I always forget how short February is for making plans and executing them, especially when something goes wrong. Naturally, my water system flooded part of the workshop due to a small error in my set up, and with my extensive minecraft experience I should have known IF. YOU. INVITE. WATER. INTO. YOUR. HOME. KEEP. A. BUCKET. IN. YOUR. INVENTORY.
Product progress:
So unfortunately, with further tinkering of my plumbing system, I wasn't able to spend as much time on the sculpts as I had planned, but I have made a significant start to both the Khajiit and Argonian, with the Argonians details starting to show through.
Custom painted options will be available for my existing masks this month once I have edited the example photos for publishing, but, more excitingly the wonderful Cwoodsdean Creations has been doing some beautiful fur work with my LARP masks which really show off their potential, and how much character you can bring out with whatever material you work best in. You can find them here to see more of their beautiful work.
Speaking of furring, I'm now on that stage of my commission, which looks like an absolute poofball at the moment, but is coming along nicely, ready to be stomping around confuzzled with a giant foam axe later this year.
I have once again been playing around with UV reactive paints to make some funky fun eyes (I did also turn 35 this month, which makes saying "funky and fun" totally legit). This is something I've been playing around with for a while but had results that were too inconsistent to offer as complete products. But now, I've found a method that so far seems to work for me, so hopefully they will be available this month a long with the big changes I have for my eye listings.
Product changes:
My eye listings have been due for a freshen up for a while now, so I have been working on polishing up those listings, adding some new pre-made colours and removing some of the less popular ones from the visual cards. Mainly though, I have been working on making the available custom options a lot clearer.
But, it's not just the buckram that will be changing. Selling 3D printed eyes is a thought I've been playing with for a while, as it (most importantly) produces significantly less plastic waste than my current method, it also offers more options for customisation as I can offer a wider variety of colours, and custom sizes which is becoming more of a demand. This wasn't originally something I could do because of the limitations of my old 3D printer, however thanks to my new Prusa, I can actually produce good quality 3D printed eyes, so there is nothing holding me back from making that switch now.
With that I am considering releasing a PDF tutorial on my original method of making plastic follow me eyes. I developed the method before 3D printing was so widely available, so it's an accessible option for makers who don't have access to specialist materials and equipment, without producing as much plastic waste as alternative methods.
Etsy price changes
This month etsy announced some changes to their platform which, unfortunately include a fee increase, so whilst the prices on my website will remain the same, my etsy prices will be going up to balance out the impact of the fee increase.
Finally
To not end on the previous note, thank you for reading to the end of this news letter, I've produced a few now and although they were originally published for myself unjumble my thoughts and process my achievements, posting them publicly and knowing they have a small following keeps me motivated to publish more and in turn gives me the much needed monthly detangling.
Additionally, if you ever work with any of my parts and you'd like to be featured in the news letter, please give me a shout, I love seeing your work and I also love showing it off.
