Monday Money

So here we are, 'Hello Monday'

Traditionally a day of sorting things out. Popping to the bank, listing things on folksy, photographing stock, maybe making a few things, sending out emails etc.

I am in a very unproductive mood and rather anxious about Money. That big scary thing that very few people have enough of.

We are slightly behind with our rent at the Purky Enclave and coupled with two large event expenditures coming up in February I am wary that ends may not quite meet. Where should cuts be made?

Happily I learned how to budget from my frugal Mother (and how to splurge from my Father) and have been feeding us quite well on minimal financial input. I have lined up a few expenses to cut thus maximising our cash flow.

I am quite keen on the idea of finding a reasonably paid 9-5 job where I do not work weekends. That would maintain a lot of my flexibility for attending events whilst topping up the household income. We are not far far behind just a few hundred pounds extra a month would make all the difference.

Historically I have worked until stupid o clock in the morning to keep up with my artistic ambitions and hold down paid work. So this is rather achieveable, if I can find a job.

Plus I am relatively confident that the quality and variety of my new work will start to pay off in the next six months. Several small shops are interested in stocking my work locally and I am trying to build on my online sales.

So temporary boost in finances - commit for six months maybe? and then jump back into part time work and artistry?

Appeals to me.

Have a beautiful leaping bronze Gearcat Brooch picture, for positivity :)

Much love from Captain Purky xx

January

I do not really get along well with January.

Traditionally lots of people have post seasonal blues and I understand and accept that.

Somehow though, I get sucked into a pit of self hatred and misery that becomes overwhelming. It causes me to isolate myself and judge everything I do with angry eyes.

Last year that isolation was unbearable, living by myself and utterly financially empty just amplified that feeling.

This year, I am living with my lovely fella which is frankly wonderful but my internal emotional state is not that much rosier. I feel guilty for feeling down when actually things in many ways are not that bad. He is loving and supportive and gives the most amazing cuddles. Finances are tight but we have a budget in place.

However, the angsty feelings leave me at a point of doubt - am I worthwhile? are my intentions valuable? should I continue?

It eats away at my confidence and happiness and I usually retreat into myself.

January 2013, I have retreated into my projects.

Lots of Purky Products have been photographed and are now listed online. I have set the infrastructure in place for my Magnificent Maker's Market and have so much to do. I want to help my partner regenerate his family business and push the limits of my productivity.

Obviously I wish I had more financial resources to draw upon and this will be a struggle but I am used to that.

I think I should share a photograph or two now, to lighten the mood.

These are Purky bronze items :)

They are formed using unique Purky dies and texture forms then are sintered in the Purky kiln.

I then hand finish them to bring out the rich bronze tones.

At this point I should mention that my careful efforts to document and share my work online has brought me huge amounts of suppport that have made things much better.

Wonderful people on www.facebook.com/purkyproducts and www.facebook.com/magnificentmakersmarket have offered me wonderful feedback.

It will all be ok, it is just January.

Anyways folks, much love for now xx

More Pictures

Hey folks,

been taking loads of photographs :D


                                                           
                                                                Purky Glass Pendant

 Purky Glass Ring

Purky Gearpunk Heart Pendant

















I am trying hard to get my photography up to scratch. What do you guys think?

Captain Purky

x

First Encounters of a Glassy Kind

So, me being me, I took my work to market fairly rapidly... I have something of an intense R&D process!

These pictures are from the Frome Frost Fair on December 19th which was my last formal Purky engagement of the year.

This is the selection of Glass pieces I took with me.

I made the stand look as Purky as Possible :)

This lovely lady was the first person to purchase a piece of my glass work!

This piece sold as well :)





I had a lovely evening in Frome and hope to be asked back again soon.












Captain Purky x

Glassing Around

As you may have seen in my New Year Post I have finally invested in significant glass equipment (this actually happened in mid November!)

Here are some sneaky pics taken during my experiments

Cutting glass with a toyo cutter on a craft mat, I have now upgraded to a proper glass surface so I do not get splinters in my hand.

Layering up here with interesting inclusions to see what happened!

