Bajemas Scriptorium

I’m doing some blog design update and running into a few snags. Please excuse the dust and boo boos for the next few hours. Thanks.

It’s time again for Etta Diem’s Halloween Grab Bags!!

So! What is and Halloween Grab Bag? Basically it’s like those unmarked bags you can nab in stores or as prizes. You’re not given any real clue what is inside and each one is slightly different. Normally mine are just full of my own art and craft things that have a dark or spooky theme, along with some traditional Halloween goodies as I stock up on them relentlessly each year. This year the bags are a little better because they also include a bit of Myke’s work as well. This means double the spooky with a bit of Lovecraft and dark steampunk sprinkles on top >:)

This year’s grab bags include some lovely spooky art along with some unseen work created by both Beth (the wicked) and Myke (the dreaded). Along with the spooky art we have some dark steampunk, a little creepy romantic Victorian and the ever popular “there’s gotta be some tentacles in there!” Lovecraft inspired work. All this and a variety of other Halloween goodies. As always the contents of the bags are a surprise with guarantees of original artwork to be had only through nabbing one of the bags. And this year’s big surprise: One of the bags comes with a “black ticket” (who needs Wonka’s golden ticket?) that wins the bag grabber their very own 8×10 giclee of a limited edition Etta Diem print.

Get your grab bag today on Halloween while the bags last! And don’t worry if they show up squirming a little bit. We’re nearly 89% sure this year that nothing within the bag will cause you harm! At least no lasting harm… well, no lingering harm… alright we’re positive you’ll lose no limbs this time around but we do recommend you wear eye protection just in case.

And from Etta Diem to all of you, have a very spooky and entertaining Halloween!!

I’m somewhat caught between commissions and trying to tinker with a bug in my website code that is giving me some issues. Normal stuff.

SteamCon is currently taking place this weekend in Seattle. Myke and I have artwork on exhibit there. He has a ton of his original etchings and airship prints on display and for sale in the print shop and I have some decorated giclees of my Bete Noir collection and some other prints available, as well as prints in the print shop. If you do go –and I keep asking everyone this– please take photos! There’s been so many events my work has hanged at where I have no been able to go. It’d be nice to see my work while it was hanging and some of the highlights of the event.

As for this weekend here, we’re taking off to Flint to see Voltaire and a variety of other bands perform, and see a few of my friends I’ve not caught up with in ages. We’ll be back in a few days. If I owe you commissions, prints, emails, what have you, I will get all caught up before I go or right after I get back.

Alright, after some serious issues with printers we’ve finally found a printer that is working out well for my work. My books are full color, journal size collections of my art work on glossy paper –they basically look like trade paper backs. The first books I had printed looked wonderful but the printer took months to get them to me and on a few occasions after taking forever they sent me books with giant glue globs at the back of the books. Others I looked into were simply too expensive. We finally gave Ka-blam.com a try and though the first books were over-sized (which caused the art to look pixelated) and the color was off, Myke talked to them, they fixed the problem and replaced the books within about a week and the second attempt looks wonderful. So not only will I be selling through them, I’d recommend them for printing for those in need. My first Bajema’s Web Collections is now available directly through them. Because they print in graphic files only and not pdf, I’m still changing over my second collection to graphic files. This is taking a bit longer because the second collection is more writing and originally created in a publisher program specifically to be a pdf file. But it should be switched over and ready to go shortly. Those who have ordered the first book before it became sold out will be getting their orders this week. Anyone who has wanted to buy the first book can now do so by going to: Indyplanet.com at this link for my listing. You can order directly through them. I’ll be posting links for the second collection as soon as they’re ready as well.

I thank everyone who has been patient with me during the irritations of my printer issues. Everyone who bought those last copies of the first and second books during my special sales will be getting them with their listed extras as well as a few added items to make up for the delay. I hope that you enjoy them and again, I really do appreciate your investing in my work. If you order the book using the Indyplanet website I would appreciate you dropping me an email to tell me how your orders were handled and if you’re happy with the service they provided.

These are some new craft items I’ve been working on to sell at our convention and craft show stops this autumn. These keepsakes are multiple purpose items. In their beginning stages, as shown below, they’re a decorative flower swaddled in ribbon and bows that hold a mini-art print and a unique charm. The keepsakes can be kept as is to be used as decorations for such things as being tucked into the soil of a house plant, collect a few of them and put them together as a little & unique bouquet as pictured below, and whatever your creative little mind can drum up.

