Landmarks Rushing By. . . Domestic Stuff - Who Do We Think We Are? . . ;-) Cats, and of course, Beads/Drops/Thingies

I only noticed the other day, quite by chance, that I had reached an interesting landmark. It was four years ago on the 3rd of October, that I made my first bead sale on Etsy. (and probably about six months before that, that I had encountered my first bit of polymer clay) The beads in the pic were the ones I sold, and the buyer (from the West Coast USA) rejoiced in the rather wonderful surname of Carefree Buffalo. . . Not the sort of surname you get in the UK ;-) 

It only occurred to me later that this might be a native american name, but the image of a carefree buffalo skipping over the prairie, probably wearing my beads, still makes me smile.

Well, my Etsy shop is still chugging along four years later, on about 1200 sales now, and making beads has become a important part of my life, from being something it would never have occurred to me to get involved in. . . Life huh? ;-) 

Well, I've long ceased to worry about how I got Here from There. 

Embrace the randomness is what I say!

On the domestic front, I have been planning our living room makeover for a while. We are going for some fancy wood panelling on the wall round the fireplace, complete with some fancy wooden corbels and bits. 

The trouble is that even when you know the dimensions of the things you are ordering, it still comes as a surprise just how flippin big they are sometimes. The wonderfully ornate one in the middle is 10 inches by 11-1/2, which is pretty impressive. It will look amazing, if somewhat over the top. 

Still, us pretentious arty types with high falutin ideas aren't afraid of going over the top on occasion. . . It's going to be at the faux baronial end of the Georgian scale, if you get my drift, All dark wood and knotty grain. . .

Still on the domestic front, it's a big front. . . Here is what we did to the bathroom. 

The tiles were made by me with my heat press etc. The image is a copy of a William De Morgan tile design that my wife painted very large. I photographed it, sorted it all out on Photoshop to result in a three by three, nine tile design with single tile width edging. The tiles even have a crackle glaze effect, done in photoshop using a photo of a crackled dish of my wife's superimposed over the individual tile images. 

And I did the tiling too. . . I impress myself sometimes! Not too often, mind.

Staying with the bathroom for a further moment, here is my digital fractal based shower tile design. It's a continuous image representing water in an abstract way. That was another learning curve. 

Before I actually got round to tiling the shower we made do with bubble wrap stapled to the plasterboard wall. . . nice. . .

Boudicca or Boodie or Boo

Cats -

The three cats we adopted as kittens about a year and a quarter ago are in fine fettle. Now the weather has started to get a bit colder and wetter (we don't half need the rain! It's chucking it down as I write) they spend a lot more time indoors. I sometimes think they are too confident and well adjusted. There are three chairs round the kitchen table and the selfish little beasties are far too relaxed to worry about where I'm going to sit, fah! 

Actually they are joy. Happy, affectionate cats. We love 'em to bits ;-)

Cleopatra, or Cloppy or Clops

Hereward, or Hairy Boy or Himself

OK, the bit you have been waiting for, maybe. .  the Beads/Drops/Dangles/Thingies. . .

Two big turned look beads with a couple of resistors

My supply of unemployed beads is still going strong, although I am looking forward to the day when I start making some new polymer clay things instead of sparking ideas off already existent ones. I'm still experimenting and learning, and people still like what I am making, so I am happy.

A pair of textured charms with shaped wire bails

Wiggly wire is a new departure

Image tiles and looped wire 'flowers' is another

With it's subtle variations

Distressed image transfer beads with wiggly wire

My last pair of 'shards'

And the idea of hanging shapes from bent wire constructions was another one I liked.

So, as you see, life potters along in an enjoyable and satisfactory way. What could be nicer? ;-)

Until next time,

Jon x

Open Studios, Artist Statements and Letting Them Eat Cake. . .

Well, it's been a hectic few weeks. . . The Norfolk Open Studios weekend we had signed up for all those months ago finally came round, and it was pretty full on getting ready for it. I had to sift through, and choose various designs to print, work out which designs to make into tiles, make the tiles, get some not too expensive frames for the prints, work out which pieces of jewellery and which beads to put on display, how to display them and how the various strands of my work would fit together. . . Interesting but just a bit too much like flippin' hard work. (And I had a gig on the Sunday that I had to find time to rehearse for. . . It went well, apart from the rain, it being an outside event - we huddled under a gazebo thing until it stopped after about half an hour, but It's all left me feeling somewhat wiped out)

The jewellery and prints bit. . . with various props

The tiles and prints bit, with old red velvet curtain

I also felt I needed to write a kind of artists statement explaining a bit about the intention behind my work and how it came to be created etc.

