Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Castings Clear-out!

Monday, May 16th, 2011

I’ve realised I’ve accumulated a lot of spare cast items over the last year. Most are simply spare stock I made with surplus resin, though there’s also some that were attempts to get certain colours, even some that weren’t suitable for purpose. I’ve been doing castings to order mostly though so haven’t gotten around to listing them for direct sale until now. I’m rather in need of some extra cash right now. 😛

The paw-pads are made using a soft polyurethane casting rubber, the couple of footpads are made of a hard casting rubber and backed on velcro for easy replacement when they wear down. I’m working on new moulds for most of what’s listed here, so will be listing examples of the new work soon. The claws are PU resin reinforced with calcium carbonate for impact resistance. Odd & partial sets have been marked down from the usual sale price, though regular good castings remain the same.

EDIT: Please note the pads are designed to be sewn in place, not glued. PU rubber is very difficult to glue to. I may be able to cast new ones directly onto a felt or similar absorbent backing though if glue-on is required.

I can cast up the missing bits for incomplete/partial sets if someone wants, and will drill the extra mounting holes in necklace-drilled claws on request, likewise for unfinished claw sets.

I’m based in the UK and only ship internationally by AirSure. First come first served, and this listing is also going up in a couple of other places. If in the UK I prefer direct bank transfer, though accept most other forms of cleared payment including paypal. Postage will be worked out on case by case, based on location & order weight.

I am currently awaiting a new batch of black pigment, so orders requiring more black items cast may be delayed a few days.

—

Paw-pads

Red canine palms, £10
Red large finger-pads, £8
Red anthro feline palms (partial), £8 (£11 for completed set)
Black feline palms, £12
Black canine palms, £10
Black anthro feline palms (partial), £8 (£11 for completed set)
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4119.jpg

Black, feline palms, £12
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4165.jpg

Black, Anthro Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4151.jpg

Black, Anthro Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4167.jpg

Black, Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4152.jpg

Black, large finger-pads, £8
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4154.jpg

Pink, Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4157.jpg

Pink, Canine palms, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4169.jpg

Yellow, large finger-pads, canine palms, set, £18
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4158.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4159.jpg

Dark chocolate, small finger-pads, anthro canine palms, set, £16
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4163.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4164.jpg

Scrap Pads

Small blue foot-digits, velcro-backed, (messy but functional casts) £6
Black (yellow-edge) & Purple canine footpads, velcro-backed, £5
3x Sky-Blue large finger-pads & 4x Pink large finger-pads, £5
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4124.jpg

Black, small finger-pads (cast in wrong mould, pads too closely placed to sew-on), £4
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4166.jpg

Claws

Black razor claws,
x9 Small (£1.00 ea), x8 Medium (£1.10ea), x27 Long (£1.20ea)
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4126.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4127.jpg

Black regular claws, x6 Medium, x5 Small, £11
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4138.jpg

White regular claws, x10, £10
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4144.jpg

White regular claws, x9 Small, x4 Medium, £13
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4149.jpg

Pink, small regular claws (x11), £11
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4147.jpg

“Aqua” glow-in-the-dark, regular, x11 Small, x9 Medium (very graduated blue glow, over-pigmented translucent resin), £15
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4172.jpg

Dark green, regular claws, 8x long, undrilled, £8
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4175.jpg

Translucent blue, glow-in-the-dark claws, necklace-drilled.
Regular x1 Large (£1.70ea), x8 Medium (£1.60ea), x6 Small (£1.50ea). Razor x10 Large (£1.60ea), x8 Medium (£1.50ea), x11 Small (£1.40ea).
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4179.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4180.jpg

Translucent candy-red, Razor claws, necklace-drilled
x10 Large (£1.30ea), x9 Medium (£1.20ea), 9 Small (£1.10ea).
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4189.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4191.jpg

