Inspirational Plaque Time!

Finished another project today! This is an inspirational plaque that was commissioned recently. I bought a wooden plaque from my local craft store, but decided that it needed a vintage and worn white-washed look. As soon as I was out of the store, I threw the plaque on the parking lot and stomped on it, and kicked to my car, creating a rough, lightly beaten texture that one would expect on an old vintage plaque.

Next, I aged the wood to give it a driftwood appearance. Finally, I painted the lettering on and added a few light passes of whitewash, sanding it down in places to accentuate the aged look.

This 9x11 plaque was given an old, rustic farm-plaque look

I really like this piece and hope you do too!

Progress Update - Neverland

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I would say that I was solving world hunger or some other valid reason for neglecting my blog, but since some of you are probably hungry right now, we know that I've just been lazy...

I've been work on getting the new guard carved out of the thicker stock aluminum. I'm starting to hate myself for designing complex shapes for my projects. Here's a progress picture of the new guard:

My next challenge will be anodizing the aluminum to a fantastic dark brass/bronze color. Anybody have any tips? I also have to find material for the acorn-shaped pommel at the end of the grip. Time for a shopping trip!

This is the point of the project that is the most trying. You're not far enough into the project to see the end. You are forced to improvise or try something you are unfamiliar with, or to go shopping and spend money. So for my bit of imparted wisdom: There are 3 dynamics to any project. Time, Money, and Quality. You are usually forced to choose 2 of them.

Say you want to craft or purchase a new outfit for your next event (comic-con/renaissance fair/LARP event/what-have-you). You have several options:

• Pay a lot of money and get a quality product in a reasonable time (VERY expensive),
• Pay less money and get it fast (quality suffers),
• Pay less money and craft it yourself to get high quality (time suffers and is dependent on personal skill).

I've opted for the last option with this project. Let's see how well I do!

Persevere!

"A piece of Art is never ruined until you give up on it."

I have to tell myself this quite often, when I'm sketching in my notebook, or working on a craft project for a friend or family member. A work-in-progress piece of art is often a scary and disturbing-looking thing, but give it a little time, patience, and a lot of work, and you come out the other side with something beautiful (or at least intriguing...)

I often revisit some of my old pieces of art and try applying a newly learned technique or medium to it. I tried my hand at a quick colorizing of my previously posted costume design, and I like how they turned out: