Call for Artwork!! (And Happy Holidays!!)

So, first and foremost, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!  Whatever you celebrate, or don't, I hope this time of year is filled with peace, love, and joy for you and yours :)

I have been BUSY this season, and I'm loving every minute.  Recently, I premiered some brand new pieces in my shop: Etched Copper and Brass Cuff Bracelets.  I'm really excited to be offering these pieces.  They've been a blast to make, and I am just in love with how they look and feel.  Apparently I'm not the only one either--about 5 minutes after listing my favorite wide cuff in my Etsy Shop, a very nice gentleman from Georgia snatched it up.  This is my current favorite, a brass cuff with an organic crackled texture on the surface:

Brass Cuff

My plan is to make many many more, which brings me to the main point of my post :)

CALLING ALL ARTISTS!!

I want to feature your artwork on one (or more) of my cuff bracelets!

I don't care if you draw, paint, or make graphics on the computer.  I'm just looking for some awesome images to transfer onto metal.

Here's the skinny.  I use a process called acid etching to make the cuff bracelets.  Part of the process is transferring toner rich images from paper to metal to act as a resist.  All the areas of the metal covered with toner (or paint, or wax, etc, etc...) will be protected from the etching solution.  All the exposed areas will get cut away, creating recessed areas and awesome texture.  In the cuff above, all the bright brass areas were protected from the etching solution, while the dark areas were exposed.  Pretty cool, right?

I've managed to come up with some pretty cool designs that I really love, but now I'm interested in what you all might come up with.  Just about anything you can think up can be used; the only real requirement is that the image has to be black and white.  JUST black and white, no gray areas.  The black areas are what will protect the metal, and gray just doesn't hold up.

Crisp images like this one are perfect.  There can be a lot of detail, or not, so long as the black lines are strong and dark, and the white areas are crisp and clean. 

Images like the one below won't work because the gray shaded areas won't be protected well during the etching process.  Thin black lines are also not an ideal fit for this project.

Getting the idea?  I hope so.  Anyway, anyone who wants to is more than welcome to submit artwork.  I'd prefer high quality digital files since the crisper the image, the crisper the transfer, but I can generally make whatever you want to send in work.

What size should the image be?

• Full size cuffs are made from strips of metal that are 6 inches long, and from 1/2 to 2 inches wide.  

• Half size cuffs are about 2 1/2 to 3 inches long, and approximately 1 inch wide.

• Ring stock is about 3 inches long, and 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide.

• Earring stock is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide, and can be up to 2 inches long.

It'd be awesome if you could size your images to fit these dimensions, because if I resize them, they could become less crisp, which would be a big bummer.

What do I get in return for sharing my super cool artwork?

Everyone who submits a piece of art work (whether or not I use it) will be entered to win a gift certificate to use in my shop.  And if I end up using your art, I'll credit you in the item description, on FB, and on the care card that's included with the piece featuring your work.  I'll also give you first dibs on whatever jewelry I make using your design.

Sounds great!  Where do I send my stuff?

Email it to me!  Send all submissions to jewelry_gal85@yahoo.com

Please put "Artwork Submission" in the subject line so I know you aren't spam.  Also, include your name, email address, and website (if you have one) with each submission. 
Just about any file type should work, but I'd prefer a .jpeg  or .png file.  PDFs, Word documents, and high definition scans of hand drawn images are fine as well.

The Fine Print

I'll be drawing the gift certificate winner on Friday, January 25th, 2013.  You can submit as many images as you'd like, but your name will only be entered into the drawing once.

If you're sending me artwork, it must be your own.  Seriously, don't steal images from the web and say it's yours, that's called copyright infringement and it's against the law.  Plus, how would you feel if someone stole your stuff?  So, original work only, please.  You CAN use open source materials, but original is (almost) always better.  By submitting artwork to me, you are certifying that you have the right to use and distribute it.

By sending in artwork, you are agreeing to allow me to use (or not use) the image as I see fit.  This means the image may be re-sized, reshaped, or re-purposed as needed to fit the project.  It also means you are giving me the rights to sell any and all projects featuring your artwork with no financial obligation to you, other than what's mentioned above.

Submissions constitutes a binding contract for non-exclusive rights to your image(s).  You may sell, distribute, and otherwise share your image(s) however you like, though it'd be great if you didn't go handing them out to other jewelry artists.

And that's that.  I can't wait to see what you all come up with!  Be sure to stay tuned.  I've got a TON of exciting new projects in mind for the new year!

Happy Holidays!

-Heather

Little Hill Jewelry

The Holiday's are Here

So, once again, I've been terribly neglectful of this poor blog.  Eventually I'll get with the program and remember to post here more than once every month or so.  Honest, I will.

Thought I'd post a quick update on how things are going.  The holiday season is most definitely in full swing, and my Etsy business is doing fairly well for its first year out.  Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales more than doubled my in shop sales in months prior.  I went from 12 to 29 sales in 4 days :)  And one of those orders was fairly large, which is always nice.

Here are the 2 most popular items so far:

Mixed Set of 4 Silver Stacking Rings

Set of 3 Textured Copper Rings

I did the math on Tuesday and realized that if I kept selling at the same pace (2-3 sales/day) I would have over 100 sales by the end of the year.  But, naturally, that volume of sales doesn't seem to be in the cards for me, so I've set a goal of 50 sales by year's end instead.  That's only 31 more sales.  Totally do-able.  I hope.  You know what they say about shooting for the moon...

Even with all the activity and excitement in my shop, I've been spending a lot of time working on new projects.  I haven't decided if I'm going to launch these new items before or after the holidays, but either way I'm wicked excited about them.  I recently taught myself how to etch on metal, and I'm totally in love with the results I've been getting.  I thought etching would be a big complicated process, but as it turns out, it's actually really easy to do.  With some copper and brass blanks, a laser printer, and some etching solution, awesome things are possible.

Post Etching

 This is a brass blank that's destined to be a cuff bracelet by the time I'm through.  In the photo above, you can see the piece fresh from the etching solution.  The black marks you see are the resist--the material applied to the metal to protect it from the etching solution.  The areas that don't have any black marks become recessed areas, which you can see much more clearly in the close up photo below.

Close up before cleaning

Close up after cleaning

 In the picture above, you can see the raised areas still bright and shiny.  These areas are where the resist protected the metal.  The lower areas have a neat texture to them, as well as a slightly different coloring.  The picture below is a ring blank fresh from the etching solution with the resist just cleaned off.

Copper Ring blank post etching

 And then, with a little magic, a little soldering, and a little wax, this is what I decided to use the ring blank for.  After forming the ring, I used a sharpie marker to color in the recessed areas, bringing a little more depth and definition to the awesomely cool texture.  Then I cleaned things up and buffed the whole ring with a little bit of Renaissance Wax.  The wax will help keep the ring from tarnishing, and from turning peoples skin green.

Copper Wide Band Ring using the etched ring blank

Angled Front View of the "All You Need is Love" Copper Cuff

And last but not least, here's one of the finished cuffs.  This was the only cuff I attempted to put any writing on.  It says: "All you need in love."  I wish I had left the metal in the solution a little bit longer to give the writing a little more depth, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Angled Right View of the "All You Need is Love" Copper Cuff

As with any new project, I still have a few kinks to work out, but I'm really excited with how things are going.  I've had so much fun experimenting with new techniques in metal working, and there's still so much more to try.

Since I'm notoriously terrible at remembering to update here very often, I end this post by wishing you all happy holidays from Little Hill Jewelry!