Image is of a zombie turkey, courtesy of biomek on DeviantArt.
By Terri
Both Ariela and I are exhausted from Thanksgiving eating and traveling. We hope you enjoyed your time spent with friends and/or family, and that you were not called upon for too much emotional labor.
A regular blog post will go up on Wednesday. After that, back to our usual schedule!
By Terri
Image shows a chibi Ariela under a pile of boxes and cardboard tubes saying "a little help, please..."
Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, which means that the $_WINTERHOLIDAY shopping season will soon begin in earnest.* As such, we wish to make you aware of the purchasing deadlines we will be using to make sure that you (or the recipients) receive your purchases in time for a timely gifting. Unfortunately, we do not possess a time machine, so we are unable to ensure Diwali gifts arrive on time. If someone could hook us up with with the TARDIS Express folks, we'll get right on that.
As per our FAQ, we generally ship USPS First Class. That requires the item be mailed by December 20th to guarantee delivery. In order to give Ariela adequate processing time, we will require the orders to be placed by December 14th to make sure that there is enough time to get things printed, matted and shipped to you.
*Seasonal creep is not a thing here at Geek Calligraphy. Even I, a longtime fan of holiday music, will not begin to listen to it until the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Image shows a grumpy chibi version of Terri tapping her foot, and staring at calendar largely blocked out by holidays. She is saying "Sensible design, my left foot."
By Terri
Your friendly neighborhood artist/calligrapher and her wrangler will be taking the entire month of October off. That solar month is overly stuffed with the fall Jewish holidays. As both of us are observant of the restrictions that these holidays bring with them, that makes it difficult to keep to our usual blogging and product release schedule, let alone any commissions that might come in.
So while you may see Tweets and the occasional Facebook post when we feel something needs to be shared, this blog is going to be quiet. While we will be taking orders for prints and greeting cards, they may be slower to ship than usual. We probably* will not be taking ketubah orders for the entire month. There will be no new products released in October. We hope you find the month enjoyable.
See y'all in November!
*Obviously emergency ketubah situations do arise and we will make our best effort (with applicable rush charges) to meet your needs in that case.
by Terri
Since we appear to have declared September to be Artist's Rights Month, I wanted to do a example* of the commission process gone right.
Full Disclaimer. I am the one requesting the commission from the artist in question. I have been friends with Ariela as well as a handicrafter myself for long enough that I fully appreciate how much work and effort goes into custom anything. I Get It, and tailor my expectations accordingly.
I knit a lot, and have fallen fair down the rabbit hole of interchangeable knitting needle sets.** As such, I need a case to hold all the various parts so that they don't get lost all over the house. I outgrew the binder that came with my first set*** about two years ago, though I pushed it to its absolute limit. Knowing that other people had success with worm binders, I purchased one from Bass Pro.**** Once I'd overstuffed it with my needles and cables, I realized that I didn't care for it at all. It would work as an interim piece and I would wait until some room in the budget opened up for something nicer.
I happened to come into a bit of fun money due to a survey, and decided now was the time. I approached Grace Fross, of Graces Cases on Etsy. Thankfully, this is relatively easy to do, although you are stuck in a proprietary messaging system.***** I had seen one of her products that I hoped could be adapted to better suit my needs. I also had seen something else that might have worked, and I could show her pictures of that. Both of these things will be important later.
