Saturday 21 November 2015

Manic making. . .


Well, so much for stated good intentions. . . 
I have departed from my plan to lay off the component making and maybe do some larger more complex things. 
Aye well, given a choice between backwards or forwards, I will find a way of going sideways. . . That's just the way I am.
What I have actually been doing is somewhat manically making even more organic textured components these last couple of weeks. 

In my defence, the intention was to get a pool of draft listings together so I can add a couple every day or so while engaged in other stuff, like endeavouring to earn a living. You know, that stuff. . .
I'm sort of getting there, but the temptation is to add lots of items to the shop at once 'because it's there'.
I need to resist this.

I did, however manage to play around with multiple textures, as in the groovy limpet like thing above. The texture in the middle was from a kind of hard wormcast found on mussel shells and the like, and the other texture was from a digital image made into a texture sheet and a further texture stamp or roller made from that, then impressed round the outside. That was fun, and it came out looking well organic and crusty. But mainly I followed the simple rolled texture sort of fascination. . .

Some of the things below are in my etsy shop, and some aren't but will be in the next few days I should think.


I made some basic rolled texture beads influenced by a pic of some neolithic beads I saw on pinterest. 



Some strange organic fungoid alien bean shoot dangles.


Some satisfyingly crusty drop charms. Which have obviously been lying on the sea bed for about 100 years.


some entertainingly spotty blue beads, using the outrageously intense colour that is Indigo alcohol ink. That stuff should have a health warning ;-) I love it, but cleaning the brush very thoroughly afterwards is advised.


Some square texture beads.


And most recently, some more organic spike things that remind me both of seaweed and of microscopic creatures somehow. . .

At some point soon I will take my own advice and take a break from manic making. I would like to produce some more considered work as well as my more instinctive reactions to the material that my most recent work has been at root. 
Jon x

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Multi listings and all that

I keep thinking about writing a post, and then putting it off until I have something I think is 'worth writing about'. . .
Yeah, well dream on ;-) The usual drivel will have to do, it's been long enough since my last post.



I have been busy though. I've taken the concept of the Psuedoshard a step further, making thin image trans drop charm sort of things with the usual distressed image transfer stuff on the front. I used some of my black and white images on some of them, which worked quite nicely I thought. I always think they look African for some reason. To do with my mental image of what African looks like of course, and perhaps not all that close to what something African actually looks like, but there is such a thing as a national characteristic that comes through in work from a particular place. It's a vague concept, and involves that other vague concept, 'feel' as well as direct visual clues, but I maintain it does exist.
In my head anyway.



I have been trying out a time and effort saving concept too. I have made some multiple listings. The trouble with listing four (say) different examples of the same sort of thing, (Four sets of image trans earring charms for instance) is that each ideally requires 5 separate photos. General shot, close up, the back, one for scale and one wild card. . . Each shot has to be resized and tweaked in Photoshop before being saved in a different folder. Then a listing has to be written out, tags sorted out etc etc. Sometimes for a potential $5 sale. Not ideal. There has to be an easier way. . . So I have tried photographing and listing multiples when the items are variations on a theme. The buyer tells me which ones they want and I adapt the photo accordingly and relist. Early days but it's working OK I think. I will have left over items which I can then list on their own, but that is less trouble than making loads of small listings. . .
Of course I could stop making small beads, but that would be a shame.



I have made some more organic form spike things too. They are fun to make and the last lot sold very quickly. We shall have to see how these do.



Other than that I made some big hollow beads by pre-baking two halves and sticking them together.



And some bi-colour bicone beads, which I quite like. haven't listed them yet, but will do so over the next week.



I think I need to make some more eccentric style stuff, maybe some large focals or something, as I have been in component making mode for a while and need a change, just for a while.
Still enjoying the process, so all good there.
Jon x
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JBDRusticOrganic