Baby Love!

Reasons to be cheerful (part one)

Yesterday was very frustrating. DHL tried to deliver the sample but it had been sent to my home address not my work address (as I'd actually requested) so I had difficult mobile phone chats and sent erroneous emails to undeliverable addresses trying to change the delivery address, and sending messages via websites and goodness know what.... Wrote a long note to put on the door saying 'Please try two sets of neighbours or come to my place of work in town. Practically begging, I was. (I couldn't stand the thought that the parcel had got all the way to my front door but that I might not get it till after the weekend!)

Bless 'em, the courier comoany, they came up with my goods and I picked them up from reception this afternoon! Worked my way through about 6 layers of packaging and inside a plastic bag, a card board box,  a layer of padded foam, a cardboard tube, another plastic bag, and loosely wrapped with two of those flimsy cloth gloves that you handle artwork with... were two Twelvemo figures. Two! Two is great because I can try out a finish on one of them and that makes the research and development slightly less scary. They had sent a photo and the neck looked too long so I think they adjusted and re-cast. Two is also good because I really do get the impression that this is going to be a consistent product. 

I can't tell you how pleased I am with them! The pieces are nice and clean, with a fine matt surface. The joints feel nice and tight (some of them almost squeak) which is really good for holding her poses, but they don't feel like they are straining and it was well worth the re-working that I did on one or two leg joints. 

Hope you like the photos... Please share them if you do! I'll add some more info and images tomorrow, but for now I'm too knackered and need to sleep. 

But, before I forget...

Reasons to be cheerful (part two)

This week I have also done the following: 

1. talked to a man about going to Japan later this year
2. bought a plane ticket for a long weekend in Southern Ireland where I will have art work in a new gallery that is opening in Rosslare: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sweet-Shop-Gallery/315135451893575
3. been sent some cool soundtracks to go with a short animation I have made: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Twelvemo/254363451283318   (soundtracks by http://www.lamsound.com/)
4. been given an almost completely intact shed skin of a five foot boa constrictor called Buddy 
5. nurtured my lawn which I have been sitting on in the sun, Friday evening, with a gin and tonic

Photos From China

Twelvemo will be sent on her way to the UK on Monday! 


Here are a few photos from the factory in China. Not the best pictures in the world but she's looking good to me. I think the neck pieces haven't been pushed in far enough,and the head is poorly angled, but the face looks right, the parts all look clean and tidy. This resin is still just their regular prototyping colour, and they'll have to mix up the actual colour I've requested specially. 


All the (32) pieces for one figure will be in a bag, in a white box. I asked if they can make the box a size that will hold the assembled figure, and they agreed. I don't know what they will be like, these chinese boxes... I'm hoping that they'll be good enough to send the figures off in when purchased too, maybe in a padded envelope. I need to design a label to stick on the boxes, and perhaps I should buy a bar code for them too. Th factory said they'd throw in a few thousand lengths of rod of the right thickness and colour, for me to put them together. 


I wonder how quickly the novelty of assembling them will wear off, once I have got started? I remember the very first casts I took of the very first Twelvemo. I couldn't believe I'd made this thing out of plastic . I've always been into natural and traditional materials; silver or silk or mother of pearl, ebony, ivory and so on Not that I ever made anything out of ivory I don't think. Ok, and resin may not strictly be plastic, I don't know. (Anyone care to enlighten me?)

   

  

I'm looking forward to getting the sample delivered and placing an order for... Hmm... One hundred seems to be a good number to begin with, don't you think? Had another message from a complete stranger saying they'd buy one if it was cheaper, so I seem to be building up a fan-base. Should I number the first hundred? I hope it will be the first of some/many/dozens of hundreds... I want Twelvemo to take over the world! To become a cypher for the imagination of others, an agent of expression, play, posture and articulation! (Mwah Ha Ha Ha *evil cackle)


Hopefully I'm just a few weeks away from achieving a long-held ambition. If they can deliver the pieces in a couple of weeks, and then I take a couple of weeks to get a few assembled, finished, photographed, boxed, labelled... So, there's a little way to go yet...


I will be so gutted if I'm barkin' up the wrong tree on this one and no-one is actually interested in shelling out and purchasing, even when they are more affordable. I think I'd have to retire from Fantasy World entirely (the place where my skills are so valuable I can make good money from them) and take up intensive yoga or guitar practice or something!


OK... Must go and do something else, as I have go on for far longer than I intended.
Please share and follow and stuff!  Still haven't quite worked out how I do it myself...


http://www.etsy.com/shop/Twelvemo


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Twelvemo/254363451283318


http://www.sarahbeare.com



One more thing.. These little soundtracks made for my Dancing Dolossies animantion... I've put all three here, one after another and then layered them together. Which one do you like most? It's a work in progress, not signed off or anything, just a little doodle!


They were made by Jonathan Lambert:    http://www.lamsound.com/

*Twiddles thumbs...

I'm waiting patiently... Sent the master off nearly two weeks ago so I should be getting the new sample back again in a few days, and have decided on a Pantone colour for the resin and told the factory. 


Have got loads and loads of other little domestic tasks done since, but I don't know if I'm clearing the decks ready for the next project (apart from Twelvemo - that's on-going) or procrastinating like mad to avoid starting the next project! (I think I must be procrastinating as I've even made an appointment at the dentist. I usually do other things to avoid doing that!)


Took down the work in the exhibition, which finished on Saturday, with about 15 people going on the last day! Have had lovely feedback from people I don't even know about the work, and I've sold, I hope, three pieces of work from the show, which is excellent! 


I've also just had a message from someone asking the price of a gold Dolossie in a magnifying book, having seen the silver one listed in my Etsy shop: Cool! Had to do a quick calculation there... If the person wants to buy I'll have to make a specific listing for the item, 'cos the listing as it is is just for silver ones. 


http://www.etsy.com/listing/77431988/tiny-silver-dancer-in-a-magnifying-mini

Please follow my blog and share if you like this and think others will too. 


I need to build up the numbers of Twelvemo fans, so when I get 100 sent to me from China I have some reason to start putting them together! I think the novelty of assembling the new figure will wear off pretty quickly, and I'll be relying on commercial motivations!


Must. Get. On. With. Something. Else...


*Lightbulb moment!


First I'll finish taking better shots of the exhibition pieces and I'll pop them up here when I have edited them. That will keep me safely out of mischief for another few hours or days...