Merry Christmas

[mite5255]

Just in case some of you are heading out for Christmas I'll say Merry Christmas to you all now. Looks like we'll be heading to the wife's Mum and Dads for Christmas then head back home day

[bunyip]

Like wise, Merry Christmas everyone.

[F.C.]

Well, looks like I'll be hold'n the fort down here, then. If y'all get bored and need a "found dreaming" fix, I'll be here to entertain whatever ya care to pass along. Circumstances in our lives mandate stay'n put. Our finances this season are committed to some horrendous legal fees in an urgent "attempt" to get custody of our granddaughter. Long story... suffice to say the wife and I have always longed to raise a daughter, just never imagined it could come about in our 60's with such urgency. A parent's task is NEVER complete. So much for the "Golden Years".

Cheers...

F.C.

[Jammer]

We had our Christmas last weekend, my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter (Plus one in the oven) came over from South Carolina. We had a great visit and opened presents and such. We're going to Church today and will have a Christmas Dinner there. Then I'll just spend Christmas day here at home with my wife.
Merry Christmas to All And a Prosperous New Year!!

[mite5255]

We had part of ours last weekend at the Daughters, Son and his crew will be over tonight( Xmas eve here ) and tomorrow we'll drive to the Wifes Mum and Dads....Wife's busy doing all sorts of things with ginger bread, I'm hanging around due to her arthritis playing up, when she needs a rest I take over

[mite5255]

Well, looks like I'll be hold'n the fort down here, then. If y'all get bored and need a "found dreaming" fix, I'll be here to entertain whatever ya care to pass along. Circumstances in our lives mandate stay'n put. Our finances this season are committed to some horrendous legal fees in an urgent "attempt" to get custody of our granddaughter. Long story... suffice to say the wife and I have always longed to raise a daughter, just never imagined it could come about in our 60's with such urgency. A parent's task is NEVER complete. So much for the "Golden Years".

Cheers...

F.C.

The golden years will be bring up a little girl Frank

[F.C.]

Indeed, Mike... Therein lies the true blessing in this situation. We'll TAKE IT, with all our heart!! So far, it looks like it'll be a simple matter of process in paperwork which the Alaskan Judge degreed we'd be in the best interest of the child's welfare and agreed to transfer the case here in our county (in Washington state) so it would cost less. It will still require one of us to fly North to retrieve the child and bring her home. It is what it is....

Now, it's a matter of sit'n and waiting for paperwork to process while we terminate the attorney up North and shift what's left of the retainer we paid to an attorney here to get busy and finalize what's required to give us rights to fly north and get our grandchild into our care. Nothing is simple anymore, particularly when it comes to the welfare of a child and its custody matters. That too... it is what it is. Looks as though we'll be on pins and needles till the paperwork shuffle gets approved, signed, and settled.

Merry Christmas, guys!! I've grown attached to this lot here and hope the best for each one of you in the comming year and beyond. As always, I'm here for ya in any way I can help. Plan on me actually "participating" with projects in progress come Spring. Some simple, some actually "involved" and probably well out of your areas of expertiese. I've been contacted by a guy out of Lousianna (on Facebook) that has determined my expertiese can help augment his hand sculptured exquisite architectural door entry designs with custom unique hardware sculpted and cast in bronze. I've done some before to the tune of 1,200 $ a piece which he's hope'n I can do equal quality for the product he gets on commission. He's used to pay'n that much and more depending on the design, so hopefully, he and I will be doing a lot of work together. He swears he can keep me busy with it seeing how he's exhausted resources in his region of comparable artists that have stepped up to offer their skills, but he's not impressed with their work as much as he's been impressed with mine. We'll see what transpires as Spring draws near. I'll endevor to attempt keep'n photo documentation and logged entry transcriptions of the processes involved with each project. It'll be an eye opener for most of you guys to realize the potential of what you "DO KNOW' and how you can utilize it to help others in your areas needing similar services, if not by "your" design, perhaps to create "their" design which could involve you work'n with them to give you a pattern capable of casting within your medium and equipment's capabilities. I learned a long time ago, if you don't step out of your comfort zone and dare to try the difficult shit, you're doomed to limiting yourself and convincing yourself you're at the ceiling of your capabilities. That's a mindset I simply CANNOT accept. Go BIG, or step back and let others take the lead and make the big bucks.