Unpigmented, green glow-in-the-dark Razor claws, necklace-drilled
x5 Large (£1.60ea), x6 Medium (£1.50), x2 Small (£1.40).
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4193.jpg
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4194.jpg

Scrap Claws

Black, regular claws, x11 Small, £6 (drilling & mix issues)
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4174.jpg

Translucent multi-colour set (colour-mix trials for previous order), £10
2x Candy red, 4x blue, 2x green, 2x clear
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4135.jpg

Translucent multi-colour set (colour-mix trials for previous order), £10
4x purple, 4x blue, 2x green, 2x candy red
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4139.jpg

Translucent multi-colour set (colour-mix trials for previous order), £10
4x blue, 4x candy red, 2x green, 2x purple
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4142.jpg

Translucent Green Glow-In-The-Dark Razor-claws, messy castings needing cleanup, £10
x3 Large, 13x Medium, 8x Small.
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4130.jpg

Mixed test & leftover casts, regular claws, rough, £5
x2 small purple, 2x green translucent medium, 4x hot pink trans medium, 3x clear medium, trans candy orange medium, blue with LED, other scraps
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4146.jpg

Mixed test & leftover casts, regular & razor claws, £5
2x medium white, 3x purple Razor (one each size), 3x medium white razor, 3x medium black razor, 2x medium black regular, 1x small grey
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4196.jpg

Other

Black, large cat-nose, £6
Pink, large cat-nose, (ex-display) £5
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4171.jpg

Candy-red translucent claw necklace, £6
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4177.jpg

Translucent blue, glow-in-the-dark claw necklace, £7
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4183.jpg

Unpigmented, green glow-in-the-dark claw necklace, £6.50
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4184.jpg

Other claw necklaces, £2
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/Dscf4188.jpg

Other Scraps

Hemispheres, various sizes & colours. Poor casts, colour tests. Frosted surfaces, badly cured rear surfaces. Maybe good for some props? £4
http://www.starborneworks.com/offsiteimages/CastingsClearout/spheres.jpg

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Posted in Creations, Events, Work Blog | 1 Comment »

Jan 9th LondonFur meet..

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

..not gonna be there. I’m behind on orders, and I want to get them done and shipped. In addition the last of my PU-elastomer’s gone bad, so I’ll be short on cash from ordering a new batch. It’s the most expensive of all the resins I use, and also the most temperamental in that it’s near impossible to degas.

The way I’m thinking right now is that if people want custom-coloured paw pads, they’ll have to wait until I open a fresh tin of the elastomer to do a big batch of the standard colour rubber items.
Which means I’m going to need to make more moulds. A lot more moulds.

More news as it comes. Suffice to say, February is going to be a busy month for re-tooling and re-planning.

Posted in Events, Order status, Work Blog | No Comments »

LondonFurs Xmas Party and beyond

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Had a great time at the party over the weekend, and sold quite a few glowsticks to those more neon partygoers. Shame I couldn’t hang around for long into the dance, but had another event to get off to!

More works

Xmas is rushing up, and I’m pushing to complete changes for newyears. This week I’m all stocked up on melamine chipboard, and rebuilding the heated cabinet. As some of you know the cold weather is my biggest bottleneck right now, with the temperature in the workshop low enough that the resins won’t set properly. Not an issue if I’m in there with the heater on, but a problem for those resins that need to be left overnight or longer.

I already store the raw chemicals in a heated cabinet to prevent them from decay, but it’s not large enough to fit setting materials in as well. In the next couple of days that should change!

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RBW Redux

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

So yes, I got back from RBW fine. I thought I’d dodged the bullet that is con-crud, but no! A week later it kicks in and my voice vanishes into husky croaks.

That said, RBW was a great time. Last year it all came apart at the seams, so people were hesitant to come back this year. But the new staff and change of venue have pulled it all back together into a very professional con, which I (and I’m sure MANY more) will be attending again next year.

