The Mountain and the Tree

I went to a talk by Vinay Gupta last night, and have written up my notes over on Eithin. It's long, so I'm not going to copy it all here, but it was absolutely fascinating.

Important question to ask: whether the future actually is amenable to analysis. Strict rationality and utilitarianism will inevitably fail, so at some point you will have to make decisions on moral grounds instead (is it better to save young people, or older people, or families? People here, or people there? To consider QALY, local priorities, or ripple effects?) And the thing which informs the moral frameworks we use to make those decisions is aesthetics. Quert: choice of beauty. Also, EO Wilson’s use of “concinnity”. That’s how we get the title of this series: truth and beauty. “I’m an engineer, and I think have a pretty good handle on truth by now, but I’m getting to level 80 and it’s full of artists! My artist friends are laughing at me, finally asking lots of questions. Join the club, white boy. …Beige boy.”

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As many of you know, I make & sell Christmas cards, and these are some of last year's designs; I'll be doing some new ones, but the holly leaf and at least one of the carols will be staying in the mix. (For those of you who got some, or one, last year these won't look precisely the same; I need to re-do the images for the professional print process, since I designed them to go through my own photo printer.)

The cards are A6, made from matte white 100% recycled stock. The backs have my logo on, and the insides are blank for your own message. Since I do fine art printmaking, this disclaimer is important: these are not original art, like linocuts or giclee prints. They're just pieces of coloured paper like any other non-handmade Christmas card.

Since costs have gone up a bit, I'll be asking £1.20 per card (no minimum order) or 20 for £20, with £1.50 p&p if we can't meet up to hand them over in person. Unlike last year, I'll also include appropriately coloured recycled envelopes at no extra charge.

I'm entirely happy to do custom artwork, so long as you don't mind those being offered to other people too; if you want one with your name on it or something similar, I'd probably ask a bit extra. As regards licensing, all the digital artwork will be going up under CC:BY, but I reserve the rights to the finished print-ready files made from it.

What I'll also be doing for the first time this year is offering digital downloads - £5 will get you a print-quality PDF with two different card designs on (your choice from the standard range), for you to print out at home or take to a printer in your area, and you can print & send as many as you like from that. (If you want, you can even colour them in or add glitter and sparkles!)

I accept payment by PayPal, bank transfer, cash, artwork, food, or good beer.

So, that went well. Very well, in fact.

I was in charge of the lighting board for the 1400-capacity Concert Stage (a large blackout marquee) and mostlyacat was my deputy, which worked well for both of us. He picked up board op skills very quickly - it helps that he's an engineer, used to computer equipment, and has a pretty good eye for visual arts.

I was seriously impressed by how casual and trusting the organisers were with us - basically, the Stage Electrics contractors (Rebecca and Suzi) programmed in a few presets and showed us what was where, and left us to decide how to light everything entirely for ourselves. I'd been expecting a more formal setup, with cues programmed in for particular artists & songs, so this was a pleasant surprise.

People & groups I lit over the weekend, whom I'd already heard of: Home Service; Spiers & Boden (who performed New York Girls as their encore!); the Spooky Men's Chorale; Coope, Boyes, & Simpson; Emily Portman; Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick.

Ditto, whom I'd never heard of but can recommend: Tyde; Red Hippo; Moore, Moss, Rutter; David Ferrard (Scottish/American singer-songwriter); Kate Rowe (kooky, melodic, catchy Australian singer-songwriter); Saltfishforty. (More details about all of those can be found linked from here.)
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I'm fine - the riots have not affected me personally, thank goodness. I've looked out some old clothes & bedding (that I had completely forgotten I had) and will be taking them along to donate.

Stay safe, all of you in London.

mirabehn and I watched this last night, and I've posted a review as part of Fae Awareness Month. The short version is that I'd love to show it to all of you! You can read the long version here.

1. I had my MRI results the other day: apparently, my brain is nice and healthy, with no shadows, atrophy, or reduction in brain mass. This is very good. When I get the copies I've asked for, I shall make them available.

