Monday, February 21, 2011

New Work

I have been busy buying supplies, opening my business bank accounts and getting stuff set up to work on my commission. Although the commission piece is not due until August I went ahead and purchased a few of the bigger pieces of stainless steel as the prices are going up fast. One 4 x 8 x 11guage (1/8") piece of stainless was $620.00. Phew. That was a hard purchase to make. But soon it will be $700 so now was as good a time as any.




Now that I have that out of the way I can concentrate on my Museum show in Florida. For this show I am going with more delicate and smaller works. I am using a number of iron castings and fabricated mild steel to make this smaller series. Right now thay are just rough with only minimal sanding and grinding but here are two that I have mostly completed. I am off to the studio right now so we'll what happens today.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Update

Sorry for not having any exciting pictures to show. Right now work has been busy. I have a whole crew of exciting students this semester and they have been keeping me on my toes.

I finally got word from the Ormond Museum that they want 20 pieces for the show. At first they just said send a list of works and values, I was a bit confused. Those of you who have seen my shows know that my pieces in an exhibition can end up close to a hundred. The clarification was welcome. Now I know what I want to concentrate on finishing. In addition to new work some already made work will be going to and some clean up and/or updating will be necessary. As much as I want to start on the commission pieces, right now the Ormond Museum show is what I need to focus on as I deliver this show in the end of April and with the SLOSS conference coming up April will be very busy.

I got my check from the MS Museum for 1/2 of the commission payment. The rest I will get on delivery in August. I have some stainless steel on order and will order the rest once I get a feel for what sizes I want. Stainless is not so easy to get in the all the small sizes I like to use for boat sculptures. The cost of all steel and especially stainless had gone up dramatically in the last few months, one 4 x 8 sheet of 11 gauge stainless is $620. Phew, but it's worth it.

I went to the bank yesterday and officially opened my very first business checking account. I had gotten my EIN number late last year but really hadn't had any money to open an account. As soon as things quite down some from all these shows, I have some work to do getting all my business stuff set up and planned out. I am excited about all of this and it really feels like a step in the right direction.

That's it for right now. Hopefully I will have a few studio pictures soon to show you of the new pieces I have been working on.

Cheers!

Friday, February 4, 2011

What's Next...

The contract came in the mail the other day, it is signed and I should be receiving my first check soon. Good thing as I have an order of stainless steel on the way. I was a bit concerned about the short turn around time, May 25th and then I received news today that construction delays will cause the date to be moved back to August some time. Phew, that extra time will be nice but of course it means I will not get my final payment until installation, which could throw off some carefully planned summer events. Annoying but there really is nothing to do about it.

Since I have a show opening at the end of April I will now have more time to concentrate on that which really is a good thing as I want to make a lot of new pieces. Some of the parts were cast back in November in iron and I have a bunch of cleaning to do, other pieces are just at the drawing stage and I need to get them started and finished, I want to do them out of stainless. Some of the work will be stuff that I already have but it will be the newer versions of some of the boats and houses. It would be really nice if I could sell a piece or two at that show and make up for late income from the commission. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

In the mean time our college at the University has some research money available. These are competitive grants, so we'll see if my proposal even makes it through the first cut. If it does it will give me some much needed funds to make some larger work for outdoor installations. Again, keeping my fingers crossed.