Help decide which illustration I work on first!

Part 3 of "The Curious Concepts Project". It's time to get started on the new series of illustrations!

Help decide which illustration I work on first! Head on over to Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/Kyle.K.Lefort/posts/472328039524953
 
Pick a number and post it in the comments.
We'll see what I start drawing on the 4th of July!

 

My Prize From Fabulously Small!

So a few posts back, I mentioned that I somehow managed to win two different blog giveaways in one week (such a lucky week-anyone know how I can do that again?).

I did receive both prizes at the end of last week (Thank you), but the one from the Shopping Sherpa still needs to photographed. So, each prize is going to get it's own post. (seems fair)

About 5 minutes after hitting "publish" on my last post, I was working on something in the kitchen when my little brother going through the mail asks, "Who's sending you stuff from the Netherlands?", to which I jumped up and replied, "Yay, my prize from Monique"! I got a weird look from him, but he stuck around to see what I got. (I put up with his bug hobby, he puts up with my dollhouse hobby, and sometimes the two hobbies lock arms and skip down the street together...metaphorically speaking).

All the way from the Netherlands came a lovely prize from Fabulously Small;

Click here for her post explaining the giveaway

No specific locations given, but Google maps says that my lovely state of New York is roughly 3,000 miles away from the Netherlands, and unfortunately somewhere along that long way the package took a beating. Luckily though, most of the damage was just things falling out of their wrappings(if a package is damaged, but everything inside is relatively OK, it means the package did it's job, btw). The smallest white candle has a little dent and the lotion top popped off, but I'm so used to working in miniature, these are easy fixes.

 

Thank you Monique, I love these. Whenever I put in for a blog giveaway, I make sure it's something that I can find a use for (don't want to waste other peoples' hard work/talent), and these will be perfect in my rehabbed Van Buren, just as soon as I finish rehabbing it. XD

Trying Out Coupons On Etsy

I've had sales on Etsy before, but coupons would make the process a lot easier for everyone.

And really, Who doesn't love coupons?

So I'm trying one out right now, just to get a feel for it. ( My Etsy Shop )

$2 off any minimum $30 purchase, this time around. So it's not so much a sale as it is an incentive, but magically getting $2 off, just for trying out a coupon in my shop-not a bad deal.

Etsy mini is right there in my sidebar, but since I haven't really blogged about what's up for sale in a while (a long while), please enjoy these pretty pictures. (and click on the images to see their listings on Etsy).

The coupon code: SAVESOMEMONEY Use it at checkout. It expires on June 28th, but if all goes well you will be seeing more special offers in my shop in he near future. ^_^

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank You Project Supporters!

From April 4th to May 4th this year I ran a small campaign to help raise the funding I needed to continue on with my illustration work. 

Named, The Curious Concepts Project, after the title of my first solo art show, which gave me the opportunity to really develop my current illustration style. The goals of the project can be summed up by this promo video I made back at the start of the campaign; 
 

Thankfully for me and my ongoing work, this project was funded. ^_^  The past few weeks have been filled with ordering prints/packing material, and collecting project backer info, but now that all that is just about finished, it's time to get to the interesting parts.

First though, a long promised online Thank You post, to all of the wonderful people who made a pledge and funded my project. Thank you, honestly wouldn't be able to do any of this without you. 

Below are the names of everyone who backed my project. I  also made the offer to promote 1 website of each backer's choosing along with their names. The takers on that offer are listed first, followed by everyone else, in alphabetical order.

Thank You Everyone

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Jennifer Smith  >>>> http://www.jsminiatures.co.uk <<<<

JS Miniatures  
I make finest quality dolls house miniatures and specialise in using LEDs in dolls house and model projects.  I have developed the first ever battery powered lighting kit for smaller scale houses using tiny LEDs for superior brightness but that are almost invisible!  I also make modern furniture and lighting along with other more traditional products.  With exceptional customer service and many returning customers it's well worth having a look at my site.

