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    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

    Craft Works - Let's Get Creative!

    General Chat
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    • ?
      A Former User
      Joined:

      Great question, @Finn666, I'm happy to provide more detail, thanks for asking!  The short answer is that I'm spending way way way too much money on my materials, papers, pencils, pastels, blenders, sharpeners (I will never tell what sharpener I use because they are discontinued and I have been hoarding them for years  ;D) and varnishes.  It's all money out of pocket, but I do it for the love of the handmade and unique.  I just want to make things I think are useful.  So I work clever odd jobs to keep me alive barely.  Starving artists are real!  Per month, it's probably half my rent, ~500, if I went full on artist-mode doing it all day everyday, it would easily be around $1000+/month.

      Primarily, I use two types of colored pencils. There are exceptions, but the two I use are the Faber-Castell Polychromos, and the Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901. These two are by far the highest quality lightfast color available. The Polychromos are my workhorses at $1.75-2.50/pencil depending on if I buy In bulk or locally, and the 6901's are my finishers at $3.80-4.50/pencil.  The amount of pencils I have been going through lately is staggering, but that's a good thing!! 😉

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      • ?
        A Former User
        Joined:

        Here's a pic of just the pencils I've completely worn down over the last two months. These are all now too small to fit into my manual sharpener.  The colorful ones are the Faber-Castell, and the ones with the cedar wood are the Caran d'Ache.  I included a full size pencil for reference.

        last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • GilesG
          Giles
          IHUK Crew
          Joined:

          That's a work of art right there.  Adam, you mount them on a decent piece of card in a "random" arrangement, and I'll buy it there and then…...

          "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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          • ?
            A Former User
            Joined:

            Marvelous idea, G!  This will definitely happen  :-*, don't know when though  8).  I think it can improve….I got some ideas...maybe call it "The Special G Pencil Version"  😉

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            • Finn666F
              Finn666
              Joined:

              thanks a ton for the insight @adam313 looks really spectacular what you´re doing there and some sort of "peaceful" to set your mind right somehow. so what sharpeners are you using now? 😉 😉 😉

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              • veloaudioV
                veloaudio
                Raw and Unwashed
                Joined:

                @Giles:

                That's a work of art right there.  Adam, you mount them on a decent piece of card in a "random" arrangement, and I'll buy it there and then…...

                This

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                • S
                  Sage954
                  Iron Heart Deity
                  Joined:

                  @adam313  really nice work.

                  "When there is no pebble tossed"

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                  • ?
                    A Former User
                    Joined:

                    "Let there be songs to fill the air!"

                    Thank you all so much for the kind words!

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                    • S
                      Sage954
                      Iron Heart Deity
                      Joined:

                      One of my all time favorites. I get my fix now through the Professor and his Deadpod.

                      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • ?
                        A Former User
                        Joined:

                        This is on the same paper as The Purps (^^above), but it's five years older! Cotton paper ages like cotton jeans  😃 This one is still going strong, but just about to retire

                        Earlier in its evolution:

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                        • ?
                          A Former User
                          Joined:

                          The last step in the process!! Ultra-high definition imaging:

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                          • ?
                            A Former User
                            Joined:

                            The Blue is officially retired!  An IHForum exclusive one-off peace.  Here's the raw, un-cropped, minimized .jpg version (the original .tif is 600MB 😎 )

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                            • JiiJ
                              Jii
                              Joined:

                              Beautiful!

                              AIAN HA-TO!

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                              • AnesthetistA
                                Anesthetist
                                見習いボス
                                Joined:

                                Looks really great!

                                Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

                                IG: bluehandsslim

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                                • P
                                  petersmith
                                  Raw and Unwashed
                                  Joined:

                                  new cardholder

                                  last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • JCMx800J
                                    JCMx800
                                    Raw and Unwashed
                                    Joined:


                                    Saltdough

                                    Les Paul -> ProCo Rat -> Super HardOn -> JCM800 Low Input
                                    XXX

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                                    • ?
                                      A Former User
                                      Joined:

                                      Small update, added a few more layers:

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                                      • ?
                                        A Former User
                                        Joined:

                                        workin on the brown for the last studio session in Colorado. More to come in the next few weeks

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                                        • ?
                                          A Former User
                                          Joined:

                                          Shipping out The Blue today!! Over-engineered was my starting point to get it overseas safely. But UPS was not amused  😎 😠

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                                          • ?
                                            A Former User
                                            Joined:

                                            And a few framed offerings, just to provide some ultimate possibilities:

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