel so incredibly unprepared.  I have this week to bang out another item or two, maybe another drawing, and do any preliminary drawings or research for the next major project, a dragon scale collar necklace.

I hate feeling unprepared.   I'm not always sure what the next step should be and instead of making a step and a mistake, I end up making another, sometimes bigger mistake and staying in one place.  I want to get more pieces out and instead, I get almost nothing done while I'm paralyzed with anxiety.  Fortunately, I'm doing better with it this time around and getting a little bit done instead of hyperventilating in the corner.

I got table coverings  and another necklace display, plus some boxes for the jewelry.  It's at least a start towards getting everything organized.  I know I have until Friday, but it just doesn't seem long enough with commissions and work and everything else that comes with breathing.  I'm taking things one at a time and I'll get through what I get through, even if it doesn't feel like enough.

The sculpture didn't turn out like I had in mind, but I still like it.  I like the repetition of the circular motif throughout the piece and I think that really ties the thing together.  It ended up having more of a steampunk vibe than I was expecting, despite the roses being the most steampunk thing on there.   I used screws as accents throughout the piece, the silver being a nice contrast to the rest of the gold and copper. 

I tried a couple of different things that didn't work out.  I wanted some vines that would act a little like wires connecting various parts to others.  Unfortunately, it looked messy and I hated it.  I tried making them into another repetitive loop shape to see if that would look better.  It looked worse.  I put a little bit of green nail polish on it, but nothing could save it, so I ended up removing all of them after wasting a few nights.

More creative uses for nail polish

I had a bit of green circuit board hanging out on the side of the piece that I hadn't decided what to do with.  I painted it with my favorite gold nail polish because it was what I had handy. I used a coppery red to paint a part of the hard drive to give it a little more interest and the center portion of the mirrored disk gold.  I used black and turquoise on the copper parts to age them, although in retrospect I should have chosen brown.  The black is a little harsh, but it works in the end.  I used a dry brush technique on all of the copper bits.  

I used nail polish on the roses too, because one of the other notions I had was drips going down or around the roses.  Instead I used a dark red and purple (the red was a little bloody) to accent the edges of the roses with the same dry brush technique.  I like how they ended up, with a little bit of color along the edges and on the tops of the inside petals.

I like it.  There is a circular motif that runs through the piece that I loved from the beginning.  The colors work (they're all neutrals, so.. duh.) and the mechanical vibe is neat.  Ben doesn't like it, and he's not entirely sure why.  Not everyone will like my work, or even every piece, but I'm worried that this one is a dud.  Abstract art can be a hard sell for many people, but I grew to love viewing and creating it in college.  There's something very liberating in throwing away the idea that your art has to represent something concrete instead of finding beauty in unusual places.

Here's what the finished sculpture looks like.  It's for sale, and it's debut will be at FenCon this weekend.  If you're in Dallas, stop by and get your nerd on!  

When life hands you scams... make art?

It all started when Ben got a video game stuck in his head.

A coworker was raving about the JRPG Ni No Kuni. It was developed by Level-5 and Studio Ghibli, the latter known as the compay who makes stunning animated movies about a plucky child who loses their parent and go on a magical adventure with cute monsters.  Ben found the game and looked for a good deal on a PS3.

There's yer problem

He found one that looked promising on Craigslist.  He met the seller and his father, deals were made, and he rushed home to set up his new toy.  We discovered pretty quickly that it wasn't working, left a couple of messages, and discovered that that our only option was civil court if we could track down the people.  We looked at reparing it.  Turns out, the kid who broke this tried to fix it as only a kid will, and there's no fixing that sort of damage.  When he realized this, he gutted the thing and sold it. 

We were both angry and I went for a walk.  I stopped cussing around 2.5 miles and by the time I got home, I was clear-headed enough to go over the budget with Ben and we bought a PS3 from a retailer.  

Now we had 2 PS3's and more money spent than I'd like.  I saved the junky PS3 and an Xbox that died in the back of the closet hoping that inspiration would hit.