My upcoming series of books on Period Jewelry and Fabrication Techniques.

I would like to invite you to join me on my adventure which I began last year by visiting my Patreon page. My Patrons will aid me greatly by allowing me to continue to do the research and Experimental Archaeology that I adore doing. All this will result in several print-on-demand, instruction books on period jewelry techniques where I will also include my research. This patronage will enable me to purchase additional tools, and hard to find research books, both of which will cost quite a bit in shipping and the exchange rate. Prices for .999 Silver and .999 Gold are painfully high, but my period experiments require some costly supplies and custom-made tools. Think of the books as part 'the history of the thing(s)' and mostly on how to make the thing(s). As much as possible I will show the period tools and methods used as well as a modern method and materials. Due to the Copyrights of the photographs of period, extant jewelry items, usually owned by museums or collectors, I cannot use those photographs in the book itself, except on the rare occasions that the copyright owners allow it. I have decided to, when possible, include photographs of reproductions that I have made myself, or that a friend has. In addition, I will create a website with links to each mentioned piece's extant webpage where the reader can find photographs and additional details. I have already begun to create an intranet version of the website on my laptop. I look forward to offering more perks and posts in the coming months. Thank you again for joining me on this journey. Gaeira / Georgia

https://www.patreon.com/CrimsonKrakenPress

A year full of research, writing, and infographics. Oh my!

Yesterday I realized that it had been a day shy of a year since my last blog post. To say I was surprised by how quickly time had passed is an understatement, then again it has been a full year since the 'new normal' began with our current COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

During the first week of January 2020, I was struck with an idea * that I needed to find out as much as I could in order to make an informed decision if it was feasible or not. After several weeks of research and brainstorming, I decided that I can self-publish my first book.

* [During a pleasant drive along the St-Laurence River, heading to a friend's house, I was reminded of a friend's cookbook project I contributed to in early 2012. My friend Mugino Saeki was working on a memorial gift titled 'A Taste of Kindness' which she self-published using the print-on-demand company, Blurb. Before she finalized the recipes she asked several of her friends if we'd be interested in testing 1 or 2 recipes that she selected, provide her feedback on our experience, and take photographs of the completed dish(s) to include in the book. I was excited to help on this wonderful project and had a fantastic experience. I was over the moon when she liked my photographs especially when I found out a third was selected for the back cover. I highly recommend Mugino's excellent recipe book as a gift or for one's own cookbook library. ("With the purchase of this book, you will also help provide essential nourishment and humanitarian aid around the world. All of the net proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the following hunger relief organizations (...)", text source) No one that worked on this memorial project receives any payment for their contributions.]

After researching several print-on-demand companies and weighing all of my sales/distribution options I've decided to stick with Blurb as my printing-on-demand service and main online sales point, as well as listing on Amazon for wider exposure. Each book will be available in full color as a soft- or hardcover option and each having an image-wrapped cover.

With my multi-year background in creating digital graphics, website creation, basic product photography, seven years of editing article layouts and research presentation layouts for Senior Epidemiologists (which were published in multiple scientific and medical journals as well as Poster and PowerPoint presentations at scientific conferences and symposiums), teaching jewelry fabrication classes and making my class handout booklets, I am confident that I can compile it myself along with some text editing help. Blurb has a basic WYSIWYG program for layout that also compiles a Master file that is print-ready for their presses.

I've started to approach several metalsmithing friends to see if they might be interested in collaborating with me on one or more project ideas I've been developing. I'm very happy with the reactions I've had so far and how the first 2-3 projects have been developing. With each release, I will begin my next set of book projects in the series. I do enjoy working on at least 2 projects at a time.

As each book project nears its completion for release I will post about them here as well as on my new Facebook and Instagram accounts, I'll post the new URLs here as things develop.