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)