So what I will do for this blog post is show you some pics of the final display and regurgitate the artists statement for your delight. . . ;-) Actually it does quite succinctly pin down a few things, I think. You may find it interesting. . .

If not, just look at the pics ;-)

Prints, Tiles and Coasters

My work and practice involves making unique, digitally constructed images (derived from my explorations into the mathematics of pattern – in nature and in decorative and other arts) into physical objects by transferring said images onto paper (as prints), and onto tiles and other surfaces.

My tiles lie, in category, between prints and ceramics, being essentially prints onto a ceramic surface. Framing them serves to emphasise their function as art objects.

In my work, unlike most artisan print processes, the actual production of the physical object is not where much of the skill and expertise lies. In my case that skill and expertise is largely to be found in the mastery of the software I use to create the images, and the vision to see that it could be used for such a purpose in the first place, (a purpose it was never intended to be used for).

I have a deep interest in the so called ‘mathematics of nature’ and how computer software can be used to impersonate natural patterns and surfaces by using that mathematics. Leading on from that, I have found in my explorations that patterns can be produced (especially when symmetrically reflected) that resemble patterns produced by entirely human means. I find echoes of African art, Art Nouveau and Deco etc. This leads me to speculate on the reasons the human brain and the human mind find certain shapes particularly pleasing. It could be that these fractal forms echo the fractal nature of the brain and it’s workings, that there are some forms that are somehow universal. . . They also look beautiful, both old and modern at the same time.

Which is also a feature of

My Bead and Jewellery Work.

My chosen medium is polymer clay, technically a modern, plastic modelling medium with many clay like properties. It is malleable until baked (at domestic oven temperatures), whereupon it becomes hard and tough. It can be painted, sculpted, glued and distressed in various ways. It is also cheap and no specialist equipment is required which makes it less intimidating to experiment with.

It is an interesting material in that it has little identity of it’s own, possibly due to it’s newness as a medium. This lack of clear identity, its transparency if you like, means it is can be made to impersonate other materials, but produce forms that those materials might not be able to.

I discovered that many artists use polymer clay to make beads, which led me to explore beads as cultural phenomena and as art objects in their own right. And to realise how very ancient beads are in the history of human creative endeavor. Personal adornment has a long history. This was all new to me, and I found it fascinating.

My work involves utilising textures and images, transferred or impressed into polymer clay, to make unique and unusual beads and jewellery. Exploration, experimentation and following the fascination are the guiding principles of my practice. I use many techniques in my work, such as image transfer, texture making, faux ceramic, crackle glaze effect, turned effect, and directly distressing the surface. I have also developed surface treatments to make my beads seem to be ancient, although actually being entirely modern. An apparent contradiction I also find fascinating.

Tiles and Coasters - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JonBurgess

Beads and Jewellery - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JBDRusticOrganic

Tiles. Sold a few ;-)

More tiles, sets of 4 and unframed ones

Some prints. Digital abstract stuff

More prints. brighter ones in black frames

So the first weekend was a bit slow as far as sales went, but a couple of couples of old friends dropped by, having seen the brochure thingy and not yet having seen our new home. That was very nice.

I might juuuust break even if I sell couple more things, but really, it does feel like the work and money spent wasn't quite worth the return. Still, it maybe puts us on the map, so to speak, and could lead to future sales and suchlike. Not sure we will do it again though.

Who's eating cake? well, apart from us that is. The ducklings are! The five ducklings that hatched by our pond about three weeks ago were down to four pretty quickly, but are still four, which is great, as it means they are probably going to make it. Their mum is very protective and has the cats properly intimidated. We seem to have an endless supply of stale cake lurking in the bread bin, so these lucky ducklings have been getting the Marie Antoinette treatment. . . No decent pics I'm sorry to say.

Oh well, back to normal poly clay mutterings next time,

cheers,

Jon x

Trying Something New, Actually Selling Stuff, and The impending Doom of Innocent Voles. . .

Textured Spikes

Well, it's been an interesting week and a bit. To me anyway ;-)
I've been musing and muttering in my own inimitable way about Facebook groups and whether to try to sell my beads in them, for months, without actually taking the plunge and just doing it. I mean, why would it be any better than listing stuff in a shop? etc. . . Well, if you don't try it, you never know do you?

Black and yellow neat(ish) spikes

So I took the plunge and just did it, and blimey, it's been a bit of a revelation. You know all those people who give advice online about how to set up a successful shop and how to make sales, and how they always bang on about 'finding your audience'? ('Huh! Easy enough to say' was always my cynical response. .) Well I think I just found mine. . .

