Wine Bottle Engraving

Wine Bottles are probably the most popular engraving I do!  This is the perfect gift for your boss, friends, newlyweds, anniversaries, or retirements or for the perfect addition to that beautiful gift basket!  Personalized wine is perfect for corporate gift-giving too.

I engrave elegant Copperplate Calligraphy very deeply on the bottle or wine glass and then apply a beautiful gold or silver fill to make the lettering shine and complement the label on the bottle.  I can put as many words as you like, but a simple greeting with a name is usually best.  I can do orders as corporate gifts as well – incorporating the company’s logo with a name or message.

Add one my  little ceramic “wine lights” and you have a gift for them to enjoy long after the wine is gone!  This is the greatest gift idea since the wine itself – call me today!

My standard pricing for wine bottles is $18, but please ask about volume discounts!

Shopping!

Okay, not your normal girlfriend, purse, clothes, jewelry shopping.  Today I went shopping for old crap that I could “upcycle” into art to sell!  Sandy came to my house at 10 AM, and our agenda was to work on a separate blog for Defying Gravity Design.  Well, I had to take a sample engraved plate out to Clay Coyote Pottery for their open house weekend to show that I can engrave beautiful copperplate calligraphy on their pottery.  Well, that was about an hour visit, because there were so many people there that I hadn’t seen for a long time and they all wanted to know how I was doing and for me to tell them all about my new “venture” which isn’t really new, but just an evolvement of what I have done for a long, long time.  I just grow from one art medium to another and create more and more things.  I love what I do – it’s what I’ve always dreamed of.

Anyway.  From Clay Coyote, we stopped at the Antiques store in Downtown Hutchinson.  Ooh – what we found there.  Trays, books, toys, art, and ephemera that we will use in our OOAK (one of a kind) art that we have so much making.  I am going to share with you some of the treasures I found today and see if you can guess how they will be used! 

Books for birdhouses!  I need to mosaic the houses first.  And add some art.  And scan the books.  Okay – up and coming.

A metal fish.  To mosaic.  Perhaps with tissue so the cool embossing shows through.  Perhaps.

A borrowed family.  Add googly eyes. Use for Halloween decor.  Bizarre, but cool.

Amazing vintage art.  To scan and use in projects.  Can’t you just see this little girl with a crown or glasses?

Chinese Checkers.  Can’t get too many of these.

Sandy says she didn’t have any green trays.  We each got 6.  New art for the center?

Lots of good stuff.  Books, Checkers, paint tin.

And a book of instructions.  Which I will not follow.

All in all, a great day.  I’m gathering supplies for those cold winter days of creativity.  So many ideas, so little time.

I’m Published!

Whoo-hoo!  I wrote this article for @vimm telling how their company helped me combine my varied interested into this great little website you are reading now.  They published it on their blog and facebook – it’s fun to see your words in print (even electronic print).

Here’s the link to the full article -

Personal Publishing Consultant, digital design, canvases, art prints, mosaics, engraving on glass and crystal – I love to create. And I’m usually working on something new. My dilemma – how to market my varied creations and not confuse my customers?

I went to Vivid Image last spring with the idea that I needed to somehow consolidate the various blogs and web presences that I had into one space that my customers could visit and help them get a snapshot of what I do. I worked with Steve and Kori to pick out a theme that would work for my needs and would express who I am.

It always seemed like my art took such different paths, but I have come to realize that the focus of my work is appreciating photos and words and using them to create memories and keepsakes that will help people preserve their heritage. I use this focus to help people create books, calendars, canvases, cards and other printed works using the amazing Heritage Makers studio and their own photos and stories.

I also focus on words in my engraving projects. People bring me their keepsake items and I personalize them for them – carving beautiful Copperplate Calligraphy into their glass, metal, and crystal items.

My altered art projects are where I can best express my creativity. I love the well-turned phrase and try to match the edginess of the words with images that invoke times gone past – with a quirky spin. My items are used as home décor, gifts, and keepsakes for those that enjoy something new and different.

It’s exciting that the popularity of social media has helped me post photos of my work and encourage people to follow the trail of breadcrumbs to my blog and eventually help them become my customers and to tell others about me. I believe in relationship marketing – be interested and interesting and people will want to do business with you. I love my customers and work very hard to help them create the effect and results they want in their projects. It’s “inbound marketing” and I believe it is the way to the hearts of this generation’s consumers.

About the Author Terry Kempfert: I am a renaissance soul – I have the need to create and share with others. I am happiest when I am doing new things – so my interests always change! I am a Heritage Maker’s Consultant! I am also a mother, wife, artist, calligrapher, engraver, digital designer and much more!

50th Anniversary Vase

Here is a beautiful Orrefors Crystal vase I hand engraved for a customer.  It was a gift for their parent’s 50th Anniversary yesterday.  They wanted the engraving to be plain – no gold or silver fill.  I think it turned out great.  Carving on nice crystal is like carving on butter!  I love to work with it.