Sales went pretty well, and had a few orders for the new rubber paw-pads. Glowsticks before the boat party sold very well, though some people waited until we were actually ON the boat to ask about buying some. Unfortunately I left my dealers table in the Dealers Den, so I guess I missed an opportunity there.

The robot also got a warm reception, being dubbed alternately Heineken, Keg-9, and K9’s alcoholic cousin. There was even an offer to buy him, but I want the satisfaction of having him work first. Well technically he does work, it just turned out his remote control didn’t.
It was also great to meet so many new people as well as see and hear of the wonderful works other people are working on.

Anyway, new casting supplies were ordered and have now arrived, as well as a preserved coyote skull with some excellent teeth. I’ll be making replicas of it’s teeth for sale soon.

Oh, I’ve added a fixed status page to the site so people who’ve ordered at cons or who have other commissions with me, can keep track of them. It’s very rough at the moment, but I’ll be tidying it up shortly.

I’ll be at the upcoming LondonFurs Xmas party on the 5th, selling some of my remaining glowsticks. I’m also trying to revive an old idea I had called the Fandom Trade Association, which is much more informal than it sounds. News on that as it develops.

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RBW Tomorrow!

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

The “Rather Brilliant Weekend” starts tomorrow! If you’re attending, please come find me in the Dealers Den. I’ll be trading there each of the 3 days the con runs.

There’s a dance every night, so I’ve stocked up on glowsticks. 600 of them. The thin 8″ ones are 30p and the thick 6″ ones are 80p. So please come and buy a few, I’d love to sell out of them!
They’ll also be displays of the cast claws and paw-pads which I’ll be taking orders for, packs of face/body paint crayons, emergency repair kits, and I’ll be taking sketches and commissions.

Here’s my advert for the con-book. Hoping it made it in!
rbw-advert_sml
(it’s made 70’s movie style to be inkeeping with the con’s theme)

A sad note is that since making the advert, my sewing machine has seized up, so the emergency repair station is out for the time being. The robot is also throwing up some issues with it’s power supply, so we’ll see if he comes along or not.

There’s still a whole day to go, and anything could happen in the next half hour!

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Confuzzled 2009

Friday, June 5th, 2009

Confuzzled just passed is a con only in it’s second year, but since I was at it’s first I knew I would be there for its second. The first time around it was a convention of massive professionalism. While every con has it’s teething troubles, everything was well organised, and it’s second year kept that up!

Now it is a fairly small con, but it’s growing fast. The first year it’s membership was limited to 140 or so because of the occupancy of the hostel it was held in. This year they’d negotiated an overflow hotel and permission for those staying there to enter the hostel, raising the attendance to over 250. Next year it’s even going to be in a proper country hotel.

Setup in the dealers den went fine, and sales were gratefully made. The weather outside had us all pining to be out there instead though! I was also selling a selection of clearence prints for the excellent artist UltraViolet, which to my chagrin sold better than my own merchendice! But wow, some of the attendees have some things in the works, and I’m happy to say that I’ll be providing services to assist in some extremely creative costumes. One member has yet again pushed me back into making jewellery, so perhaps that will become a new standard line for me.

Best of all was the socialising, both with old friends and meeting new contacts and aquaintences. I’m also stunned that some folk requested more of my questionable home-brew.

There was amazingly little drama, and what there was was unrelated to the con and kept in private. Seeing folks in the furry fandom acting in such a responcible fashion always makes me glad.

Another highlight was the trip to MOSI the Museum Of Science and Industry, as the con’s theme for the year was “Victorian”. And as such we wandered about in top-hat and tail-coat being amazed at these variouos contraptions and do-dads, finally completing it with a trip on the museums small circuit of steam railway. Many photographs were taken, particularly by random members of the public. And as a tip, it’s more aproachable to describe a furry-con as a “niche comics convention”. Normal people understand those terms.

