08 Aug Wait for it…
It’s been a bit since Maker Faire now and my plans to launch a kickstarter for Steadcraft are simmering on the back burner for a bit while summer plans take precedence. I have built out quite an assortment of earrings in fine silver, bronze, and copper, as well as a nice looking round of bronze and steel married metal earrings. Mostly I’m judging my success by my ability to re-create a single design in all three metals and to have very few pieces lost to breakage, which happens both when the delicate earrings are in their fragile bone-dry state before firing, as well as when I hammer them to their final domed form. It’s very frustrating to break pieces–especially when they came out of the kiln looking beautiful and I pound them with a hammer and dapping punch and they break. You know–like I couldn’t just leave well enough alone? It’s an instructive lesson though. I don’t want to be sending out something so fragile that it breaks from regular use. Hammering the metal work-hardens it, forms it, and if it breaks, either alerts me to a design defect or an under-fired kiln load. At this point I just have to fill in a few missing pieces and I will have a full set of earrings ready to go. Have a look:
As I mentioned previously, there are other designs in the works for Steadcraft–belt buckles, pins, cuffs, pendants, and more. As with most prototyping processes, Accomplishing a design and prototyping plan on schedule can be a challenge on limited time and resources–but it is happening little by little as I can find time for it. As far as that goes–I don’t have any time at all for the next six weeks so it will have to wait. I may pare back on the designs I initially plan to offer–or given a bit of time might have them in time for the holidays along with the rest of the line.
When you see some of what I’ve been working on outside of Steadcraft, you will understand my diversion (plus everybody has to pay the bills right?). In addition to some construction and fabrication work, I have been putting time into the Storied Haven project, set to debut in just weeks. Stay tuned for more on Steadcraft, Storied Haven, and my other project, Star Star Roadhouse, after That Thing in The Desert.
