The 100-Day Project, Day 48 — Creative Day and Finishing Day!
It's day 48 of the 100 day project and I'm closing in on the halfway mark.
Very busy day today!
First, I used my new inventory system to make a more detailed list of the stones I most urgently need to have painted and ready to sell before the 1st of May. That is actually a alarmingly long list, but I'm going to do my best and I have this challenge to help spur me on.
A large Throat Chakra Stone
Meanwhile, today was also "finishing day," meaning I took my big flat of painted and cured stones out to the garage and started applying the finish coat that protects the design.
Because Alchemy Stones are very much designed to be picked up and handled, the painted design must be protected. In addition, there are people who like to keep their stones outside, usually in their "Fairy Gardens," or as a little piece of decoration in their potted plants.
I always start with the back, and it gets somewhere between eight and ten extremely thin spray lacquer coats. I tried using a brush but that was just a hopeless nightmare because it would melt and smear the paint down below. That said, I also can't be too generous with the spray lacquer because it causes the finely detailed and sharp edges in the designs to bleed and/or run. So it has to have just a fine mist which then has to dry, and once the first pass is dry it gets another fine mist and it takes about 8 to 10 passes to get it to be a solid and durable coat.
Stone backs being treated. I'm on about the 4th or 5th layer, here
Once that process is done the whole thing gets to sit and dry and harden for 24 hours and then I flip them over onto a clean piece of backing paper and repeat the process for the front the side with the actual painted design.
That'll be a task for tomorrow.
Once the designs are fully finished they get to sit in the garage for about 72 hours to make sure they fully dry and harden so there's no chance whatsoever that they're even slightly tacky and will stick to something or to each other. Then I bring them inside and inspect them to make sure that none of the mandala designs actually bled or ran or became blurry. If they are damaged in any way then I don't consider them "First Quality" and they end up out in our garden.
Today's stone no. 24 for the Retreat Stone project
Day 48 Stone Painting:
Finishing days are typically really good for painting as well, because I need to let the stones that are sitting in the garage dry for 30 to 45 minutes between each coat being applied. That's a good time to sit down in between and do a little work and then go out and spray and come back and do a little work, and these days are often entirely set aside to simply for painting on rocks.
As is now become a bit of a tradition, I started today with painting another Retreat Stone, number 24 in the series. Only six more to go! Proof of stone above.
More miniature stones
In the end, I actually got a lot less done than I had hoped for, but that's OK... I had many other things to take care of today, and I do feel like I am making progress here!
Creative work: Painted six more tiny stones.
Day 48 Summary and Social Media Bits:
All in all, an OK day: finished another Retreat Stone, and then six tiny "Faerie Stones," but but I also got started on the finish work for the 43 stones already painted. Oh, and did some more inventory work.
Daily Twitter/X post: Check. Did a general promotional post for the UFO summit.
Daily Facebook Page post: Fail/Pass. Continuing to let the UFO/Paranormal announcement page ride for a while.
Daily Instagram post: Check. Did a promotional post for the UFO Paranormal Summit event.
Other Stuff: As usual, this Hive post; not all that much on the creative side, but very glad to finally be finishing some new stones... it'll be great to see how the finished work turned out! Also good to get an accurate count on stock; Daily shoutout to @gillianpearce!
Day 48 completed; a decent day, all in all. Getting way ahead of myself, I also started drafts for posts describing the entire experience, to be published after the challenge ends.
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Thank You!
If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!
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2024.04.06 AS-TXT-238/208
You have such patience, applying all those lacquer coats. They look amazing when they are laid out together and that's just the backs. Seems like a really good day to me. Much achieved. It must be great to see your progress towards finishing the retreat stones and filling up your inventory. It looks very impressive watching it all unfold from the "outside".
It's always exciting to suddenly be able to bring several months' worth of truly finished work into the house and look at them. I do feel a sense of not only accomplishment, but also purpose and meaning.
One of the challenges of the "show circuit" is that in order to be successful and have really good shows... you have to have the art on hand to support that success. That's something I learned early on (2010-2013ish)* and now I try to maintain about 300-400 pieces on hand at all times. Sounds like a lot, I know, but keep in mind it took years to build that stock... so now I have the relative luxury of just being able tto "top up" from time to time.
Sounds like you know what you need to do. Also sounds like there's an advantage in having only one main product, once you know your market. I used to do craft shows when the kids were little but I made a variety of stuff. Something would sell at one show so I'd top up my stock and then it wouldn't sell at all at the next one. 😂
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