There were also goslings everywhere, singing, the discovery that curry grants wishes, and again that that area of Manchester reminds me of somewhere…

(pictures to be added)

Looking forward to next year already!

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Back from Confuzzled!

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Hey-lo you all out there. I’m back from Confuzzled and what a lovely time was had! I’ll have a little report up soon, but suffice to say it was great to see many faces old and new. I also got to chat with some others there who I may soon be collaborating with. Exciting times ahead!
But yes, more details soon to come.

And thankyou for asking, my computer is now behaving itself.

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RBW and after

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Well RBW’s been over for a week now, and I’m almost sorted out again. I’d like to thank the staff of the con for trying their best given highly adverse conditions.

From the first day we were told we wouldn’t be coming back to the Royal National Hotel next year, and soon found out why. The hotel refused to honour confirmed bookings, rooms were in a poor state, hotel staff were surly, and other events had been interleaved with the convention meaning events had to be packed up early or canceled so rooms could be emptied rather than left  as they were overnight. The main problem though was that the hotel “washed the carpets” in the room the Dealers were supposed to be using, meaning we got shoved in a room half the hight and a third the width, upstairs and down cramped corridoors. Well out of the way, and with some artists moved down to the lobby, traffic was greatly reduced.

There were mistakes on the con-staff side too, but in their defense there had been an almost complete change in staff just a month beforehand, leaving very little time to prepare. My main issue with them though was the timetable. There wasn’t one in the con-book, the only one on the website did not match the actual one, and communication about changes in events was very poor. But they are rebuilding from scratch for next year, so I have hope that next years con will be much better.

And as allways, the Boat Party remains the jewel in the con’s crown, this year seeing us on board a huge triple-decked boat with two bars, colour-changing lighting, dance-floor and open upper deck. The boat party was quite epic.

Claws

As far as sales go, my best seller was pre-orders on the sew-on resin claws I’ve been working on. I had hoped to have been selling the claws themselves, but due to a small problem with my resin supplier, I had to use slow-cure silicones. And with all claw moulds produced from a single master, it meant there wasn’t enough time to make enough moulds for the full sets of ten.

Close up claws

Close up of claws

The pre-orders sold at full prices, but with free postage, and should still be on track to ship a little before xmas (with the exception of my first custom colour blend set). I also had enquiries at the con about wether I could produce the claws so they reacted to UV light, glowed in the dark or came with embedded flashing LEDs. I’m looking into these possibilities and should have answers by the new year.

Other items

Foxxie Fluffs! These adorable little fuzz-balls were a surprise sucess, and I’ve had enquiries about them even after the con. As soon as I can obtain more raw materials, expect to see them appear for sale here on the site, or directly at LondonFur meets. A couple sold in the RBW charity auction.

Sewing Kits! A number of these sold, and amusingly one to someone with a trouser-emergency.

Tea Tree and Peppermint wipes! Again, a few of these sold, mostly to face/bodypainters.

UV Sushii Fish Earrings! Only two sets sold in the end, but they were perhaps a long-shot. Perhaps in part this explained in the number of times I had to say that they were made from brand new fish bottles, not recycled fishy ones. Also rather over-estimated the number of people who would have peirced ears.

Where from here?

I have a couple of private comissions I’m working on to have finished before their xmas deadlines, and until they’re handed over I can’t say much about them.

Before xmas hits though, the site shop will come online selling the claws, Foxxie Fluffs, sewing kits and other items.

I’m also working on a couple of new products. One would be resin noses of varying types, and the other would be resin teeth. The teeth will hopefully be made avaiable individually and in custom fixed arangements. The latter will depend on having a custom layout generator included into the shop.

There is also the possibility that I may have to move house in the next few months. Wether this spectre turns up or not, I’ll be lightening myself of a lot more interesting and usefull items, so keep an eye on the ebay listings.

So until my next update (and now things are getting back in order, there should be many!), thanks for reading and have a merry christmas! 🙂

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