Sold these

I sold a very encouraging amount of things almost straight after listing them, which has not been my experience with my online shop, that's for sure.
There is something about an auction format that adds a sense of urgency to the selling process. People  are there to buy things and they want to get them before somebody else beats them to it!
Which is all good for sales and for the ego of the seller. . . Let's see how it progresses from hereon. .

And these

I've been playing with my turned effect technique again. I am having too much fun with it, obviously. I have taken to putting large oxidised copper loops at the tops of my beads rather than having them as through drilled tube type beads. I think this adds a sense of purpose to them. They are definitely earring charms, or maybe pendant necklace focals if they are larger beads, and there is no ambiguity about which way up they should go.

And these, I'd only just made them too.

I am coming to the conclusion that giving people too much choice in how something can be used can backfire on you. Certainty is good. Of course I may change my mind about that in future, but this is my position for at least the next twenty minutes. . .

Not to mention these

Cat stuff - The girls have had their final post neutering check up and are fine. Which means they can go outside whenever they like and decimate the local vole population with their brother. I expect at any minute, a petition from disgruntled owls (Owls of Protest) complaining about their supply of voles being drastically reduced by these feline interlopers. Well, they have had it good for a long time, they will just have to get over it.
The cats are not kittens anymore, they may behave like kittens still, but they are getting big, especially Hereward, (referred to as Hairy or Fat Boy) who is getting to be a big handsome beastie. I can't imagine life without them now ;-)
Ay well, more DIY is calling me. Fake panelling the landing, and then taking a deep breath and tackling the bathroom! Eeek, what have I let myself in for? . .
Jon x,

Convoluted Explanations. . . .

Well, it's the 13th May. Ooh, Friday the 13th ;-) not that that has ever bothered me particularly. Anyway, despite my silence on this platform I have still been following my fascinations, albeit alongside interruptions from our house selling and buying ongoing process. Just to give you some context, we are moving further out into the country, we are in the throes os selling our house and buying another, solicitors, surveys etc. It all takes time and makes you feel totally powerless, which is not good, so I am glad I have things I can achieve results from in fairly short order.

I decided to try using some of my more faux organic digital images to transfer onto poly clay, further contorting and exploring the idea of presumed 'reality. I'm playing with the idea that it could be hard to tell what part of the object is the result of a physical process and what part is the result of digital manipulation that echoes the results of a physical process. 

The images I make use the mathematics that impersonates or echoes naturally occurring forms and distribution of forms. The dread word 'Fractal' has to used at this point. I don't mean the swirly, exactly similar but decreasing in size, rainbow coloured things that you used to see everywhere years ago, I mean what are known as 'Random Fractals'. These have the same self similarity and iterations of scale as the swirly ones, ('Deterministic fractals' I have been told is the name of those Mandlebrot Set type ones) but they repeat in a random way, so you get a similar shape or form repeating at various sizes in randomly determined places, making a pattern that repeats, but not exactly, and not in a strict geometric layout. Kind of faux 'natural'.

The image transfer process and further deliberate 'ageing' be me, brings my own physical impersonation of natural processes, such as decay and random attrition, into the equation. 

So I am making a digital image that looks like some unspecified natural form, digitally manipulating it to make it look decayed or degraded in some way, bringing it into the physical by printing and transferring it onto poly clay, then physically manipulating the surface to make it look decayed and degraded, which is itself a random fractal process. . . .

And they look cool, which is the main point ;-) Though why 'faux ancient' is considered desirable is not something I have yet fully worked out. . (I consider it desirable but haven't delved into that one yet)

My texture sheets are made in the same way, using the same kind of images made into texture stamps/sheets.

It's all fascinating stuff, arguably. I really enjoy messing about at both ends of the process - on my computer and on my work table. there is no shortage of stuff to explore.
Below is some more recent stuff you may have seen on FB or in my Etsy shop, but it's always worth a second look of course ;-)
cheers,
J x

Through and Through - Rough Image Transfer Adventures

I've been working out various things this past week or so. Refining how to make 'through drilled' or at least, 'through holed' flat tile beads without them having to be unattractively thick. I have got it pretty much sorted.
I bake a thin image trans tile, then press another unbaked blank onto the underneath with a bead pin or similar in between the two layers to provide the stringing hole (once removed, which I do before baking, though afterwards would probably be OK too). The unbaked blank has to be less than the thickness of the bead pin or similar for obvious reasons. The bead is then baked again. This process avoids having to drill a hole through a solid flat bead, which would be a very delicate operation unless the bead was quite thick, which, as I mentioned before would be undesirable.
Not an exact science and not the neatest result in the world, but if I felt it was important enough I could neaten them up more than I choose to. The look suits the general vibe my work has. Kind of artily and enthusiastically rough round the edges, "Rustic". Though that word seems to be less important as a tag according to my etsy stats. . . "tribal" and "boho" get more hits. .
I made smaller versions with the smallest cutter in my set, and made them double sided. It was OK to make them a bit thicker, I thought, as they look quite nice a bit chunky. . .

