Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Updates and A Wonderful New Tool

I decided to take a bit of a studio break after launching my Patreon page, the building of which has taken up a lot of my time and brainpower, particularly over the past couple of weeks.  I'm SO excited to have my first patron on there already (Thank you again so very much, Katherine!) and I'm having fun getting my blog and picture sharing going over there.

One of the challenges I was having was to make a cool banner picture.  I had a vision, but was really struggling to make it work.  I stumbled across this site which has a FREE photo collage builder!  They have other photo editing tools as well, but the Collage Maker was the only one I tried.  It was an awesome find and without much trouble at all, I created this:


(another tip: the center image is actually another collage that I made, saved, and inserted into the one with the larger Japanese horse pictures)

Afterwards I went on to make a collage of pictures to advertise one of our laser products (with lots of options) and I will be going back to make many more collages I'm thinking.

Also in the update department, the response to my custom horse giveaway/incentive program is promising and exciting.  I already have a few people offering show homes to my creations and I'm very much looking forward to getting all of that up and running!

If you are interested in participating, feel free to send me an e-mail (horsetender@gmail.com), or message me on my Facebook page.

Aside from taking a minor studio break, yesterday I went back into "laser mode" for our laser cutting/engraving business, which is my "day job".  Worked on some orders, did some design work and ran the machine for a little while.  I'm still trying to work out a schedule to fit in ALL of the things.  I had thought I'd do a few hours of each (ie: laser and studio) every day, but it seems to work out better if I devote most of a day to one or the other, really get into the zone.  So maybe I'll alternate days and see how that works.

In the travel department: We have two trips coming up.  In early February we are going to the Sapporo Snow Festival.  It should be quite an adventure!  We'll be riding an "overnight ferry" to get up there, a first for me for sure.  Sapporo is on the island of Hokkaido, north of the main island, Honshu, which we are on.  I've been wanting to go to Hokkaido for quite some time, as that's where most of the Thoroughbred breeding farms are, including Big Red Farm - home of Kentucky Derby winner, I'll Have Another.  Alas, on this trip there will be no horses, since it is a guided tour we are going on.  I suppose winter is not the best time to visit anyhow.

In April we will be going back to the U.S. for a visit!  It promises to be a whirlwind tour of most of the country.  We are quite spread out, having family, friends, places to be, in just about all four corners, plus the middle - I'm talking to you, Colorado and South Dakota!

I think that about covers all of the updates on the goings on here.

Oh, yeah...  it's been SNOWING!  :D


1 comment:

  1. I love your work, on tack and on customizing models, and would take one of your customs if I showed. But if you're ever selling any of your traditional sized customs, let me know! Keep up the good work!

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