Happy Nakama

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Changes in the Wind

I'm so sorry that it's been ages since my last update, but we have been diligently working on projects, discovering some new talents and art forms.. and thinking about the best way to present each of our unique artistic gifts to our audience.

Hermie has taken over full writing responsibility on the multiple Wandering Stars Press series' working their way to publication. She has also taken up crocheting ponies! (My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic has become our new very favourite thing! Lol) We were pretty shocked when she just announced watching me sew my pony plushies one day “I think I'll crochet a pony!” I was really surprised how great her first try turned out. You can check out her DJ Pon-3 here.

Nevi has been working more on her art now that she has more time to create. She also has been inspired to add MLP artwork to her repertoire with the beginning of a MLP-themed tarot deck (major arcana only at this point) based on Twilight Sparkle's journey.

As for me, I've made a couple of couples – Sam & Michael (Burn Notice) and Ban & Ginji (Getbackers) - on commission and finished my first MLP Cuddle Buddy, Pinkie Pie! I've got a couple more commissions on deck, as well as my next pony, Twilight Sparkle. Plus a couple of other projects I'm tossing around.

And those changes I mentioned? It has occurred to me, as the marketing/ social networking/ general internetting person, that it might make building our online presence (galleries, blogs, etc.) simpler for our followers if I separated my artwork from Nevi's. My thinking (and she agreed) is that we might not necessarily share the bulk of our fans, as her work can be very different from mine, and it might not serve those fans to combine all our work and make them wade through things they're not interested in seeing. So with that in mind, I will be working over the next couple weeks to make up the necessary pages for both of us. In some cases there will be whole new pages to follow, in others it will just mean a change of name and focus. When the whole process is complete I will post another blog detailing where to go to find what you're looking for. Hopefully that will be simpler and more convenient for us all. :)

~Seth

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Happy Nakama

Schwoopie Towne

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Fairy Festival Leftovers

We couldn't have asked for better weather for the Fairy Festival! Well.. there was a tiny spot of rain on Saturday, but thankfully we had an inside spot, so we were safe. I felt kinda bad for some of the outside vendors between the spit of rain and the wind kept trying to take out their tents! We met this great lady, Pam, and her friend (whose name I can't remember unfortunately). She makes handmade belly-dancing costumes & her stuff is really beautifull. I wish she had a website to point you to, but I can't find one. ):

We did end up with some leftovers after our festival weekend. I've got a few dragons & a couple witches left. Myke's got a couple of necklaces that we took home. And Nevi & I both still have a few art prints left for sale. I'm working on getting those uploaded, so they will be available to you soon! The dolls are up now on our Etsy if you want to check them out.

Hermie & Nevi are working on Inertia: Book One in their Camp Nano this month. We're hoping to have our first book from Wandering Stars Press available to you by July! Keep the encoragement coming and together we'll keep them motivated!

I've got some more dragons on the way, as well as some commissions that I'm working on that I can hopefully share with you soon.

Busy! Busy! Busy! I'll do my best to keep you guys updated – at least once a month, I promise, unless there are special announcements to share.

~Seth

Don't forget to check out our links:

our Etsy store

Happy Nakama

Schwoopie Towne

And don't forget to 'like' us on Facebook!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Fairy Festival Update

We're so excited to be prepping for the 4^th Annual Fairy Festival at Witchy Wearables! It's June 2-3^rd. I can't wait! (It will actually be the start of my vacation from both my “day” jobs, so I'm extra excited! lol)

We've been cranking out some beautifull colour art prints to share. Nevi's been painting like crazy. And I've had scraps of fabric flying all over the house trying to get some dolls made. I just finished my first ever Schwoopie doll – she's a little mismatched witch and I just love her! Myke's working on some handmade books assembled with his woodburned covers. I really hope he can get them finished in time for the festival because they're gonna be gorgeous. We've also got some of his jewelry to take along.

I think it's gonna be a really great weekend! Lots more to do, tho, before then and only a couple weeks to get it done... so back to work! Just wanted to give you all a little update from our studio.

~Seth

Don't forget to check out our links:

our Etsy store

Happy Nakama

Schwoopie Towne

And don't forget to 'like' us on Facebook!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

So! It's been a pretty busy week around here!

