07 Jan
I had a really great thing happen just before Christmas…
On the 23rd of December, in the late afternoon, I got a call from California. I almost ignored it because a lot of times, random calls from California or Utah or Nevada, etc wind up being credit card come-ons or something. I answered it anyway…glad I did. It was a girl from the Orange County Film Festival and this year for their Festival, they chose a steampunk theme. They explained that they were looking for airships in particular and had been looking locally and online and couldn’t find anything, and they were getting worried since their Red Carpet Event was being held on January4th. That’s when they found Artsmith Craftworks! They had been looking at the pics I’ve been posting, and they were interested in the Diabolus and the large double engine Victorian.
Airship Diabolus
Victorian double engine
Needless to say, I was happy to help them make their event a big success! This meant, however, that I had to rush to get it out and the timing was a worry. Afterall, this was the Monday before Christmas! So the heat was on…
I got home and at 9pm, I was taking their credit card payment for the two airships and talking about shipping arrangements. They were going to set up the shipping on their end, but I needed to prepare the airships for transport, which meant building crates for them. Now, I’m pretty handy, but I’ve never built a crate before, and certainly not under these time constraints. I also really didn’t have a shed or building to build these crates in, which meant I had to pull things together even faster because, I had to drive to my mother’s place an hour and a half away to use her barn.
So after quickly putting together an extra stand so I had two, and taking seats out of my mini van, I carefully carried each airship out to my van, walking on ice and with snow blowing at midnight… By the time I had gathered all needed tools, supplies and personals, I left, arriving at my mother’s place at 2:30am.
I went immediately to bed, knowing that Christmas Eve day was going to be very, very busy!
More to come…please stay tuned…
Stephan J. Smith is the artist and sculptor at Artsmith Craftworks in Swartz Creek, MI. Using recycled and repurposed materials, Stephan builds a myriad of sculpted wonders, including fantastic and whimsical steampunk airships that have amazed and delighted fans for years. A passion for reusing and upcycling found items into beautiful and amazing art is what drives Stephan to make art that both teaches and inspires. Stephan also does commissioned work and is available to do talks and classes on repurposing/upcycling and may be reached at ArtSmithCraft@yahoo.com or by phone at 810-516-7381.