 Brandi >>>> https://www.facebook.com/wnyskydiving12 <<<<

WNYSkydiving is a full service skydiving training center conveniently located in Akron, NY, within easy driving distance of Buffalo, NY and Rochester, NY. WNYSkydiving is open year round, weather permitting. If the sky is clear, we can fly! Take Skydiving off your "Bucket List" and add it to your "Things To Do This Weekend List!" Call and book today! 716-597-7393

Patrick Garde >>>> http://plainseo.com <<<< 
PlainSEO  Plain SEO is an outsourcing SEO company based in the Philippines that offers effective search engine optimization services. Founded in 2012, the firm has provided SEO needs to various clients worldwide such as USA, Australia and Italy thanks to its founder, Patrick Garde, who has worked in the SEO field since 2009.


Andrea                                                   Brittany Zarbo                         Courtney Deuro

Darlene Morse                                      Devon McKernan                         Elizabeth

Ellen Lefort                                           Janine Benton                             Jenna Driver

Joshua Eliano                                          Mary Lynn                               Nathan Lefort

Neil Lefort                                           Samantha Clark                       Sarah Popadowski
                                     
Tanya                                                 Vittoria Procopio                         Wendy Riggins


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you backed my project and would still like to promote your site, feel free to send me an email.
This post will not be deleted (by me anyway) as long as this blog exists, and throughout the creative part of this project, it will be linked to the, "Curious Concepts", banner in the sidebar so that people will continue to see it even after it falls off the first page.

Thanks again everyone. ^_^

Un-Painted Paper Pottery - Yay!

Hey look 2 posts in less than 24 hours...I just wanted to show you guys something before I end up forgetting until I've finished them.

Roughly a year and a half ago, I made an assortment of colorful paper bowls for a craft show (I recently posted them in the greenleaf forum and got a few requests for a tutorial-I'll get to it, I promise). And since then I've been playing with paper.

If you remember the basement of the Steampunk house, the miniature pottery inside;

They're paper, glue, gesso, paint, and Polyeurethane. Shocking, I know, because they look like pottery thrown on a wheel. Bowls are fairly quick work, but I wasn't able to make many potter pieces, so the handful that I have made so far stayed in my own collection.

I had started on a new batch with the intention of making them available to collectors, but they disappeared in one of my pre-holiday clean ups last fall/winter. In an effort to restock my Etsy shop with unique items, I switched back to bowls and after building up a decent inventory, I moved onto other things. Well, between a renewed interest in the paper bowls/pottery from my online visitors and tutorial requests, I've been feeling like this is something I should revisit. 

I've been going through what's left of the original bowls and started posting some in the Etsy shop, and have been planning out how to handle the tutorial. And just a few minutes ago while going through a box of jewelry findings, I finally found them;

The missing, unfinished paper pottery!

There are more than I remember making and they're farther along than I remembered too (already gesso-ed and sanded). Most of them just need to be painted. Yay!

It's a sign, don't you think? 

Granted, it's a weird sign, but I take them where I can get them. 

Looks like you'll be seeing more paper pottery around here. ^_^

An Interesting Week

A list of things that happened last week, worth mentioning;


1. Not long after I posted the latest riker mount set on Etsy,

I got a request for a custom order. Which I gladly accepted.
On the left is a 1:12 scale tiger swallowtail (see above photo for size reference), and on the right is the custom version;

Apologies for the unfocused WIP shot,
but it wasn't photo-shoot time and these are really small.