While I opened the conversation with something relatively short, it referenced an existing product and how it might be adapted:
| me: | Would you be interested in making a $_STYLE style case, but with more pages? |
| Grace Fross: | Both the Standard and deluxe cases have more pages including a page for 2 sets of tips. But if you were thinking of a different layout then we do take custom orders. |
Once I knew that a custom piece was a possibility, I was able to further elaborate what I wanted:
| me: | I was looking for something that can store enough tips for 4+ sets of needles plus cables. I'm willing to pay custom prices. Something with as many pages as a Deluxe, but with the internal layout of the Tips Too. |
| Grace Fross: | We do lots of custom orders in a wide variety of layouts. There are a few restrictions though because sewing machines will only go through a certain number of layers. Custom orders have a wait list of around 10 - 12 weeks and there is a 20% surcharge. With custom you can select from fabrics I have on hand or supply your own in addition to a layout designed to fit your needles. |
| me: | The restrictions and surcharge are reasonable and understandable. So is the waiting list. |
Note the bolded text. I agreed up front to whatever Grace wanted to charge me for her work, before she even quoted me her terms. This might not always be the case for someone seeking a commission. If you don't know what the baseline price is, don't commit like I did. But I had an idea of what the general prices were based on the items in her Etsy shop, and was willing to pay up to half again as much for something that worked for me. Knowing what you can and are willing to spend is an important part of any custom commission. Also note that Grace was up front with the waiting list and pricing for custom work. I was able to make a decision about whether or not I could afford the work before anyone had expended time, effort or money. If I hadn't been willing to pay or wait, I would have responded as follows:
| me: | Thank you for your time. I'm sorry, but I don't think that this is going to fit within my current budget or time constraints. |
| me: | Do you require a deposit? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grace Fross: | No deposit needed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grace Fross: | If you haven't heard from me by the end of this week, please remind me |
That delightful surprise was an important part of an artist's responsibility to communicate clearly. Without that, I would have happily waited, but with it I knew things would be speeding up a little.
Now I will sing Ms. Fross's praises, as she truly is the Fabric Whisperer. I mentioned that I like purple, and she came up with this gorgeous batik fabric for me:
Anyone who knows me well knows just how much I jumped up and down when I saw this.
At this point, further snippets of back and forth conversation would just devolve into jargon about what I wanted. Which, again, demonstrates communication. I was able to point Grace to another Etsy listing to demonstrate some particulars of what I wanted. Once she saw that, she was able to let me know that she would try to get it finished soon, but she did have a show that she needed to finish her inventory for. And once again, she checked in with me on the pricing, now that she was able to have precise numbers for me.
All of these things were laid out BEFORE any work was completed. All told, only a couple of hours in back and forth time were spent (which, had I not gone with this, would have been time not recompensed). And in the end, everyone was happy. I got what I wanted, Grace Fross was paid fairly. And that's a commission gone right.
*I ramble. The post won't be short.
**This was my first set. I have since discovered another company that uses the same manufacturer (cross-compatibility FTW) and am completely powerless in the face of pretty wood.
***Alas, it no longer ships with that binder. Nor do they make that binder any longer. Hence the need for something else.
****Yes, the sort you buy for storing fishing lures. Yes, this means I'll never stop getting Bass Pro catalogs. I've somewhat resigned myself to it.
*****Ms. Fross would like you to know that customers can also approach her via her email address at the GracesCases website.
My job title in this business is Manager, specifically Business Manager/Artist Wrangler. My personal business cards read "Knitting Instructor & Artist Wrangler*" But that's an incredibly vague term that conjures up images of Ariela in a Lasso of Truth and doesn't really describe what I do or how I learned how to do it.
I began working at The Judaica House in early 2006. Early on I was tasked with re-inventorying many of the special order items that they carry, such as personalized benchers** (yes, that's pronounced like the thing you sit on followed by the sound you use when you can't find a word), yarmulkes for imprinting and personalized ketubot from various artists (among them, Ariela's former employers). Over several years of employment, I developed relationships with some of the artists we carried and learned a whole lot about how the business works. The personalization form you fill out if you order a ketubah from us? It's a hybrid of the form I used to use at work and the one the Caspis use. My initial proofreading skills came from doing the final check on any ketubah before it went to the customer. And boy did I have to chase down a lot of rabbis. Why? Because before we would send the personalization information to any artist, that information needed to be verified by the wedding officiant.*** That led to me ranting to Ariela during May of 2009:
clearly, it must be wedding season
either that or Rabbi season, because all I seem to be doing is hunting them
Some time later, the following sketch arrived in the mail:
The giant kippah *really* makes this sketch. If you look carefully, you can see where Elmer used to be wearing a black hat.