The image trans technique involves using clear liquid poly clay and a heat gun, and is best done outside or in a well ventilated space. Kato polymer clay, which happens to be the trans liquid I have, has a particular smell that I don't get on with, especially when it burns. . . (oops. .) I'm not going to go into details about the technique as you can probably work out what I did. I like the effect, though I shall take a break from my experimenting with images and do something else for a while as I don't want to risk getting too obsessed and repeating myself.

The images themselves are my own digital creations, this time less geometric repeat pattern orientated and more random organic in nature. 

They still have this old/new conflict going on, which is fun I think. Ancient looking things with non ancient images on them.

I need to leave image trans for a bit and get back to texture based work I think, but finding new approaches and ideas. That will need some thinking about, and some playing with. 

I might list a few more things in my shop and then leave it for a week or so and see what I want to do next. 

I'll keep you posted,

Jon x

In Spring time in Spring time the only pretty ri-ing time. . etc

As that Shakespeare put it. . .
It does actually seem to be Spring. I'm only wearing one jumper instead of my customary winter two jumpers. The sun is shining and you can feel some proper heat coming from it. The flowers are emerging and a very cool insect of a type known as a 'bee-mimic', (loosely, a kind of hover fly that looks like a bee) called bombylius major is buzzing round the pulmonaria. I have a great affection for these beasties, they have a long pointy 'nose' which they can guide precisely into the centre of a tiny forget-me-not flower, while hovering, with unerring accuracy.

Bombylius major

Chiff chaffs are calling, a skylark is doing it's stuff high above, and all the garden birds are well into their nest building cycle. No swallows as yet but it's definitely spring!



I've been experimenting again. . . As I mentioned in passing in my last post, I have some ring blanks. In their natural state they are a bit naff to be honest. All shiny and silvery and mass produced looking. So I attacked a couple of them with sandpaper and alcohol inks and gilder's paste in no particular order until they looked more interesting. They are made of copper, under the silver plating stuff, which is much nicer. Especially when scratched to blazes and coloured in an irregular way. They then become suitable  partners for my image trans tile bead things.

Suitably trashed ring blank with image trans bead in place. attached with blu tac, but fear not, it's just for the photo, so I can see what it looks like.

I might even try one or two on my JBDRusticOrganic Etsy shop soon. 

As my hands are a bit too middle aged and too obviously male, which wouldn't really do. . . I decided to try alternative things to fit the rings onto for photographic purposes. I remembered the stack of chopped buddlia branches I put aside for kindling, and picked out a suitable piece. I quite like the effect.

I think it will be worth a try for me to list a couple in a day or two. I keep finding uses for my image trans beads, and just need to keep getting stuff out there to see what reaction I get.

Jon x

About time I posted something - Apologies - Various updates

Just a pretty pic without much relevance to this post, but at least it's something new. Image trans bead with some rustic spacers as a possible earring. A bit too derivative in style though maybe (?) and there is a lot of it about. . . Not entirely comfortable with it.

Shop stuff - Well, I'm still getting my head round SEO and Relevancy. . I've attacked about half my shop's content and 'optimised' it, to my understanding anyway, which may be flawed so I might have just wasted my time. .
It seems to be working. I get about 40% more views, which is nice. And the keywords in my stats now resemble the ones in my listings. Still F all from Google though. hmmm.
Was that boring? sorry. . . sigh. . . What is happening to me? ;-)

Image trans beads as described below, antiqued up. Maybe good for stud/post earrings, or rings. I need to get some blanks to play with. The learning curve steepens. . .

Image trans stuff - I refined one of the techniques I use a little bit more. You can get a slightly dull, not ever so sharp but perfectly usable (for my purposes) image transfer from lazer copy paper by laying the image onto the polymer clay and leaving it for at least an hour, (less might work fine) until the image is visible through the back of the paper, like the paper has soaked up the oils from the clay somewhat. Then bake for the normal time and peel off the paper. A slightly crisper image can be obtained if you coat the clay with a thin layer of clear liquid clay first and lay the image onto that.
It's less work than rubbing the paper away with water and your finger, and it doesn't distort the clay, but then it's not raw clay anymore so you can't wrap it round anything.