Mike, what you made for that wedding plaque is top shelf (in my opinion). It has all the characteristics of a quality cast and finished product worthy of praise. Only subtle changes in design (none of which would be out of your capability to make, nor add any difficulty to the process) is all it'd take to totally WOW the client and draw others to enlist your services for their own product desires. YOU KNOW how to to cast a good product. You only need to accept advice on how to tweak your "designs" to add flare and professionalism to your work that will launch you out of being a backyard caster and into a realm of service worthy of an artist's attention. Dallen, you, too!! That shooter you built is top shelf as well. Your skills on that project make me humble to be acquainted with you. Rasper, .... My GOD... your art is BEAUTIFUL!! I can only hope some of my projects might give you insight how you can expand your services to accommodate more clients with your art skills. In fact, each and every person here on this site has VALUE in what they've learned and developed reliable skill at producing quality casts of the patterns they've made. Sure... backyard hobby casting is FUN... but it'll spark a deep down JOY in your soul when you take it to a marketable level people come to appreciate and rely upon your services to fulfill. I encourage each and every one of you to take time to focus on stepping outside your confort zone and push yourself to produce something that a customer is happy to pay money for. One happy customer tells a minimum of 10 others of the value they got from your service. Soon, word of mouth will expand exponentially and you'll be turning away more work than you'll do in a year as a result.

Here's hopeing each and everyone of you guys take the initiative to GROW and EXPAND your skills to the next level. I, TOO, continually strive to do so myself. If we ain't grow'n we're stagnating, and what's the benefit in that? LOL...

Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! my brothers!!

[mite5255]

Indeed, Mike... Therein lies the true blessing in this situation. We'll TAKE IT, with all our heart!! So far, it looks like it'll be a simple matter of process in paperwork which the Alaskan Judge degreed we'd be in the best interest of the child's welfare and agreed to transfer the case here in our county (in Washington state) so it would cost less. It will still require one of us to fly North to retrieve the child and bring her home. It is what it is....

Now, it's a matter of sit'n and waiting for paperwork to process while we terminate the attorney up North and shift what's left of the retainer we paid to an attorney here to get busy and finalize what's required to give us rights to fly north and get our grandchild into our care. Nothing is simple anymore, particularly when it comes to the welfare of a child and its custody matters. That too... it is what it is. Looks as though we'll be on pins and needles till the paperwork shuffle gets approved, signed, and settled.

Merry Christmas, guys!! I've grown attached to this lot here and hope the best for each one of you in the comming year and beyond. As always, I'm here for ya in any way I can help. Plan on me actually "participating" with projects in progress come Spring. Some simple, some actually "involved" and probably well out of your areas of expertiese. I've been contacted by a guy out of Lousianna (on Facebook) that has determined my expertiese can help augment his hand sculptured exquisite architectural door entry designs with custom unique hardware sculpted and cast in bronze. I've done some before to the tune of 1,200 $ a piece which he's hope'n I can do equal quality for the product he gets on commission. He's used to pay'n that much and more depending on the design, so hopefully, he and I will be doing a lot of work together. He swears he can keep me busy with it seeing how he's exhausted resources in his region of comparable artists that have stepped up to offer their skills, but he's not impressed with their work as much as he's been impressed with mine. We'll see what transpires as Spring draws near. I'll endevor to attempt keep'n photo documentation and logged entry transcriptions of the processes involved with each project. It'll be an eye opener for most of you guys to realize the potential of what you "DO KNOW' and how you can utilize it to help others in your areas needing similar services, if not by "your" design, perhaps to create "their" design which could involve you work'n with them to give you a pattern capable of casting within your medium and equipment's capabilities. I learned a long time ago, if you don't step out of your comfort zone and dare to try the difficult shit, you're doomed to limiting yourself and convincing yourself you're at the ceiling of your capabilities. That's a mindset I simply CANNOT accept. Go BIG, or step back and let others take the lead and make the big bucks.