One of my first finished pieces, strung here on an eighteen inch sterling silver snake chain :)

More experimenting and pictures to come!

Captain Purky x

Photo Day!

So today, for better or worse I turned down a day of paid employment (deep gasp) to work on my business.

The logic being that I need to invest my time and energy in order to generate an income rather than just working for the man despite that money being relatively guaranteed it has an upper limit. World famous artist doesn't really have an earning cap, hey? .....dreams are important and all that jazz!

(Jazz hands are appropriate here!)

So, wanna see my piccies?

(correct answer is yes...)

Exhibit A is a Gearpunk Dove, I have finally managed to capture the nuanced hues of alcohol inks and mica powders that forms the patination of the piece. Dead chuffed :)

Exhibit B is a Mokume Nendo Pendant from the general stock, it took some careful tweaking to get the colours accurate but I am kinda pleased with this one as well!

Exhibit C is a Heart Pendant made from a layered stack. Again lots of careful image manipulation was needed to bring the correct colours out!

I am so pleased to have finally found a way to get my photos looking right. There shall be an epic Purky Portfolio this year and hopefully that will generate some business.

As an aside, the images are manipulated to ensure a well composed image with true to life colours but they are not airbrushed in the style of catwalk models, to say that they truthfull represent the items of handcrafted joy made in my studio :)

Hurrah for Purkiness!

Much love from the Captain xx

The Big Scary List of Purky Projects

I suppose scary is not really the right word but it is a rather large list....

These are really just titles for projects, some are continuations and some are brand new :)

The Magnificent Maker's Market

The Dark and Curious Market

The Purky Parties

The Three G Writing Project

The Droma Writing Project

A Dark Trio Writing Project

The Glass Range

Gearpunk 2013

Steamcheese

Ethereal Bronze Colllection

Ethereal Glass Collection

Eco Glass Collection

So thats some of them....

What are you folks planning this year?

Captain Purky

xx

A Resolute Captain Purky

Not sure where I stand on Resolutions but going to give it a try anyway. Even if they end being more like general directions!

I have decided to break the resolutions up to fit the different areas of my life, just for a bit of definition :)

Purky Products Resolutions

• Focus more deeply on projects and collections - i.e less is more
• Maintain high qualitity work
• Develop exciting new things!
• Build Purky into a full time income
• Attend events all over the country
• Explore new materials and revisit/update old favourites
• Increase web sales and visibility

Purky Productions Resolutions

• Increase frequency of events
• Build a stronger marketing platform
• Focus on existing event properties and develop them
• To perform more often

Personal Resolutions

• Lose weight - classic I know but I made great progress last year and intend to lose another two stone.

• Pay off 50% of total credit card balance - I usually hammer my card repayments but last year got expensive with vet bills, car repairs, house moves etc. I want to sort this out, obviously!

• Declutter - I have a wall of crates filled with stuff, I do not know what is in them, so logically they are providing me with no benefit? I would like to be rid of them. . . . There are several walls of crates (to my shame) but I am confident I can dispose of most of them over the course of this year.

• To bake more - I really enjoy baking so I want to bake bread (in particular) at least once a week.

• To write in a structured and disciplined fashion, this includes this (much neglected) blog as well as my writing projects.

• To take more photographs and upload them

• To develop my digital design work and express myself in other materials

That is probably enough to keep me going for a few months.

Toodle pip for now folks,

Captain Purky x

2012, bits of the year in review

So, I am not brilliant with New Years eve and find it a tad conceited. Surely every day is a new year because it is a year since that day last fell?

Plus I have a string of miserable or anticlimatic new years eve experiences to draw cynicism from. However, I had an interesting chat with a lady about Janus, who is a roman icon/god who looks both forwards and back.

In the principle of self evaluation and looking to the future, here we go!

Awesome 2012 things!

• Creating my Gearpunk range and having to confidence (lots of deep breaths) to go meet the Steampunks - Steampunks are awesome folk and my Gearpunk range took me to London, Bristol and Cardiff.

• Inventing new polymer techniques to create the Gearpunk range - this did my artistic self worth lots of good.

