I’ve given my sources for my metal embossing projects, so that you can bring your prices down, down, down, to the level where there’s some profit in it and it’s worth your while to devote time, energy and talent to the thing.
But what if you DON’T intend to quit the day job and sell your embossed metal artwork to thousands of satisfied customers??? What if you don’t intend to order and await shipments of industrial foil, huge cartons of coin-flips and enormous quantities of sales tags? For you, there is a VERY good answer.
I make kits that are attuned to specific projects. You get all the materials and supplies you need to make 21 finished disks mounted in “flip” coin-frames for sale — that’s one to wear in a bezel or carry as a pocket-pal or purse-pal in an acrylic capsule, if you decide to use those items.
ALL MY DESIGNS COME IN ONLY ONE SIZE, made especially for the dollar-sized disk & bezel. You can re-size them as you wish. You will do better by just sort of roughly and generally copying the lines rather than trying to trace them, but some folks won’t have it any other way, so for them, you’ll have to shrink the thing down on photoshop and print it out on a TRANSFER paper, I suppose.
If you work this system rightly, you’ll develop your own “iconographics” and get them into the metal form. The whole point here is to utilize “reductionism” in order to simplify the form, as Cangialosi would have said it. You can also understand the concept in the following Matisse-ian way:
“EXPRESS THE SUBJECT WITH THE FEWEST POSSIBLE LINES.”
That’s the key concept here, and the use of the metal medium — the foil — forces you to confront the minimalist issue, in addition to the restricted space and the odd shape of a circle, in which there’s little room to move. This is all part of the challenge of each project you tackle, hopefully from Project 00 all the way through, one by one, side by each.
Every project creates a different demand and a different set of skills, some of which are purely conceptual, and some are merely deft twists of the fingers, hand and wrist. Don’t forget that, as you work, the entire body is involved in the process, although it might not be immediately evident to you.
Evident or not, after the first serious session with metal embossing, you WILL feel it in your shoulder-blades the next day, and you might even feel the result of a slight tug in the calves and lower back. It’s a whole-body thing, and don’t you forget it.
Of course, cramped up nose-to-grindstone, you won’t, unless reminded, be aware of the entire body’s involvement in this process, and you probably won’t be aware of the mental and emotional states that are generated by these projects, either.
Some of my projects are geared to Higher Emotions and may successfully generate some Exalted States and Genuine Miracles.
Others are just sweat and suffering, to get the basics down right, and they’re scattered quite evenly throughout the metal embossing course and, yes, it’s designed as a course, something you could offer to a local craft school or academy, or at a local craft supply shop, perhaps once a week or once a month or only on special occasions, as you prefer and are able.
Or, you might decide to lock yourself in a closet and perfect the art and skills, with the idea of mastering the thing before you show anyone your stuff. This works, too, but you’ll need some sort of wondrous and miraculous financial backing in order to pull that particular deal off, because this stuff CAN get costly and the finished products add up fast. You’d better have an additional storage unit to handle them, if you can’t manage to sell them or give them away fast enough.
If you’re thinking the price-points aren’t high enough in the craft metals, you’re wrong. What if you saw one of these things at a Sotheby’s or Christie’s auction in London or New York?
What if it were signed “Picasso” or “Lichtenstein” or “Warhol”? With those names on the thing, it wouldn’t matter WHAT it’s made of. The price is, and should be, entirely in the art, with the price of the metal tacked on to compensate the artist for laying out the money for it in the first place.
When you deal in high-grade metals, you are forced to charge for the metal, and the customer’s perception is that they paid you that money and that you now have that money, but you don’t. You gave back a good percentage of it in the form of precious metal, which the customer now has.
I like the idea of putting yourself on the line, artistically speaking. You’ll soon find out how much your art is worth, and you won’t like the answer. It only means that you need to either make better art, or have more confidence in yourself as an artist, or both.
There is always the customer for the high-end art and jewelry, and you can easily accommodate by offering to design and make a custom solid-gold item for your client, but I wouldn’t START there. I’d start off with the craft metal and work my way SLOWLY toward the precious metals, remembering Murphy’s Law of Precious Metals:
“Precious Metal Makes the Sale”, and its corollary, “Precious Metal Reduces Profit”.
I also make a Starter Set, and a Pro Kit. I’ll delineate them for you:
- STARTER SET — $35 — You get 21 Assorted Size Disks, with 21 matching coin-flips, plus a carving tool, plus a cardboard tooling board. You supply the fine-point “Sharpie” pen for writing on your flips.
- PROJECT KIT — $10 — You get 1 design template and 4 disks with one matching flip for each disk. This completes one “shelf” in your “Art Mart” Notebook. There are currently about 40 projects available to you.
- PRO KIT — $125 — All the project templates and everything you need to get started with metal embossing as a serious daily spiritual practice. I send you a roll of foil and a set of PRO PALEO tools, plus a set of sample foils of different weights and types. You set up with this kit, then use the sources I give you to get the supplies direct from the distributors or makers, to get your costs way, way down.
Those are the three types of kits I offer at this time. I’ll be posting lots of videos on how to emboss metal, carve metal and engrave and etch metal. You’ll find them on my youtube channels — different channels for different subjects and you’ll have to find them — I don’t typically post links, to discourage the lazy.
So back I go to the grist mill, where I’ll be making examples of the template designs, and making new designs. Figuring out what to do in that small, cramped and highly defined space is a real challenge that I’d recommend to anyone foolish enough to waste precious time on art, design and conceptual freedom.
You don’t have to, and shouldn’t try to, COPY my designs. They’re just indicators, my “take” on a subject, and in my style. You can develop your own style, but on the way, you’re very welcome to try mine.
If you knew that your face would one day be known and easily recognized as a popular Halloween mask, would you continue as you are now, or would you consider change?
See You At The Top!!!
gorby