The featured seller on Sell on Etsy this week is Aaron from the wonderfully unique and artistic MuseTypes. I love these works of wearable art with their elements of yesteryear, exotic whimsy and bohemian art.

Sherlock Etching on Clay

Crane Etched Brass Pendant

Hand Drawn Clay Scrimshaw Portrait

Bio & Introduction

My name is Aaron R. Friedman. Making jewelry is a new endeavor for me, as of last year. I come from many years of 2D painting, drawing and printmaking.
In fact I have a MFA in Printmaking from University of Oregon and taught printmaking for a while many years ago. You can see my other non-jewelry art at www.arf-art.com.

When I’m not drawing or making jewelry, I make a living designing and drawing 3D high tech tools and products on the computer.  I also enjoy gardening, cooking and playing with my two pet ferrets, Luigi and Sophia.

How long have you sold on Etsy?

I’ve been selling on Etsy only since mid March, but my wife has had a shop there almost three years. She’s the one who encouraged me to set up shop.

What does selling on Etsy mean for you?

I’ve been a non-selling artist all my life. I’ve never really put much energy into the selling thing. My art has always been a means of personal expression and a way to feel connected to life. Ultimately, I would like to supplement my retirement with selling my arts and crafts. But if that doesn’t happen, it’s OK. Right now, it’s an adventure to see what is possible, as far as sales go and where working in a more commercial field takes my art.

Tell us all about your Crafts & how you came to make them!

Prior to actually creating the Etchings on Clay, I schemed for many months on how to make them. I wanted to be able to put my images into jewelry in a way that was different from everyone else. I desired to have an art piece that embraced the fine art printmaking tradition of an ‘original hand pulled print’, but mounting a paper printed etching just didn’t feel like the right approach.

Printing the etching onto polymer clay provided me with a quality finished item that exhibited the details of the images, presented a tactile porcelain like surface, and made the etching an object with substance. There was much frustration with the process. It took several months of experimentation and modification to the traditional way of printing etchings, to come up with one that worked with the clay. In the end I was very pleased with the results.

Selection of imagery for the pieces was another challenge. Naturally, I wanted images that people would be interested in buying, but I needed to also hold unto my artistic integrity. The imagery had to be detailed, challenging and hold a certain esthetic sophistication about them. It’s also here that my wife had an influence on me. She’s passionate about vintage things, particularly Victorian era. So, I spent a lot of time on-line looking at and collecting vintage posters, sheet music and photographs. I did photoshop studies, cropping them and putting them in oval frames. In the end, I came up with twenty-five different images for the Etching on Clay line.

To do the Etchings on Clay, I start by drawing the image with a sewing needle into a soft acrylic covered copper plate. After etching the exposed lines with acid and then removing the acrylic, the master plate is used to create the multiple original prints. Every etched furrow in the plate becomes an inked line on the clay pendants. Next, the image is enhanced with some selective hand painting, and then it is protected with an acrylic sealer.

I also spent a lot of time playing with patinating the brass settings and chains. I tried a lot of different things, including using garlic and even sauerkraut! I’ve pretty much have settled on just using ammonia fumes right now.

Then on my third sale, the customer asked me if I would do pieces of her grandmother and great aunt. At first I didn’t think I could do a one-off at a reasonable rate, but then I got thinking and experimented. I bypassed the making of the master etched plate and worked directly onto a blank piece of baked polymer clay. I scratched the image into the clay and filled the lines with ink, basically a Clay Scrimshaw. I did a trial piece and could not believe the results. I sent a pic to the customer and she agreed to me doing grandmother and great aunt in Clay Scrimshaw. You can see the pieces in my sold area. Pretty soon I’ll be creating a post for custom scrimshaw pieces.

Since then, I have done thirteen quick sketch Clay Scrimshaw pieces and love everyone of them. For some reason they come out with a naïve and expressive quality that I’ve been trying to achieve in my art for years.

Finally, I developed my Etched Brass line of eight pendant necklaces. I spent many months on the images and the etching process. I wanted to have a lower cost product that didn’t have polymer clay in it, for those customers who weren’t comfortable wearing clay. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on these and even a few sales.

What is it about your Craft that you’re more passionate about?

I love to create new images. In fact, doing all the leg work for the shop isn’t that much fun for me. When I’m sketching out a new idea, refining a drawing, or actually scratching the actual image into copper or clay, I’m in my groove. I also really enjoy the magic that happens when, after all the processing is done, the finished image comes to life on the clay or metal. I love it when I can sit back and say, “Wow”!

Where in the world do you call home?

I live in Portland, Oregon. I grew up in Michigan and have been here over twenty-five years.

Do you have any tips for Crafters who sell on Etsy?

Being a ‘newbie’ myself, I really don’t have any sales advice, but I will say this. Create from your heart, do your passion and live your highest creative potential.

Technorati Tags: Etsy, Etsy Know How, Sell on Etsy