2. I really need to finish more artwork, including getting back to printmaking properly. Part of the reason I haven't been able to do nearly as much as I'd like is lack of space. I'm considering setting up at the Hackspace for a studio session, but if I'm using proper ink then that means leaving a dozen or two prints to dry overnight/two nights there. Another part of the reason is that I don't have a reliable channel for disposing of the blessed stuff afterwards, other than letting it accumulate around the flat.

3. I really need to get more into permaculture, sustainability, and ninja hippy engineering. It makes me happy and saves me money and gets me better food, and does a lot to counteract the sense of worthlessness and irrelevance that the world often gives me. Part of the problem there, though, is a) that I'm a congenital generalist—I can do some of everything, and there's usually someone around who's better at any given thing than I am; and b) that I'm shy and nervous around strangers, and find it very hard to put myself forward.

Incidentally, I plan on visiting What will the harvest be? near Stratford on Saturday, if health & weather hold up. They have an open day, from 13:00. Anyone else interested in joining me, if you're not Slutwalking? ("Why I'm not doing that" would be an entire other post which I don't currently feel up to making. Suffice it to say that I'm strongly in favour of the event.)

I've two posts up at Fae Awareness Month now: the first is on Shakespeare's fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the second is an introductory post for my sequential re-reading of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I won't announce all of them here, or on the other blog, but there will be lots more of those, and if you know the book (or the play) I'd love it if you read & comment there.

This one, which I've had lying around for quite a while now, has now found an appreciative home (pictured). I'm definitely going to have to make more of these, especially now that I've pretty much perfected the art of laser-cutting complex shapes to make into pendants. It's a double-faced satin ribbon, and the teardrop is copper but future ones will probably be laminated paper.



That's actually mocked up with a brooch and a safety pin, but given how it looks there will definitely be some proper ones coming. On the other hand, I'm still not completely happy with the laminated paper bands—especially the ones with D-rings attached—so I'm going to have to make a few more different designs and get some experienced jewellery-wearers to try them out, preferably over an entire day or evening.

As all of you who make & sell things will know, pricing your work is both really important and really hard. I've settled on some price points, I think: the new double-thickness (and double-strength) pendants I've been making (see left, and/or ask me for a look at one when we see each other—I'll usually have one somewhere) will go for £5-£10, and from now on I'll keep the single-layer pieces for brooches and sell those more cheaply. The laminated paper chokers... I'm still thinking I need to do a bit more research & usability testing to find a single comfortable design & a good production workflow. Masks will range from £12 or so to about £30.

On the other hand, let's be realistic about this: I'm not in this business to make much money. It would be extremely nice if I did manage more than the small net profit I currently get, but as far as I can tell all the available levers for increasing internet-based sale volume involve hard work on marketing and promotion, and that's not only something I hate doing but something I'm extremely bad at.

I am, fundamentally, in the jewellery business in order to make art, or at least pretty things. The problem there is that a) finished Stuff accumulates, and b) I'm hesitant to give it away unsolicited, either because then it'll just be accumulating dust for someone else instead, or because they might not like it or ever wear it. I'm a good judge of what would physically suit someone, but that doesn't mean it would be in their comfort zone or preferred style, and that's entirely fair enough.

Anyway, the point of this post is basically threefold. First, I have an Etsy shop (nowhere near everything I have in a sale-ready state is listed there, just the best ones I have photos of so far). I like commissions, so long as they're not too detailed—my ideal is "make me something you think will suit me", but I'm also very happy with a colour scheme and an idea of the sort of patterns you like.

Second, I am entirely happy to accept barter. I prefer food, books, & beer, but if you do it and I have a possible use for it then I'll be delighted. (Just to be clear, I expect you to match sale price to sale price, rather than what-it-costs-you to what-I'd-get-on-the-market. If you normally give it away for free, I'm still happy to consider it.)

Third, and possibly most importantly: if you like what I do, and especially if it's the kind of thing you'd wear, please let me know! After all, everyone has a birthday now & then.

For those of you interested in obscure conjunctions of information science, materials science, and history, and who don't read my SF blog, I've finally got around to putting up my notes from the talk I gave at Eastercon 2010. It does not, I'm afraid, contain my celebrated impression of Dr Johnson, but you can read the rest here.