Mike, what you made for that wedding plaque is top shelf (in my opinion). It has all the characteristics of a quality cast and finished product worthy of praise. Only subtle changes in design (none of which would be out of your capability to make, nor add any difficulty to the process) is all it'd take to totally WOW the client and draw others to enlist your services for their own product desires. YOU KNOW how to to cast a good product. You only need to accept advice on how to tweak your "designs" to add flare and professionalism to your work that will launch you out of being a backyard caster and into a realm of service worthy of an artist's attention. Dallen, you, too!! That shooter you built is top shelf as well. Your skills on that project make me humble to be acquainted with you. Rasper, .... My GOD... your art is BEAUTIFUL!! I can only hope some of my projects might give you insight how you can expand your services to accommodate more clients with your art skills. In fact, each and every person here on this site has VALUE in what they've learned and developed reliable skill at producing quality casts of the patterns they've made. Sure... backyard hobby casting is FUN... but it'll spark a deep down JOY in your soul when you take it to a marketable level people come to appreciate and rely upon your services to fulfill. I encourage each and every one of you to take time to focus on stepping outside your confort zone and push yourself to produce something that a customer is happy to pay money for. One happy customer tells a minimum of 10 others of the value they got from your service. Soon, word of mouth will expand exponentially and you'll be turning away more work than you'll do in a year as a result.

Here's hopeing each and everyone of you guys take the initiative to GROW and EXPAND your skills to the next level. I, TOO, continually strive to do so myself. If we ain't grow'n we're stagnating, and what's the benefit in that? LOL...

Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! my brothers!!

Bearing in mind also Frank, Girls are very much into emotional blackmail with their Fathers they know that they can twist their Father around there little fingers, just ask how come I know , and now my darling two Grand daughters have taken up the challenge to see if they can do the same
And with your situation Frank, as you said it is what it is and you just do what has to be done

Thanks for the complement Frank, there are faults in the plaque that the camera does not pick and the faults are due to inexperience in polishing metal, but I will get better and will end up with a very salable product. As soon as I get one that I'm happy with I'll do the rounds of a few wedding dress shops just to show what can be done...The local person that was engraving the patterns for me keeps putting the work that I want done to the end of the line and it takes 6 weeks or more for him to do stuff for me......I have contacted Foundry Joe in Canada and he, or should I say his wife is going to do some polymer patterns for me and I'll see how I go with them, I do wish I had some artistic skill in my hands so I could do more myself, but alas I have zilch

There are not many members here but there are a few here that are very very talented ( frank is one and he named a few of them in his post above also )and each and every one of them has been a great help over the last few years in offering advice on all my projects I'll accept advice from anyone, but it may at times seem like that I'm ignoring sound advice,but I do like trying to row against the tide at time just to see were I end up, sometimes it works, sometimes not, but hey its all about learning. Were I end up with this casting gig god knows, but up to this point its been a very pleasant experience, frustrating at times but I guess that goes with trying to teach a older dog new tricks

I hope you all had a pleasant Christmas and have a happy and safe 2015, my hope is before 2015 ends I'll be retired and can earn a few extra $ doing some casting, time shall tell
Please ignore any bad grammar and punctuation in any of my post, my school years were a wast of time, my education started the day I left school and started full time work in the concrete industry, and good grammar and punctuation was not requirement for the job

Mike

[mite5255]

I would hope that one day I can afford a trip to the northern hemisphere and there are a few people from Canada, USA and Mexico that would be getting a visitor from down under

My Daughter and her Family should be in Florida sometime in 2015

[Rasper]

When you come to Mexico be sure to come see me. I have a large house with plenty of room.

Incidentally, I have met a large number of Aussies over the years, and I frequently tell people, "I have never met an Aussie I didn't like."

Richard