Other aspects of the art biz

Most of the time, I write about the creative process.  There are other aspects to the art biz than applying clay to a pipe and wire armature, and I'm going to talk about that today.

My daughter's logo for her business, Dancing Horse Farm, Lebanon OH (where I'm the Marketing Director/Webmistress/Newsletter editor, which keeps me VERY busy!) is beautiful and seemed like a natural design for jewelry.  With her permission (it IS trademarked, so it required permission), I started trying to find a way to make it into jewelry.  I knew her clients would enjoy it as jewelry and I also thought it would be a good way to promote the farm.

As you can see, it's very graphic in nature.  In fact, it was created (by my friend and fellow artist Marcia Van Woert) digitally.  I tried to sculpt it in various ways but had little to no luck (and no, I have no "digital" skills at all when it comes to creating art).

While I was in Oregon last July having the maquette of Nanning 374 digitally enlarged to life-size (the bronze will be installed in April, YAY!), I saw their 3-D printer at work (not on my piece - that was done with a different process).  The 3-D printer takes a scan or a digital image and prints it out in three dimensions in resin.  That's pretty darned cool! 

I asked if they could make jewelry blanks for me from this image and they said "sure" - and so they did.  They were GORGEOUS!  I sent them to a pewter caster and learned they were too thin to use to create the molds.  Rats!  The pewter place's cadcam guy re-did them at the proper thickness and jewelry was "born"! 

Now design ideas are running out of both my ears, and my daughter's in the same condition, LOL!  So far, we have two styles of earrings with the logo 1/2" wide, 3/4" wide pendants and zipper pulls, and I'm making beaded bracelets using the 1/2" charms.  They're all so beautiful!  And since they're pewter, they're AFFORDABLE! 

(Shown above:  Ball earrings, french wire earrings - both with 1/2" charm; 3/4" pendant; zipper pull using 3/4" pendant.)

All of them say "myDHF.com" (the farm's website) on the back.  The earrings don't have the texture shown above on the back, but they do have the lettering.  They're available at an introductory price of $10 for either style of earrings (ball earrings or french wire), $10 for a pendant with your choice of chain length from 16" to 24", $12 for the zipper pull.  There's $3 shipping/handling within the USA.  You can order them by contacting me (I use Lynda@myDHF.com for DHF business) or directly from the website at www.myDHF.com/dhf-jewelry.html.

It's SO EXCITING to see something like this become a reality, especially after trying for so long (literally years!) to create it.  And it's wonderful to see the excitement of those who know and love Dancing Horse Farm when they see and wear the jewelry. 

I'll be selling this jewelry (along with my sculpture) at Equine Affaire in my booth (#529-530 in the Bricker Building at the Ohio Expo Center - state fairgrounds) April 12-15, but the prices will be higher.  The current prices are introductory only.  If you want some DHF jewelry and want to get the best price, order it soon!

I love learning about all the ways art can be produced.  Learning about 3-D printing and cadcam stuff is really interesting to me, although I'll never conquer doing them myself.  There are SO many techniques and technologies that didn't even exist when I was a young'un.  Being an artist is endlessly fascinating . . .

Yay!!!

I'm excited!  I wrote a "short story" (not so short - around 10,000 words) for the Western Ohio Writers' Association, where I'm a member.  Since I was trying to get it finished in time for the October meeting where members would be reading at Books & Co. in The Greene (in Beavercreek OH), I wrote a ghost story/horror/suspense kind of thing, not at all my usual genre (magical fantasy with a bit of romance involved).  I was very insecure about how it turned out.  Did I create enough suspense?  Did I withhold the clues long enough?  Did I give too much away?  Did the suspense build?  Did I manage to save the "surprise" until the end?

Well . . . I wasn't able to go to the October meeting, so I just kept working on the story because it intrigued me as a project.  Then I heard about an anthology project that sounded interesting.  I decided to polish that story and see if it would get in.  It was all I had since I normally write novels.  Imagine my surprise and pleasure to learn it was accepted to the anthology!  It will be published late this year.  I'll have ordering information both here and on my website when it's available!

The story is called "Lisa Goodman, Writer."  I've been given a detailed critique to help me rewrite it for publication.  And no, I can't tell you any more about it except it takes place in Dayton (which doesn't have a lot to do with the story - but that really is all I can tell you about it!  LOL).

So HUZZAH!!!!  My attempting a totally different genre wasn't a horrible failure (which I feared it might be!).  I'm a happy camper!