I call this one "Autumn"

[BrianPowley]

Sorry. I don't have any pull with President Bush. Tell Carl XVI Gustaf I send my warmest regards.
I'm a huge ABBA fan myself. I listen to them everyday.

[oleorezinator]

Sorry. I don't have any pull with President Bush. Tell Carl XVI Gustaf I send my warmest regards.
I'm a huge ABBA fan myself. I listen to them everyday.

I meant that steampacket might get you the gustaf gig.

[BrianPowley]

Ok

[Steampacket]

"I meant that steampacket might get you the gustaf gig" oleorezinator.

I doubt the old king would go for it as republicans are the arch enemy of the monachy over here. Swedes, who can think, perceive Republicans in the US to be be ultra conservative, gun crazy, creationist loonys, whereas over here, Swedish Republicans want the king to step down from the throne

[Nanohedron]

And now that this difference has been made clear, let's move on.

Where were we, now? Ah, right.....oooh. Sparkly flute bling.

[BrianPowley]

"Sparkly flute bling"----I like it and apparently so does a few others---over 700 page views. WOW!

[jim stone]

Don't mean a thing
If it ain't got that bling!

I confess looking at the pictures of your work makes my heart beat faster.
Must be some way to adapt this stuff to wooden flutes.

[Nanohedron]

You know, Brian, to be honest, if you want to add decorative elements to flutes, IMO your considerable engraving is the business. Seriously, I think you could lose the crystals; they don't showcase your real craft. My comment above was an attempt at bringing things back on-topic by using irony fired in a neutral direction. I'm not sure by your response if you understood that.

Don't assume that 700+ views means everyone likes what they see; after all, one has to click to view, and that's all it means. Then follows opinion, for better or worse. Aside from those who revisit threads simply because they want to keep tabs on developments for whatever reason (and each visit racks up another view on the count), statistically there will be people who view and re-view things they don't like precisely because they don't like them. And if I don't, then you can take it to the bank that there's no way I am alone. If there were an outpouring of unqualified appreciation for the direction you're going with this, then you might be onto something with your assessment of what the view count means. But, really, there hasn't been that outpouring. 700 views (actually, nigh unto 800 by now) with comparatively little comment says a lot of "No comment" to me. It also says that there are hot-button issues at play, and with every new post, people are checking in to see if there's trouble. Personally, I see lot of the posted response here to be a matter of people bending over backwards to be nice, but careful etiquette is not the same as accolades. I've been a member here for nearly 10 years, and I think I've come to know most of my fellow Chiffers, and how they operate, pretty well.

That said, of course there will be those who do like your offerings to date, and good for them. But don't entertain a mistaken estimate of that number based on a view count.

To repeat, I would prefer to see you concentrating on your engraving in decorating flutes, and keep it at that, for it's the classier stuff by far, hands-down.

[jemtheflute]

Nano nails it, pretty much, IMO. Brian, I'm afraid I find your crystal-mounted crowns rather "tacky" as we say in GB. They're not as tasteless (IMO!!!) as the Lunn creations I referred to, but I wouldn't want one on any flute of mine, even if they fitted. I suspect there's probably a good market with teenage high school girl Bohm fluters as prizes for good grades etc.! Not many of us here qualify. Nothing wrong with trying to promote your product, but your efforts to sell that particular line may be more productive in other places than they are likely to be here. Know/learn your market! But we're a friendly bunch and quite clearly many of us appreciate your engraving skills, so your time here is not by any means wasted.

BTW, Brian, I don't have a photo to post at present, but I have a Rudall Carte cocuswood flute head with your kind of engraving in the "lip-plate" area - done direct in the wood, and very effective it is. I'll post a pic when I get a chance.

[BrianPowley]

By all means, I certainly appreciate and respect all comments/feedback/opinions.
For 25 years, I've been married to the most wonderful woman in the world, and she disagrees with me on a minute-by-minute basis. I fully expect differences. After all, if everyone thought like me, I'd never learn anything. LOL!
Some will find them "tacky", some will see them as "treasure". That's the world and that's life.
One of the biggest downsides to the photographs is to show them SOOooooo close up with professional lighting and a professional camera. The entire crown is only 3/4" in diameter. The gold and copper bands are just 0.012" (Twelve thousanths of an inch) in width.
They are displayed at probably more than double their real size and they come off as enormous. If you saw them at a normal viewing distance---arms length---they look somewhat diminished without losing their sparkle. The actual engraving near the top of the crown is barely discernable at a normal viewing distance.---enough of the tech stuff.

I understand what you are saying about misinterpreting the view count. I get it....Thanks.
Your remark about "Personally, I see lot of the posted response here to be a matter of people bending over backwards to be nice, but careful etiquette is not the same as accolades" sounds a bit intimidating. People only bend over backwards for so long. I get that too.

A good friend of mine once said, "The world would be a much better place with more beautiful things in it."
That's all I was trying to do.
BTW----You are a friendly bunch! Thanks for that too!

[jim stone]

FWIW, I think the crowns are gorgeous. Hope you show more of your work here.
By the way, I've worked as a silver smith, setting stones.

[jemtheflute]

As promised, a few shots of the head of Rudall Carte & Co. 1867 system flute # 1749 (a High Pitch one, for those who care) to show the lip-contact area (can't really call it a "lip-plate") engraving:

For context, the whole head from above....



.... then from the near side....



.... and then a couple of slightly different close-ups of the engraved area....

[Nanohedron]

So, Brian, I see in your avatar what looks to be an engraved lip plate on a silver Boehm flute. That's your work, I take it? For those of us who vastly prefer the engraver's approach alone, do you do more of that kind of work, also such as illustrated in Jem's example above?

Back in the day when I didn't know squat about flutes, I twice bought maple fifes and carved them with an amateur's hand, thinking I might continue the practise and sell the things. But I only did the two, and unfortunately they fell into other hands and I don't have pics, but I can roughly describe them: The first was covered in tight chattered spirals, like ribbons curled flat but with one side or the other angled up - a simplistic design, but nice to look at all the same. With the second, I made a leap and used the whole body of the fife as the ground to suggest a clutch of wheat bound low with bast, cut stems and binding at the foot, continuing stems and leaves around the main body, and ears around the head. Both fifes were actually more sculpted - and in places a bit deeply, for 3D effect - rather than engraved. Needless to say, incorporating an untampered embouchure and fingerholes into the design presented challenges. I liked them both, but I most regret that I ever lost the second one.

[Peter Duggan]

With the second, I made a leap and used the whole body of the fife as the ground to suggest a clutch of wheat bound low with bast, cut stems and binding at the foot, continuing stems and leaves around the main body, and ears around the head. Both fifes were actually more sculpted - and in places a bit deeply, for 3D effect - rather than engraved.

Sounds just a wee bit Lunn-ish?

[Nanohedron]

With the second, I made a leap and used the whole body of the fife as the ground to suggest a clutch of wheat bound low with bast, cut stems and binding at the foot, continuing stems and leaves around the main body, and ears around the head. Both fifes were actually more sculpted - and in places a bit deeply, for 3D effect - rather than engraved.

Sounds just a wee bit Lunn-ish?

Pfft. Not even. The word "whimsy" applies more to his work than it would have to mine. Especially with the dossan of wheat, I was drawing on the sensibilities of of the more sober side of Japanese aesthetics for inspiration. Not that I achieved it, but the result was a completely different thing.