Today, I start running castable wax in the Form 3! This is an important development, because it means I can start making my own jewellery. I’ll be able to include as much detail as I want, rather than being constrained to whatever doesn’t get obliterated by the overly aggressive polishing processes that Shapeways uses. Hopefully, this means that I can invest some more time into the Cooperative Artisans’ Guild, and maybe get some of the other artisans on the site involved in this project. For now, I need ideas: I don’t know what would sell, and I don’t exactly know people who can tell me.
Rings always sell well, that much I know, and I have an idea for unique rings that aren’t particularly complex. In case you didn’t know, hexagonal stones are virtually unheard of, and that’s because stone cutters use indexing wheels that are divided in increments of eight. However, indexing wheels are made like gears, so it’s not particularly difficult to replace the usual index wheel with one divided in increments of six. I think I’ll call these things “snowflake rings.” However, I’m getting ahead of myself. This is all I’m running today:
The cat is squished a bit to create a bas-relief effect. This is my first time experimenting with such an effect, but if I can get it to work here, I may be able to give other models a similar treatment. Depending on how this comes out, I may either trim the cat to make the bottom outline better and use it to make a large pin, or simply remove the head and frame it with a crescent moon. I’m not sure if it would work better as a pendant or earring that way, but I suppose I could offer such a design as both. If you think what I’m proposing is a bit tacky, don’t worry, so do I. I’m very bad at this. Good thing I don’t work with furniture makers!
In other news, I finally have a decent T-10M in 1:220 scale, which was a surprisingly pleasant result after numerous failures with coloured resin. Assuming that today’s wax print goes well, and I can get some ideas for new items reasonably quickly, then it will be some time before I print more miniatures. When I resume, unless I get orders for 1:285 scale models, then I will start printing more and more 1:220 scale models for Z gauge railroads. Basically, I’m looking for an excuse to build a nice animated diorama, and I’m not going to limit myself to models that I’ve rendered myself. In case you haven’t already seen them on Steemit, I succeeded in printing two trucks in 1:285 scale with the next test (immediately after the video I linked to, but before the T-10 prints that I just finished). Here are some photos of one truck next to a KV-2 and T-10M (both 53-tonne tanks) to give you an idea of how these things compare to each other:
Let me know what you think; do you think I should pursue making jewellery, or stick with miniatures?
Kaja's Kreations 