The flowers in the keepsakes are handmade by my aunt and she paints each using soft color stains and India inks. The sepia colored ones are the coolest. She stains them with tea and then brushes just a hint of black ink along the edges. I made the mini-art tags out of an old French book on Marie Antoinette that is falling apart. The charms are my best attempt to make metal replicas of the various insect themed scissors and skeleton keys I drew for my Etta Diem stories. They’re not perfect yet, but they’re still pretty cute. I made the keepsakes mainly as a way to package the charms and make them look spiffy. Now I’ve grown fond of the items as they are. I keep these around my work space.

I’m currently working on putting my aunt’s shop online. She makes these flowers from scratch out of coffee filters, of all things. She makes them in three sizes, sort of the three bears sizes, pappa, momma and baby bear. She also has some very stunning floral photography. I’ve been combining the photographs and the handmade flowers into different types of scrap-booking kits and gift collections. What I especially like is that she takes requests so I’ve talked her into making a variety of more somber, autumn inspired flowers. I have my “Tim Burton” bouquet she made for me –it’s a variety of black, silver and silver blue blooms wrapped up in striped papers and tied up in pretty black bows. I’m hoping we can accommodate people who fall into my style of tastes… those who really like the whole Martha Stewart projects/home decor, but who prefer darker colors and more spooky, dark Victorian and Halloween themes in their homes.

Anyhoo, it’s been quite some time since I last posted here. I’ve been trying to get some more traditional projects done and get caught up on all these ideas I have. My health has been up and down again, mostly down again this past week. It’s a tad frustrating to me. Of course, art is great therapy, as is writing and I enjoy both no matter what state of mind or ills I am. Oh, and if you like the keepsakes above we’ll mostly be selling them at actual cons and art shows, but I will be putting a few ordering options up for them on the EttaDiem.com store. I’m currently giving that site a good overhaul and better organization. Oh! And let me not forget to mention the strange but squidy cute eyeball critter in the images is a small sculpture of Myke’s. He is the tentacle master.

I finally got my finished and edited version of Decoded back today. So I can finally put it back up for sale. This is a gallery copy, meaning it comes without an ISBN number but has a extra short story in the back.

It can be nabbed at either my site or our etsy account: Directly from my website

Via our Etsy Store

There is no waiting for these to ship. I’ll process the order and shipped them out within three days of your order, so there won’t be a wait. I’m begging someone to buy this. Not because of my money issues but my writing insecurities. For years I’ve considered myself more of a writer than an artist. I simply can’t illustrate the images in my head or my stories, but writing offers me no restrictions. However, I haven’t really sold any of my long form stories before so my ego is waiting for a bruising.

P.S. This whole anthology is a bit mature content, dark fantasy meets dystopian literature. There are story samples on all of the purchase pages. This particular story of the six is my favorite, though the saddest.

As I send out my tarot to various publishers of such things, I’ve also gone to local printers and began the process of making my own proto-type of the tarot deck to see what it’s like and how I might change/tweek/improve upon it for a publisher. I get requests for the deck more than anything else these days so I decided to put five of the proto-types up for purchase for the time being. I don’t know what they’ll be like or how they’ll compare to ones prepared and produced by a publisher, but they will be unique, of that I am sure. Each deck will be wrapped in silk (I was told this is a popular tradition among some people and their tarot decks) and placed within a wooden box that my fiancee has crafted and we both decorated. They’ll be signed, numbered and given the whole limited edition treatment. Two of the five I put up for sale are already purchased, so if this is an item you’d like I recommend checking into it soon. I can’t wait to see them. I’m very giddy. Find selling info for the deck at this link.

There’s a lovely sensation of satisfaction when completing any project –but this is one of the larger projects I’ve ever worked on and seeing it down and almost ready to be held in my hands makes me insanely happy. Hopefully others will like it as much as me. And to utilize every last bit of space on the plates for the cards, I’ve created a miniature version of the deck to fill up the small bit of space left over from the main cards. It’s like fairy size. I’m not sure if I’ll sell this or not. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a zealous love of all that is dollhouse size. Anyhoo, more general weekend babble to come after the “more” button…