[John]

Quote:

It was deleted for copyright reasons.[quote}

quote=”purplecat”]
Now….I do agree that a company has a right to be territorial…and to protect the integrity of their work…but not at the expense of being unfair…or not allowing someone to change wording of a thread when they’ve mistakenly tread on toes. So…yeah, I share the uncomfortable feelings over this.

keeproftheflocks wrote:

I would like to point out that NO WHERE on the boards (at least that I’ve yet to find- has any one else found some?) does it say that we aren’t supposed to post sculpts like I’ve done.

I think Melody does amazing work (I’m sure we all feel this way or we wouldn’t be here!), so for now I’m going to stick around, but if we (the artists here on the boards) keep getting trod on the way they’ve already done, I’ll be leaving also. :bye:

Again, I hadn’t meant to trod on toes, but I also wont stand for foundless accusations either.

Andrea

The thread was not removed for copyright reasons as seems to be stated here. It was removed because it appeared to us that it was posted not to share a members artwork but to solicit sales of a member’s products. It also contained language that was taken from Windstone promotional material, but not a copyright issue. It should go without saying that the Windstone forum was created primarily for the discussion of Windstone related subjects as well as art, literature and other areas of common interest to the members, but not to promote a member’s (or non-member’s) business pursuits that are unrelated to Windstone. We have also been informed that, to be fair, we need to keep a much closer eye on the postings but I can assure everyone that this is not the first posting that has been removed from the forum for the same reason. If we have been lax in removing every offending post in the past I apologize. We do realize that there misunderstandings and those are not a big deal.

Once in a while we just have to intervene before a situation gets out of hand. We have been getting increasing reports and observations that there are members who are creating sculptures for sale which, in the viewers’ eyes, appear to be overly influenced in style, detail and finish by Melody’s work and we need to keep close watch on that as well.

Windstone has always encouraged forum members and viewers to create artwork. Original work. Meaningful work. Valuable work. And to have fun! I doubt there exists another forum that puts the members in as close communication with an artist of Melody’s talent, is as well behaved as the Windstone forum, or has built a community with the strength of ours. This is very much your forum… But we have to fund it, keep it running, administrate it, and try to make it a positive venue for promoting Windstone. The forum has proved to be very much of a boon to Windstone and for that and the members’ participation we will be forever grateful.

Melody and I have now spent nearly half our lives in the creation and operation of Windstone and, the last few years put ourselves at considerable financial risk to continue our efforts to keep Windstone alive and well. We are looking forward to the many strengths we have developed, including the forum, to see us through. The forum we find to be a marvel of intrigue as to community behavior, fun when it gets crazy, and an occasional pain. Just like life.

[John]

Ok, I get a couple of things from this so far:

If we can keep the listing going at a reasonable rate on eBay neither of you probably will have much or any time for PYO commissions. So the taking of commissions may be a moot point. I think we are now at the point that we can keep the listing up.

If you did need to fill in for extra income and we sold your work (PYO’s) through Windstone, either on eBay or in the store, you would need to make as much on them as you would selling them direct. This may not be a problem if we wanted to make it a guarantee of so much per piece and we get the rest. Maybe you would get two thirds or so, and that would be OK for PYO’s with a different deal for the production pieces.

(We had, way back before PYO’s, discussed having a Windstone painting department that took commissions for specially painted cats and other pieces. I’m not sure we ever will but that may happen one day.)

Keeping the Windstone brand on your work as painted by a “Windstone painter” has value.

As long as there is more money in the production piece eBay auctions we all agree to focus on that I think. However, if the prices do fall because of the economy, there is no telling where commission painting prices would have to go to keep your sales up either. You might have to charge $150 instead of $225. That’s anybody’s guess.

The advertising value in eBay is a strong factor in wanting to develop sales there, but not overdoing it with custom pieces. Part of the value is the exposure and part is the high prices revaluing us upwards as a line. If done right I don’t see anything wrong with using the Buy It Now feature to get that value and exposure.

Another thought on eBay is that we want to try and cover as many catagories as possible, all the time. Cats, Owls, Wolves, Sconces, Candlelamps, Bedspreads, bottle openers, exercise equipment, horse shoes, french fries, nail clippers, once worn socks, It’s all good advertising. The more catagories the better, so we need to consider more than dragon and griffin painting in the eBay equation and the unpainted PYO’s that we sell probably don’t need painted piece sales in order to point to Windstone. we do need to go beyond what we currently sell and I don’t know if that will include you guys or not, but it will help keep new eyes arriving at our auctions and websites.

