|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Looking to get a tattoo? Not sure about the cost of the tattoo? You should be aware that the price of a new tattoo varies greatly and does not start cheap. Demand for tattoos has increased the number of tattoo artists available but is not more than the demand for them so the prices hold steady or even increase. It's expensive to get a tattoo, but it will last forever. How many products or services can say that today? That brings up an important point however, that your choice in a tattoo artist should not be based on cost but rather it should be based on the safety and quality of the tattoo professional.
Tattoo artists make their money usually in one of two manners. Either the tattoo artist will charge by the hour or by the job performed. Keep in mind there are often minimum charges for any work done, so make sure you get what you want and not just the smallest design available. Tattoo artists that charge by the hour average between seventy-five and one hundred fifty dollars per hour, some high demand tattoo artists will obviously charge even more. Most tattoos will have a base line around fifty dollars and can go up into the thousands of dollars over several tattoo sessions, depending on the tattoo design. A base is necessary even for the very small tattoos done since the cost and preparation of the equipment must be factored in.
Cost dependent factors include the location of the tattoo, the intricate details of the design, how many colors are used, the size, custom vs. copy or the time needed to complete the design. The location effects cost in that some places are easier to tattoo than others, for example a smooth shoulder is easier than the curvy lower back and requires the artist to go slower and take care in adapting to the shape in the body while placing the ink. The more details of a design is a rather obvious increase in cost, since more details will require more time to be spent on the image created. Colors affect the price of a tattoo, not in comparison to a black or gray image as some think, but how much color or how many colors will be needed for the art.
More coloring again requires more time on the design and the more variety in colors raises cost and time spent on the artist's part. The size of a tattoo is another obvious cost increase as the design gets larger, which takes more time in inking the design to skin. Custom work will require the artist to take time to create, draw and adjust the image even before the design is applied to the skin. An image copied from a printed image will be much cheaper than custom work since it is less labor-intensive.
Please do not focus on the cost as much as the quality and safety of the business and artist that performs the tattoo work. It is your decision on where that line between quality and cost meet. Some tattoo artists will do above average work but will cost a lot more for their talent too. Other tattoo parlors may charge very little in the standards of the tattoo industry but their work will be below average and even dangerous if they do not practice safe handling and sanitizing methods. It all depends on your final result and in the tattoo industry you really do get what you pay for. |
|
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
While marble and bronze have a historically been the preferred medium for sculptors, new techniques in the use and shaping of steel have made it one of the best mediums for the modern sculptor to use. Steel is, it goes without saying, strong. It is also easy to maintain and the gloss of its finish lasts and does not dull with age. It needs little maintenance and is able to capture delicate detailing and nuances. In the delicacy of its use, the sculptor is able to use it as precisely and the painter uses his brush.
Steel sculpture came into being at the hands of artists born at the beginning of the 20th century. These sculptors would adopt and modify European modernism in such a dramatic fashion that they developed a style of their own. These artists approached sculpture from a painte’s point of view rather than a sculptor’s and found meaning and beauty in industrial products and the use creation of geometric designs and abstract shapes. For them, steel was the material of choice. They understood that steel could replace not just the lines and planes of marble, iron and even wood, but give the finished work of art a power and presence no other material could match.
Steel sculpture opened the doors to new concepts. The size of the sculpture was now limited only be the imagination of the sculptor. And since steel was immune to effects of weather, large outdoor sculptures became common. These were not just pieces for private collections and galleries, but were made for public places. Steel sculptures could now be commissioned by municipal authorities for public plazas, parks, airports and buildings. The availability of public finds for commissioning large sculptures gave a huge fillip to the genre of steel sculpting.
Steel sculpting also ceased to be purely the work of the artist, although the artistic values were not lost. An example of this is Picasso’s 1967 creation of a huge head of a woman in steel. This was done in Chicago and the complete piece was fabricated at a steel company that was located near the city by skilled industrial steelworkers who were able to use the company’s equipment to raise, cut, weld, bend and shape enormous pieces of heavy steel together to create the final sculpture using based on the small model the artist had created for them to work with.
Although steel sculpture became popular in the years following World War II, most universities and art school did not have the expertise or equipment to teach steel sculpting. However, by the 1970s, the popularity of the art form had created such a demand that these institutions were able to not just procure the equipment needed to teach this art form but were also were able to bring in teachers with the experience and skill to assist in the birth of a new generation of sculptors who had both an understanding of steel as a material and the skill to create with it.
Today, steel is the preferred material for large outdoor and very often, government commissioned sculptures. |
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
A Coppersmith is an artisan who works with cooper and because of the color of the metal, is also often known as a “redsmith.”
The basic technique of copper sculpting has not changed for hundreds of year. The shaping of the metal is done by hammering it into the desired shape. But copper is a brittle metal and if subjected to hammer force when cold, may easily crack or split. To prevent this from happening the copper is heated in a forge until it becomes malleable. Once it is soft, it can be shaped with no danger of cracking.
The heated metal is placed over specially shaped anvils and hammered into shape. The normal starting point for making small item like jugs and vases is to make a bucket shape and then, by using hammers of different sizes and head shapes, create the final object. Surface polishing is usually done with a smooth faced hammer, although unpolished finishes carrying a rough hammered look are also very popular.
High quality copper metal art is made out of ingots of copper rather than thin sheets of the metal. This is far more difficult but allows for greater variation in the thickness of different facets of the finished pieces - for example a jug would normally have a thicker base that the sides. An easy way of knowing how the metal art was created is to look at the edges of the piece. Thick rounded edges indicate that the art was created from an ingot – items created with sheets of copper will have the thin flat edges of the original sheet metal.
Modern techniques allow copper smith metal art to be created in shapes of almost unlimited size. A modern copper smith may use multiple sheets or/or ingots to creates components of the sculpture which are then welded together using high tech methods like Tig welding.
The coppersmith has the option of giving his art work different types of finish. The natural color of copper, which varies form red to a chocolate brown or a bright finish with dark streaks. The nature of the basic finish is dependant on the forging process and even slight variations in the heat or the composition of the metal means that even two identical pieces heated in the same forge will have variations in their natural finish. Since this may affect the appearance of work created by the welding together of multiple pieces, the coppersmith may buff off the natural patina and create a bright polished effect that will be identical for all the pieces to be assembled.
Copper decorative art work often has brightly color or even semi precious stones embedded in it to enhance its appeal. The coppersmith also has the option of adding silver inlay work to the surfaces by first etching his design onto the surface and then dipping the pieces in an electrically charged vat containing sliver. The electrical charge fuses the silver and copper together. A final polish will remove any excess silver from the surface, leaving it behind only in the etched grooves. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Page 3 of 20 |