[Image shows a pencil sketch of Elmer Fudd on the phone, wearing a kippah, holding forms. Text declares "Be vewwy vewwy QUIET. We'we hunting WABBIS...."]
So I amassed a set of incredibly specialized skills over the course of my employment (proofreading, how to get what you want from an artist without making them cranky, dogged persistence in tracking down officiants). I learned what sorts of designs appeal to the standard Jewish consumer vs. the geeky ones. And most importantly, I developed a deep and close friendship with an artist who wanted to start a calligraphy business.
I stopped working full time at The Judaica House in 2010. By then, Ariela was living in New York City and was steadily taking commissions for ketubot.**** I was her on-tap proofreader for these (I even did one over email), and we began to banter back and forth about Ariela quitting her day job. It was all pipe dreams, even in 2012 when we established that I would be the business manager. It wasn't until 2013 that I actually started doing Business Manager type things (mostly attempting to adjust unreasonable expectations from clients - something I still do).
But, you insist, none of this answers the question in the blog post title! So what is it that I do?
I proofread texts when possible (not being local to Ariela makes it trickier), answer wholesale inquiries, rein in Ariela's runaway impulses, respond to certain types of client inquiries, come up with product lines, track down phone numbers for licensing departments,***** make sure Ariela meets her deadlines, write many of our product release blog posts, serve as a sounding board, and generally act as the first line of defense for anything that keeps Ariela from being able to Do Art. I smile and nod at calligraphy details, keep our products within scope (and just slightly subversive), act as a font of completely useless knowledge, track down frames at thrift stores, make sure Ariela doesn't take on too much, tweet and share things on Facebook that are relevant to the business, and write long rants on our blog when fandom needs a good swift kick in the pants. Since that doesn't fit on a business card, you get Artist Wrangler instead.
*Unfortunately they went to print before I could get "professional killjoy" added to them
**Small prayerbooks or laminated cards containing the Grace After Meals and other assorted pre and post meal prayers for the Sabbath and Holidays.
***We ask for your officiant's contact information for this very reason (also, if we have any questions we can avoid asking you them during what is a busy and stressful time for you).
****Our friends did persist in getting married.
*****It's amazing how much easier it is to contact the people in charge of Star Wars licenses now that Disney owns Lucasfilm.
To inform you that things are going to look a little different around here. When we launched, it was with a new product release every other week. Ariela had a bunch of greeting cards on deck, and the other products on our schedule didn't seem too much.
Fast forward a few months. We've added 2 professional oaths, several greeting cards and a ketubah to our product line. Ariela has stopped talking to me about how magical and wonderful art is.* She went to WisCon, and ran up against a project she really wanted to have ready in time. So it was time to have a reality check. Slowing down was in order.
As friends who are business partners, sometimes there is a push-pull that you have to walk very carefully. When your best friend is creative and driven, sometimes you have to talk her down from the ledge. It's easier with me - when I get startitis, I end up with several more in-progress projects, but I'm not tearing my hair out, nor is knitting making me unhappy. When Ariela has an attack of "Be Productive," it can end up with too many things on her plate at one time. So we're clearing the plate some.
Starting this month, we'll be ratcheting down to one product release a month.** This should hopefully give Ariela room to do her scribal practice, the occasional commission, Geek Calligraphy products AND her day job. If that works successfully, we'll stick with it. If it doesn't, we'll revisit it in a few months.
*That sounds fluffy and silly, but when Ariela is happy with her art, she is talkative about it.
**With the right to add a simple second product if I think Ariela can cope
This blog post is full of spoilers for the most recent issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers. This is a monthly comic that is expected to play out over the course of the next year and is not directly connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ready for the spoilers and the fury? Here we go.
