out with the old?

I have a lot of my own art. Sometimes I find that some of it is no longer very representative of the work that I do. What to do? In some cases, I give it away. At other times maybe I'll sell it at a deep discount. Or I'll decide to keep it. Or I might destroy it. It's not always an easy decision, but sometimes there are things I've done years ago that I no longer want out on the market representing me.

But sometimes I can make them better. :-) I was sitting at the engraving bench tonight working on something, and I happened to take out the dragon pendant and look at the under the scope. Yikes! I scrimmed the dragon pendant a little over two years ago. It was my first color scrim, and the fourth scrim I ever did. It's a nice piece, a very cool image, but hoo boy have I come a long way since then as far as technique and tools are concerned. So suddenly there is a decision to make: keep it and don't have it available for sale, or make it better. I have mixed feelings about working back into a piece that was done years ago, I've never done that with my drawings but sometimes think about it. This feels different though, more okay somehow. I can really improve it, a lot, and feel really good about having it up for sale. I think I'll do that, I want to make it awesome.

So, what am I working on? Well, a few things:

1) something (top secret, it's a scrimshaw of something, I can't talk about it because someone commissioned it for someone, and someone and someone both read this) ;-) That's right, no WIP pics while I'm working on it
2) upcoming soon, scrimshaw lettering (initials) on a set of pistol grips
3) upcoming pending approval, a knife collaboration
4) reworking the dragon scrim
5) a pendant for me
6) there are a few other things "in the works" but far from being confirmed

For me? Yeah! I want to make myself something. I need a show piece, something I can wear to shows that's really nice but that I don't feel obligated to sell. I wracked my brain for a while trying to come up with good subject matter before I realized the choice is obvious. A subject near and dear, and orange and fuzzy. :-) It's going to be VERY difficult, and there are a few things I want to try that are kind of experimental, and that's why it's destined for me. I want to try some stuff on my own before tackling it in commissioned work.

I still need to post all the cool things I made people for Christmas...

And I need to set up the bench grinder so I can use all my nifty new sharpening stuff!