One thing that I am most concerened about is that we come to an agreement for the two of you that is fair and equal. Jennifer has had an arrangement that can’t be applied to anybody else because of her involvement in handling the forum, Cafe Press and other stuff so we need to get you both paid pretty much the same for painting and Jennifer paid whatever her time is really worth doing other stuff. Jennifer also was right there in the trenches getting the PYO product going, so you are both standing on slightly different ground. But, then, Helen just came up and got casting running. Right now Helen doesn’t really know how much time is going to go into each piece because she hasn’t done enough of them, and all the detail that Jennifer is putting into hers has got to add up to a lot of hours so I’m not sure how to sort it out. Your suggestions are welcome here. I still think that to keep you happy your income from painting shouldn’t fall below about twenty dollars per hour, but does that mean an average, or a floor, or what? At the end of the day you need to make somewhat more than you would doing another job elsewhere and we love to see you cream it in when that happens. And, for painting, neither of you making signifigantly more than the other.

Your further thoughts?

[John]

John wrote:

Snapdragon wrote:

This area replaces the old “staff” forum and can only be accessed by members who are flagged to the “Internal Staff” group. It will not appear to regular members.

This is a test to see if replying does the same strainge things as when I created the other thread. Which it, when trying to preview and submit does still do.

OK may the submit is now working but not the preview?

[John]

Snapdragon wrote:

This area replaces the old “staff” forum and can only be accessed by members who are flagged to the “Internal Staff” group. It will not appear to regular members.

This is a test to see if replying does the same strainge things as when I created the other thread. Which it, when trying to preview and submit does still do.

[John]

Let’s see how this works.

Seems like there are several factors we need to consider, such as:

1. How many of these custom painted pieces (including the non PYO stuff) can we sell?
2. How many do the both of you have time to paint?
3. Will you have time to paint commissioned PYO pieces anyway?
4. If you do, would the collectors rather have them come through us and be “officially sanctioned” pieces?
5. What does you guys the most good as far as future reputation and job, or professional, security?
6. Why haven’t we all been able to retire to the Bahamas by now?

So theres a start.

[John]

Blade-of-the-Moon wrote:

How does Gypsum go bad out of curiosity.. ?

In this case it did not go bad. It is a fresh load and it looks like it was made wrong at the factory.

[John]

Maplecarver wrote:

None of those items really interest me. They would make great gifts, but I don’t know who in my family they’d ‘sing’ to. But the idea of offering them for a discount still sounds very nice. And while I prefer nastier critters, those bunnies are pretty darn cute

For a club I’d be a little more interested in other trappings like a newsletter, a shiny card, club piece, etc.

But it’s a great idea. It seems very generous, and a unique opportunity.
Just to clarify: We realize that, if we do indeed start some kind of club, there must be other ongoing perks for the members and we are looking for input there as well (although there is already a wealth of info. from members on the club thread). It just seemed to me that with a holiday season happening where everyone is a bit short of cash (or just worried about the economy) we might be able to provide some Windstone pieces at very affordable prices that forum members and others could use for gifts, and this may be a good excuse to start a much wanted club.
I also figured that not every relative or friend is into fantasy figures so this would be a great time to provide something of value, make a dent in our over-stock and raise some much needed money. We are having a pretty rough go at getting the business back together and we feel poorly about the lag in getting new pieces in production and our best selling pieces restocked. This is going to be a year we will never forget!

[John]

dragonmedley wrote:

Rip off?

These are old knockoffs that pop up once in a while. Thanks for catching the listing.

[John]

Greater Basilisk wrote:

We were, and all the old crew were still on and posting on a daily basis… I miss ’em. I’m glad you came back, Cat.

This is an interesting and timely thread. Thanks Cat. We were just talking about the next step in managing the forum to get it revved up again and we were actually thinking about cleaning it out and sort of starting over as a possible way to create new interest and get more new (and more relevant threads) going.

We need some input from members as to how to create areas of interest to keep the core group intact while keeping the tone open and inviting to new members. It seems to me that meeting new members and getting to know them has been the really wonderful part of this forum and it is also interesting to see how it has changed as members join at a slower rate and older members have become more familiar voices. It is a given that a new forum will age and evolve of course.