Well, they've gone and done it again. In the name of drama and selling comic books, Marvel has let Nick Spencer retcon Captain America into a lifelong HYDRA sleeper agent. That's right, the man created by Jews to punch Hitler in the face and shame the US for our lack of involvement in Europe in WWII has been secretly a Nazi all along! Psych!
As has been pointed out by other writers, I understand that "mysteriously evil all along, but don't worry we'll fix it" twists are common common book tropes.* I understand that Cap won't be evil forever. And Captain America isn't even really evil. I have been reliably informed that Red Skull is implanting false memories and/or reality has been warped by the tesseract which is now embodied as a young girl. So the character that the MCU has taught me to love,** who stands up as the image of what America should be has now been warped beyond recognition by outside powers. Which, yes, has happened before.*** Superman's been evil, **** as have any number of good characters in the history of comics. Retcons and massive plot twists and life model decoys and secretly a clone and on and on and on. But something is different about this.
Most of what's bothering both me and Ariela has already been well articulated by others. Ursula Vernon had a detailed rant on twitter and Jessica Plummer wrote an article for PANELS that sum up both parts of what bother us. Ursula writes about the nature of heroes and what stories we want to hear from them. Plummer talks about retconning a character created by Jews in response to Nazis as having been a Nazi all along. They've said it better than I realistically can, and you should read their words.
As Jewish geek content creators, we feel that this is spitting in the faces of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. Which brings me to the point that Heidi MacDonald made. Yes, Kirby drew Cap saluting to Hitler while being controlled by Red Skull. But that was a choice Kirby made, and it was resolved quickly. It didn't rewrite the entire history of the character for however long this story plays out. We feel that this was a shameless ploy and publicity stunt it could have been done in many other ways that didn't require the erasure of all that Captain America has ever meant to those he has stood up for.
And lastly, for those counseling us to "let the story play out" and to "not judge a 240 page book by the first 40 pages" - you mean to tell me that you've never once picked up a book and put it down after flipping through the first chapter? You've never found a doorstop size novel offensive before you've gotten through 20 some odd pages? I have. I've taken books back to the library before finishing them. I never did make it through the first season of Game of Thrones. I've returned audiobooks before finishing them. Books have not left the bookstore after I've decided they didn't need to come home with me. That's my right as a media consumer - I can decide what I find offensive and choose not to read or endorse it.
*I also think that they're lazy tropes, but they're part of the comic book landscape and thus are valid in and of themselves.
**Yes, I'm more of a movie fan than a strict comics fan. That doesn't invalidate my position one teensy bit.
***I'll get to the Heidi MacDonald point in a minute.
****I really shouldn't bring Superman up in this discussion, as it will cause me to go off on an even longer rant about stripping the Jewish roots from comic book characters and why Zac Snyder shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a comic book franchise with a camera and script... Oh look, I've done that. Maybe another time.
While Ariela had both a Rainbow Loom and the bands to use with it back in Chicago, we decided that it would be best to contrast the knitted prototypes with a Rainbow Loom prototype. So I borrowed one from a family with 9 year olds and grabbed some bands at our favorite local kids store.
After testing the quill cozies, we moved on to the Rainbow Loom. For those reading without medium* children, a Rainbow Loom (or its generic equivalent) is a device designed to hook small colored rubber bands together to make various objects. Generally these objects are bracelet-like, but apparently Ariela had found some instructions for making pencil grips on the internet and we went with it.
Creating a grip over the quill. It's an interesting process.
I had assumed that the yarn venture would have been a lark, and the grippiness** of plastic would win out. The fact that yarn can absorb ink and plastic can't seemed to be another point in its favor. However, Ariela feels that the plastic one would end up getting very sweaty. And since she's the ultimate user of the product, her comfort is one of the most important factors.
Testing... Testing... Good concept, but not right for the end user.
Next up will be seeing the revisions to the knitted prototype!
*7-10 years old is the target demographic. That age no longer qualifies as small, in my opinion.