No cases, but I'm still in the middle of water proofing them for terrarium use. I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how to make these work for my new client, but, with the exception of custom orders, I think I'm still sticking with 1:12 for regular shop items. (I like my comfort zone)

2. I won a giveaway on Monique's blog, Fabulously Small, and then another giveaway  at The Shopping Sherpa blog a day or two later. Two wins in one week, after months of not winning, I must have had a lucky streak. :)

3. I have a friend who has an aunt that's into miniatures. Every once in a while she'd make the comment that she needs to introduce us, but since I'm in the U.S. and her aunt's in Australia, that probably wasn't going to happen. Well, thanks to an off-hand comment on Facebook, I at least got to talk with her online. (Hi, again) As it turns out, online she knows some of the other Australian mini bloggers that I also follow and talk too. Its surprising that we haven't run into each other online before this, but who knows maybe we have. It's not like we knew eachother already, right?

4.  I'm always on the look out for type boxes, shadow boxes, or really anything that I can use for future miniature displays. Well my friend's mother (different friend than in #3, btw) found me this at the salvation army;

Can I use this? Yes, I can.

 5. My little brother showed up the other day with a terrarium for one of his spiders, cork wood, and some moss. After repeatedly insisting that I drop everything and make a mock environment for his spider, I did;

We've made one of these before, with a rock ledge, so the cork wood setup really didn't take that long. Supposedly, the spider has since moved in, but hasn't calmed down enough to build a web yet. If it looks cool when it does, I'll post a photo. :)

6. While out for a family birthday party, my little brother, one of my older brothers, and I ended up spending most of the day wandering through the woods. Out in the woods, in the middle of nowhere people tend to dump junk that they can't easily dispose of. So, it's not surprising when you come across a steep slope covered in old tires, broken glass, metal, and other random junk that looks like it's been piling up there since the 50's, which is what we ended up walking through. This wasn't my idea, can't say it was fun, and at one point I slipped and the only thing that stopped me from sliding down a pile of broken glass was the thorn bush I grabbed onto. But it was memorable and the whole scene was pretty cool looking, in a sci-fi wasteland sort of way. Didn't have a camera, but I did pick up this small piece of scrap iron,

I feel like this somehow needs to find it's way into a dollhouse

And I'm pretty sure that the thorn pricks on my hand will stick around for a few more days, so I'm not likely to forget that birthday party. XD

7. I blogged about my interesting week. The End. ^_^

Etsy Shop News

 

>>>> My Etsy Shop <<<< 

 

After leaving the shop on auto pilot for a while and some more mini-making it was time for some updates and changes.

 

What's New?

1. You know those mini riker mounts I made for the Steampunk House? Well I've been making more. Morpho butterfly and other sets are available now and more varieties are on the way!

I've also been adding in other assorted goods, including some one-time destash items worth checking out.
New items being added weekly.

2. You can now use Direct Checkout at my Etsy Shop! I now accept credit cards and Etsy gift cards, no Papypal account required. Still want to use Paypal? No worries, that's still an option. (Direct Checkout spooked me a little before, but the Etsy staff made some changes, so I decided to give it a try).

3. I am no longer listing international shipping as an option. Between having to know what I can ship where, the very high cost for the buyer (I use flat rate boxes, and it's over $20 now for non-U.S. locations), and living in a town with no post office (it complicates things), I don't want to make offers that I'm not sure I can back up 100%.

> However, if you don't live in the U.S. and are so interested in purchasing my work that you'd be willing to contact me about it, if the item in question is ok to ship to your country, I will ship internationally upon request. 

Sorry for the inconvenience. Hopefully I haven't alienated anyone, but at the moment that click-able option was more trouble than it's worth.

4. Illustration prints in my Etsy shop-coming soon! If you were part of the Kickstarter Campaign last month, this isn't news, but it's still worth mentioning. Thanks again to all the backers and other supporters, I'm just waiting for Amazon to clear the funds we raised, and then this project is a go!




If you're waiting to see the official 'Thank You Backers' post, don't worry I'm working on it.
Btw, if you backed the project and want a promo spot in the thank you post (the offer I posted earlier/on Kickstarter), please read the newest KS project update that I posted and send me your info ASAP. < You backed my project, I don't want you to miss out!

That's all for now,
~Kyle