 

• A Quintet of Dark Tales - my most successful and accomplished performance so far, the set worked, the stories worked, the costume worked and people came and enjoyed themselves.

 

• The First Purky Party - Blasting onto the scene at the Cat Cafe, enjoying some media exposure and proving to myself that this could work. (also included here the follow up events The Grand Purky Tea Party and Captain Purky's Christmas Party)

 

• Disovering Glass, after nearly six years of promising myself that glass work would be more prominant I finally invested properly and have had a great time.

 

• Meeting Mister Man, we met randomly at a party we had both (independently) decided we were too tired to attend but went anyway. Fireworks and romance have ensued since.

 

• Occassional pangs of confidence and self belief, these have been short lived but precious and often sparked huge innovations in my work.

 

• Rediscovering painting and graphic design, made me rather happy when I was laid up for a week in July. I had terrible bronchitus and could not work. Canvases, old sketch books and voila, away I went.

 

• Arcane Encounters - a brave venture in paranormal entertainment. The evening was well recieved and I intend to put on a similar event in 2013.

 

• The Dark and Curious Market - Another amazing idea that needs more time and work put in but started promisingly.

 

• The Magnificent Maker's Market - under attended but promising, this event with be further explored in 2013.

 

• Moving house, I finally escaped Purky Towers, which while a positive place to be when I moved there in August 2011 was starting to drastically drag me down.

 

• The Support of my lovely friends, while we do not see each other often enough when do spend time together it is totally reinvigorating. 

 

• The Birth of Captain Purky - originally a sort of jokey moniker on my facebook so I did not have to admit to working full time for someone else, Captain Purky has become his own entitiy. A beautiful front for my businesses and a lovely excuse to buy multiple new outfits. Keep an eye out for the Captain in the future.

 

• Purky Productions, she is in her infancy but as the sister company of Purky Products, she handles the events side of things.

The Not So Awesome....

• Three Purky organised events in a row that didn't make an initial profit....luckily they are the opening moves in a grander scheme so over the course of a year we should be ok but my confidence was somewhat shaken. However the attendees and traders were all very pleased to be there.

 

•  Phileous Mogg being struck down by a rapidly moving vehicle. He is fine, my bank balance is still recovering but there was never any chance that I would deny my best (furry) friend treatment. He has settled into the Purky Enclave and is doing very well.

 

• Crippling depression....I need to do something about this. Although my deep lows tend to inspire very positive action, for example the First Purky Party came about because of my overwhelming sadness and feelings of inadequecy.

 

• Overwork, Averaging 60 hours a week at Job 1 and then taking on 10 to 20 hours a week at Job 2 in June, July and August was somewhat exhausting emotionally and physically but I quite enjoyed the money. I am also kinda proud that I did what was needed to ensure that I stayed afloat.

 

• Customer service - I need to work harder with this. Face to face I love dealing with customers but often go all shy over internet or phone communication. No idea why, promise to work harder. My customers mean the world to me x

 

• Actualisation of Grief - For some reason this Christmas has been much harder than the last in terms of missing my Mother. I am guessing it is because the feelings have bedded down and everything is much less raw, so I am feeling more of it?

 

• Exes of all varieties....
• Rivals of all varieties....

 

• Lack of creativity, I have had huge gaps and interuptions in my creativity this year and most of the time it has been due to emotional or physical exhaustion so I intend to pace things a bit more carefully this year.

 

• Lonliness, this is a hard one for me. I am quite the closet isolationist but I crave human interaction even if I am too shy to seek it out. Once I take a deep breath and throw myself in, I can pretend that I am not shy for a while and have lots of fun but that takes a lot of work. I am lonely at Job 1 for lots of reasons and I do not see my friends enough in real life.

 

• Blogging, or lack of. I love blogging, so why do I not do it more? I tend to get overwhelmed by what is going on and then struggle to put it into words and pictures. I promise to try harder x

Now I am feeling that maybe this introspection has gone on long enough now, so I am going to sign off but tommorow my Resolutions for the New Year will be up on here :)

I have most probably forgotten lots of stuff but hope you enjoy the overview 

Much Love

Captain Purky xx