**Technical term
Facebook can get both Ariela and me into a lot of trouble. To wit:
| Ariela Housman: |
Dear Chicago Facefriends with children. Would any of your kids be willing to let me use their Rainbow Loom for a 20 minute project? I will supply my own bands and happily let them have the extras in exchange. (My quill is narrower than an average pencil and therefore kinda uncomfortable to hold for long periods. And also therefore too narrow for a store-bought pencil grip to be of any use. The interwebs informs me it is easy peasy to make a pencil grip with a Rainbow Loom. Hence asking. #CalligrapherProblems) |
| Jen Taylor Friedman: | Wow. I've always just sort of wadded up masking tape. Rainbow Loom is a MUCH better idea. |
| Ariela: | The other suggestion the Interwebs furnished was foam roller curlers. Downside being that the foam squooshes lots. But I do have those on hand. I tried it. Works okay, but I am still interested in trying the rainbow loom trick with gel bands. I could color code my quills by size that way! |
| Ariela: | Behold the silliness. |
| Jen: | Heh. Yes that is Quite Silly. |
| Jen: | You should get Terri Ash to knit you something. |
| Ariela: | I'm not making Terri knit me a Quill Cozy. |
| Terri Ash: | Quill cozies.... Hrm. I suppose the simplest method would be to knit a rectangle and seam it into a tube. Should it be ribbed for grippiness? |
| Ariela: | Also, the elastic will help it both fit and grip better. And I want Terri to continue to like me, so asking her to knit with elastic is probably right out. |
| Jen: | I think the problem is that the quill is so narrow that if you used yarn that was thick enough to make a good finger grip, you'd have like 3 stitches, and it wouldn't make a very good seam. |
| Ariela: | Yah, that. Laceweight won't increase the diameter enough, and that's what you'd have to use. |
| Terri: | You could do it width wise with 4 rows in DK or worsted, leaving the cast on edge live and graft the top to the bottom. |
| Jen: | This is why it'd be a Terri-worthy challenge :) |
| Terri: | Now I feel like I need to do this, just to prove it's doable |
| Jen: | Terri blame me not Ariela |
| Ariela: | Things you never thought would be part of your job description. |
| Terri: | Jen - I'm totally blaming you. Ariela - I think it falls under the subset of artist-wrangling. |
| Ariela: | One of these days we really will have to write out a list of responsibilities entailed in Artist Wrangling, if only for the entertainment value. |
| Terri: | Mostly it involves a lot of "Ariela, NO" |
| Liz Shayne: | Wouldn't the alternative be just knit an icord? |
| Terri: | You could do that. I may have to try out a couple of options. After being told that it's about creating bulk though, I feel garter is what's called for, and that makes icord tricky. |
At first I thought that it might be best to try making a small rectangle and seam it into a tube. But after Liz suggested I use i-cord, the wheels started turning. Ariela told me that it needed bulk, and garter stitch is the best way to get that. Garter stitch in the round is tricky, all the more so when you're making a teeny-tiny tube. But I hunted up some scrap yarn and the correct size needles and made a couple of samples.
Leftover sock yarn held double
Random yarn sample (I *think* it's DK weight)
I started with the sample on the left, which is a self striping sock yarn held double knit on US size 7 needles. Even while knitting, I felt this one was very squooshy.* After testing, my assumptions were confirmed - it wasn't going to work.
Testing,,, Testing... too squooshy
The second sample was some stiffer wool that I had lying around. I knit that one on US size 6 needles. According to Ariela, this one is actually usable**, but she has some requests for the next prototype. It needs to be one stitch narrower, and probably knit on yet smaller needles. I'm planning on doing another sample out of the blue wool with the proposed modifications, but we're well on the way to a standard pattern for a useable item. This is really cool, because it didn't exist a week ago and now it does.
Testing... Testing... Needs work, but much better.
Check back next week for the results of the Rainbow Loom experiments!
*Technical term
**You can tell this in the sample image - it has its ends woven in and everything