Craft to Consumer: Craft Victoria

Finally, I was able to get Craft Victoria professional membership which i was putting off for numerous reasons. So the first session i attended was Craft to consumer. This information session was for emerging and established makers seeking to expand their market reach in retail sector. Gaye Naismith and Victoria Mason shared their experieneces in retail, markets and wholesale sectors.
It gave a useful insight to understand the difference between wholesale and retail markets. One really needs to know their product and its target market. Above all when dealing with retail sector, one needs to present oneself professionally-" always give an invoice and keep a detail record of your consignments".And before presenting yourself make sure you have enough stock to fulfill the demand.

My product is quite labour intensive and i can only produce limited edition range. The technique i am using is inspired from mokume-gane and I have been trying hard to make shakudo (copper and gold) and shibhuichi (copper and silver). The most difficult part is to configure how to melt copper to make alloys. Sometimes its such a pain!

GANOSKIN came to my rescue, it really has all the answers. Putting crushed charcoal besides copper helps preventing copper to absorb oxygen. I cant believe I produced 1083 degree celsius temperature and copper finally melted.

The above picture is a test piece. The black lines is shakudo ( I was so happy to see the black colour after applying patina).  I really want to call it black gold (instead of shakudo) as apart from having 4% 22ct yellow gold, it is enormously labour intensive. Now am making some more shakudo, need to get hold of the technique!