I'm going to try cutting up a dye sub tile blank if I can, into small squares and transferring onto them, to get a really crisp image. Or smashing a tile into shards and transferring onto them. . . and then seeing how I could 'antique' them.

I need to get back to making some texture sheets and textured dangle beads and stuff, SEO and image trans has been engrossing me and I need a break.

Onwards and upwards.  . or at least, not downwards.
J x

Oh yeah, and I'm on Instagram, in a tentative way  @jonburgessdesign
Not quite sure what to do with it yet.

An Experiment. . . .

Glass coasters from my Etsy shop

As you may or may not be aware, I have been making and selling framed tiles and glass coasters of my digital designs for a while now. To do this I use a process known as Dye Sublimation to transfer the

printed images onto the tiles or coasters. This involves using heat and pressure via a special heat press, specially coated tiles etc, and special printer paper and inks.

OK, Dye sublimation likes certain kinds of plastics and I was pretty sure that Polymer clay was likely to take a dye sub image pretty well. 

I decided to experiment as I had my specially set up printer and loads of paper, so I printed out a sheet of small images to mess around with. 

What I decided to do was use a disk of unbaked clay to apply the image to, but put a thin coating of liquid clay onto the image so that it stuck to the image and to the clay. The reason I wanted to stick the image to the clay was that I was intending to use a heat gun to 'bake' the liquid clay and transfer the image to it. If the image wasn't stuck down it would end up getting blown away. (I'm too impatient to bake them in the oven, and I wanted to do one at a time to see the results quicker)

So I tried that. I gave the image about one minute with the heat gun on medium. ( my heat gun has a heat intensity dial, which is very useful - Wickes sell that model ) I was careful not to burn it. The image became visible through the paper quite quickly but I kept heating it just to be sure it had transferred. 

I then wetted the back of the image and rubbed the paper off. You can soak it in a bowl of water if you wish, same difference. The clay disks weren't properly baked so I baked them in the oven for about 15 mins or so to cure the clay. The results were very clean and clear.

More or less un-messed with image transfer disks. Just a bot of Alcohol ink round the rim.

Too clean and clear for me ;-) having established that my method worked I decided to get stuck into some surface treatment on some of them. I tried my usual various combinations of alcohol inks, inca gold and gilder's wax in various colours, sanding it off a bit and then adding more, and so on and so on.

They looked nice, but there was no way of stringing them if I wanted to use them, so I made them into the front layer of some circular hollow beads, using the Claire Maunsell method with different sized cutters. This of course required the whole thing to be baked. . .

The trouble was that baking would melt the gilder's wax and disperse or otherwise mess up the alcohol inks intensity. Oh well, couldn't be helped. They came out solidly baked but a bit muzzy and fuzzy. So I used the same alcohol inks that I was painting the back and sides with to paint round the 'frame' of the front image. The resulting beads looked seriously beat up but cool all the same. Like something dug up from some archaeological site, on another planet. . . Which is fine by me.

But not as beat up as my attempts at transferring black and white images onto already baked clay disks. The image didn't stick to the clay as nicely as with raw clay and kept peeling off in an annoying way. I used some 'heat tape' that I use for dye sub stuff to hold it down but that wasn't always successful. I did the same as the beads above, giving them the surface treatment, then deciding to make them into usable beads by sticking another disk of clay behind them and then baking.

These ones look like they've been dug up from an ancient site, thrown off a cliff and then run over repeatedly by a chieftain tank. I like them though.

Next time I shall do things in the right order, but I shall still go for the messed up look ;-)
I might even do a proper tutorial in due course.
Jon x

Cheap prints!

I extended my price realism still further - to my Tiles and Coasters shop. I have had abstract prints for sale on there for a fair few months now and though they have accumulated a fair number of faves and views, none have sold.

This is a shame, so, in the spirit of 'realism' referred to earlier, I have knocked the prices down by about 40%. This may result in nothing whatever changing, but at least I will know that it isn't the price that is putting people off buying.
Jon x

Black and White

 

It occurred to me while messing around with my Image transfer stuff, that a simple black and white image might look striking and graphic on a tube bead or two. While pondering this I remembered the images I have been using to make the negatives for my Photopolymer texture sheets, which were conveniently black and white and available. I got some examples printed off at the local copy shop and tried some out.

I thought they came out pretty well. The rounded pattern looked a bit like those African eye beads you see around, but nicely different. I tried some chunkier beads than my usual. I'll try some hollow ones at some point I think, that way they would be lighter.

I still have to work out how they should be presented on a pendant or necklace and what beads they might go with, but I'll mess around until something clicks.

cheers,
Jon x