Hermie's got two tarot readings coming up – one a return client from last year (now that's a nice surprise!) She's been just writing and writing like crazy – she's cranking out like 2,000 words a day. That's just awesome. I can't wait to read some more of this soon.

Nevi's got a double commission in the works. She's making fairy paintings from photos of two little girls for their birthday celebration. Won't that be wonderfull! I can just see their little eyes shining.. She's also still working on her other projects – the Spirit Squirrel tarot and my Schwoopie tarot, some Christmas commissions, and she's got some totally adorable Christmasy carousel ponies that I cannot wait to share with you!

I've got multiple Christmas commissions that I'm working on myself (5 dolls!) so that's keeping me pretty busy around the mundane job stuff. I'm also in the process of re-drawing some of the older Schwoopie tarot pictures with the wonderfull new tools that the Bamboo lets me use on the computer. Don't worry, they're still completely my style. I'm not gonna go all crazy digital or anything, I'm just enjoying the little extra details that I can add to my pieces now. And it's much easier to change and rework parts of the picture when you're making it digitally. Nevi and I have both been learning that digital art is not the enemy if you just remember that it's your artwork and you're just using the computer to make it easier, that it doesn't have to change your style at all.

I'm thinking about trying out a new style of doll, which I'm really excited about. And I've already got some really cute Christmas-themed Schwoopie ideas in my head that I can hopefully get finished and posted for the holidays... wish I could come up with something Thanksgiving-themed, but there's really not a lot to work with there.

Draegon's working on some new jewelry. Sadly, there aren't any pictures of his work posted yet because we've had the worst time finding the right lighting for his necklaces, but we think we might have sorted the problem out and, hopefully, I'll have some of his things up soon to share.

The only downside to all this productivity is that Owen (the adorable orange furball that followed Hermie & Nevi home a couple weeks ago) seems to be terribly codependent and isn't taking well to everyone being so busy with things besides watching tv and playing with him! LOL

~Seth

Don't forget to check out our links:

our Etsy store

Happy Nakama

Schwoopie Towne

And don't forget to 'like' us on Facebook!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Updates!

Here's a sneak peek at the newest stuff in our Happy Nakama store on Zazzle:

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

I'm really blown away by how many options Zazzle has for products you can customize! I mean clothes, prints, cards – you expect all that – but ipod cases, skateboards, sneakers, even speakers! Just wow.. how is it tho that with all those options there is still no journal? :(

I did some checking into CafePress again for the 1^st time in ages (because they're the site that has custom journals) and discovered that they now have all kinds of other products that Zazzle doesn't offer. So I might just have to re-open the CafePress store as well. We want to give our fans as many product options as possible, you know!

Nevi finished another card in her Spirit Squirrel Oracle. I'm pretty sure that's 3 now and working on the 4^th card. They're really gorgeous. We've only got one uploaded so far and that's The Hermit. She's nearly done with The Emperor as well & it's just stunning. It's gonna be a really beautifull deck when it's finished. She's got ideas for a couple more tarot/oracle decks, but she hasn't quite worked out yet which ones she really wants to work on, so we'll keep you posted there! Also she's submitted some work to another contest, so we'll see how that goes – wish her luck!

I got a bunch of new things uploaded to Happy Nakama's Deviant Art Gallery! Lysen & Nevi (who are from Inertia Gaiden), this stunning piece featuring Skye & Reggie at the piano (which is actually 4 separate paintings that, when hung together, make one huge, gorgeous painting), Ran & Robbie. There were more, but I'm not gonna do all the work for you! lol

Oh! Don't forget to check out our custom doll auction on Ebay. It runs out tomorrow night! I'm open to any character (anime, tv, movies), any actor or musician, your Aunt Martha, anyone really! I've got pictures of some of my other dolls up on Deviant Art so you can check out my work.

Hermie is in the throws of NaNoWriMo at the moment. She's just banging away at those keys! She's run right past the Day 8 total of words to have done & she's only on Day 6! And wow the work she's doing – like crazy good! Keep cranking out the ~~porn~~ brilliant fiction, Hermie! We can't wait to read everything!

~Seth

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Don't forget to check out our links:

our Etsy store

Happy Nakama

Schwoopie Towne