Should we clean house a bit? That you are going back and reading old threads is a testament to the power of the interaction and fun generated by this great group of people and I vote that we should keep the well written and well received threads and lose those with little relevance and those that are just dumb or dull. What do you all think? We should probably put up a new thread on the topic of What Next For The Windstone Forum? and see if there are any good ideas out there. If we clean it out a bit should we have a vote on what to keep?

[John]

Jennifer wrote:

Actually, the staff has discussed this before. The conclusion was thus:

Quote:

Wikipedia admins are anal about any company or self-promotion that doesn’t have some sort of secondary references or history to it. … It would be “speedy delete” flagged for Original Invention and Self-Promotion.

I don’t think they kick out articles that give a history or social perspetive of a company or artist. Nobody here has taken the time to write something up or figure out how to submit it but someone really should. If anybody wants to take a stab at it and submit a draft to us first we can make it accurate. Many submissions are quite brief so it doesn’t have to be too involved.

[John]

Blackdesertwind wrote:

Dragon87 wrote:

John wrote:

Dragon87 wrote:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!

Thanks much for all the greatings! Sushi sounds awfully good to me Arlla. You’re buying?

Another truck left here yesterday and the shop is finally starting to look empty. I think we are up to fourteen or fifteen semis so far. Unpacking and setting the shop back up should be interesting! Now if someone would just buy the house…

Random, I got quoted? *is tired and probably thinking too much into this*

And why did th last paragraph stuff pop up on the response when I hit quote??? Am I ninja poster now? It comes out, I quote it? *decides is mix of starvation and tiredness*
😆 I think John wanted to quote Arlla since she posted just before you and he clicked on the quote below Arlla’s post instaid of the top of her post so That automaticly fell on quoting your post 😆
He must have been celebrating to much 😆 😀
Yes, I hit the wrong button. I have never liked the way the links are laid out on these pages. Celebrating too much hasn’t been a problem. Maybe after we move.

[John]

Dragon87 wrote:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!

Thanks much for all the greatings! Sushi sounds awfully good to me Arlla. You’re buying?

Another truck left here yesterday and the shop is finally starting to look empty. I think we are up to fourteen or fifteen semis so far. Unpacking and setting the shop back up should be interesting! Now if someone would just buy the house…

[John]

foxfeather wrote:

Ran across this tonight

http://cgi.ebay.com/WINDSTONE-T-SHIRT-HYENA-GARGOYLE-BY-M-PENA-BRAND-NEW_W0QQitemZ160197123528QQihZ006QQcategoryZ13640QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It says printed by windstone. Did they ever do shirts before the cafe press store?
We had two types of tees printed years ago. This one and a peacock Emperor. These are really good shirts (much much better than the Cafe Press ones). Great silk screening and washing doesn’t hurt them at all.

[John]

TheSpyderDuster wrote:

They are in North Hollywood right? When are they moving, why and to where?

Wouldn’t it be great just to fly down there to see her!

It’s shameful, I opened up the frame and found slight tobacco damage, my mom has smoked around it for years. 😥
It could also be acid/lignin damage because I don’t think they really printed on archival paper in the 80’s. *sad*
The black and white Alberti Design prints of Melody’s work were all printed on acid free Mohawk paper. If it is a colored print it was printed on the best coated stock we could get, but it wasn’t acid free as we couldn’t find an archival coated paper. They were cheap prints at the time we sold them but we wanted them to hold up anyway. There were only two sources for acid free paper at the time (Mohawk and Rising) and you are right that few cheap prints from that era were on good paper.

[John]

Jennifer wrote:

pegasi1978 wrote:

Jennifer wrote:

Oh wow, that lap sure does look different in that photo! That changes my mind about it entirely.

Good or a bad change?

I don’t like him so much anymore. The ebay photo is so dark I didn’t realize the blues were so vibrant, and that his belly was so brown (his belly is all in shadow in the ebay photos, too dark)… don’t care for him as much now.

Go by the eBay photos. This dragon really looks quite pastel in most light. As I keep saying, the colors do not photograph accurately with most digital cameras. This dragon’s colors were way too bright even when I shot it in the studio and I had to pull a lot of color out in Photoshop to get it close to reality. The Wineberry dragon is really as dark as it looks in the auction and it isn’t at all as blue as the photo posted in this thread.

[Author]

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