I wanna show you an amazing brand of my good friend Sergio.
Shadowcrafter miniatures is a brand who cares about the artists, their desires and a good cuality-prize relation.
Sergio is always improve himself and make news and originals proyects. I see the futures miniatures, and promise, the cuality will be at the level of the bests.
Hi sergio, tell us a little about your self and your starts on this miniature world.
I
started to paint miniatures long time ago, concretely around 15 years
ago bute ven considering this long period, I have only finished a few
miniatures so we could say that I’m almost new in this hobby.
Why did you funded shadowcrafter?
Well,
before talking about Shadowcrafter, and in order to explain how and why
it was created we should talk about Fantastic Courses. Fantastic
Courses is a non profit organization which was born 5 years ago. We were
planing to organize painting courses with high quality and we have been
doing it all this time.
After
a few courses we noticed that we would need a way to get funding to
meet expenses in some courses. This way, we decided to create some
miniatures for sale and ShadowCrafter was created.
When I was more rookie, I went to one of those courses with pepa saavedra.
Are you manage the brand by yourself? What parts do you manage?
Do you have another job and the brand is just an extra-pay?
As
any other association in Spain, we needed a minimum of three members to
be able to create it, so I’m not alone in this project. I’m in charge
of almost everything which is visible (contact with teachers and
participants, contact with sculptors and painters, etc…) but there is a
lot of work on the backoffice which must be done, and my colleagues are
doing a great job, even considering that this is only a hobby which we
do for free. Each of us have our own job outside the miniature’s world.
Is it difficult to carry a brand? Could be easier if you were the painter/sculptor?
This
question is hard to be answered, at least by me. We have a brand, yes,
but it is something totaly different for us. Take into account that this
is only to get some money to buy tools, paints, etc… for the courses.
We are not under preasure like others brand’s owners.
This
fact make it easier as we do not need to achieve a concrete sales’
level each month nor we have to create new miniatures on a fixed time.
The
main problem is that our turnover is low, so it take some time to
recover the investment. Of course, if I was the sculptor or the painter,
the cost would be reduced but this kind of commissions give us the
chance to meet artists from all over the world.
Economically, for those who are thinking about starting a brand or make their own copies of miniatures, which advice could you give to them?
I
just can say that expend a Little bit more money to get the miniature
sculpted or painted by an wellknown artists could help to increase
sales.
Little advices of how to manage a brand.
It’s
not easy to gice any advice. Each brand works in a different way. For
us, the most important is to enjoy. If you wish to create a brand, try
to get the right balance between fun and business. If you only create
miniatures which can be sold easily (classic barbarian, miniatures based
on films or videogames, etc…) probably you will sell a lot, but you
will lose the creative side. I like to make topsales miniatures together
with other personal ideas.
Now the artistic time!!
One of the amazing designs.
This
is directly related with the previous question. In some cases, like the
Renaissance Assassin, there is a direct inspiration in a videogame
character. In some other cases, we have an idea which is send to an
illustrator or directly to the sculptor. For me, this is the better part
because you see how the image you have in you mind is moved to the
reality through an sketch and scultpture. Its amazing. If fact, we would
like to continue in this line, as we are very happy with the projects
we are working on at this moment.
Wich way is the brand focus? fantasy, science fiction...
Our
aim is always to make high quality miniatures. Maybe due to our
personal preferences we have always done fantasy miniatures but we at
this moment we are working on more “historical” miniatures which
probably will be well received (hopefully). Anyway, we have a few ideas
to make some creatures too, but it will depends on the sales… so buy our
miniatures!!! hehehehe
What do you want to tell to potential buyers of your brand? Personally, I have seen the futures projects, and I have seen a major change in terms of quality, design and sculpture. You get closer to what you want of your brand?
First at all I would like to say them: Have you already place your order?(keep trying at least...:))
This
said, I think at this moment we are moving to a more adult fantasy. The
scale will be different in our next miniatures and also the design will
be more mature as you can see in the preview. Of course we will
continue doing classic fantasy miniatures but we want to create a new
range which represent our own deep thoughts about fantasy.
In
addition, we are currently working with a 3D artist. This helps us to
save time and money, but we have to learnt a lot about 3D printing yet.
Probably, our first 3D printed miniature will be released on June.
If you like it keep and eye on shadowcrafter web, and my blog.
Maybe there will be a couple of surprises...
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