Special blog and newsletter price 250.00
Father's day surprise. I'm trying something new. This is a thought I've had for a while. The idea that I could make something and sell it. Doesn't sound too radical right? Well the usual way this happens is quite different from that. In the past I would make things "on spec" and send them to galleries on consignment. It can take months or years for things to sell. Another direction is take the work to trade shows and hope to get orders from stores. Lots of expense and effort to get wholesale prices. Then I did art fairs for many years (still do some) I have to make lots of work and take it on the road and hope the conditions are right to sell some small part of what I bring. Any artist can write a whole book of Art Show Stories. Now I'm more "on line" where the time and effort is shoved in a different direction.
It's time consuming to post things on etsy and my website. Multiple platforms and 2 different mediums means different audiences. There's pictures to take and edit and post, descriptions to create, seo tags to think up and research, ads and promotions to create and post.
Then there is social media to announce and tell the world about the work. More pictures, words and posting. I have 3 web stores, 2 active blogs, 2 Instagram accounts, a Facebook profile and 2 face book pages, and a newsletter. So
to cut back on all that time and effort, I'm going to try offering new work exclusively to my newsletter and blog readers. Again the idea is, if I can sell something quickly and not spend a ton of time and effort on marketing, it's worth it for me to offer the new work at an extremely attractive price. If this works it will inspire me to make new work every couple of weeks for the newsletter. I could be more productive and make more interesting work if I didn't have to spend so much time marketing. I don't know where this will lead. Maybe to more new work and multiple new things with each letter and maybe it wont work and everything goes back to full retail on web. On thing for sure though, I'm going to need a bigger audience so if you know of anyone who might be interested in this idea please forward the letter to them
I started out with the question "what can I do with this pile of Heavy Sterling?"
I had a long bar of silver about 1/8 thick and 1.25 inches wide so I cut off a piece 2 inches long.
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| Here I'm bending the side plate with the hammer |
I had to anneal the metal to soften it with torch heat so I could form it and hammer texture it.
The basic box has been soldered together and the bar is soldered to the back end. The top plate was hammer textured and slightly domed. The side plates are now forged into shape to fit the arc of the top plate. Once soldered in place the top plate is ground to match the shape of the sides giving the buckle a flared design.
Keeper has also been forged into a curve using 2 hammer shapes . On the right I used a paper template to figure out how to bend the curved bar into a rectangle.
All the parts are soldered together and ready to start finishing.
The side panels have been ground into a taper to fit the thickness of a belt
The back view shows the double flair on the ends and the compound curve of the side panels.
The silver has been patinated and satin brushed to give a soft luster and show the texture.
I had to anneal the metal to soften it with torch heat so I could form it and hammer texture it.
