Welcome to the Corner & Old-Timers Inquiry

[Matt]

Its great to have you here Johnathon, thanks for filling everyone one in on your happenings.

And also very big congratulations on your marriage, love is a wonderful thing.

[Brice]

Jonathon, I think I've only talked to you briefly awhile back when I bought a magazine from you. I am glad to hear you're doing well though and congratulations on your marriage.

[Rachel Readman]

When I was at the Whelan´s house he mentioned that Rachel was working on a sculpture of the illustration The Crimson King.

Shhhh that's a secret!!!

Yeah, Mick and Rachel are doing great! Wicked busy and that's why they are not posting.

But good. I shall tell them that y'all were looking for them!

Good to know. They are good people! Thanks Karen and Ari.

Hey everyone, I hope you are all well!!

It's really lovely to see so many names I recognise and many I don't. I hear that you good folks were asking after us which is really thoughtful and means a lot to us. Mick just happened to be doing a bit of catch up reading on the site and found this thread. We will read the whole thread so we can see what you have all been up to.

We miss having the time to chat these days and always think about all of you. We have asked Karen (in email) how you all are and if there was any major news etc. We do also lurk here occasionally so we have done a little reading around the site. The website is looking great and the community developing very nicely. For me, getting around the site is a little clumsy since I'm not used to everything.

I've also been doing my best to keep up on all the King book releases, comics, movies and whatnot. I got a few things for my 28th birthday on Saturday gone (11/10) namely 'The Long Road Home HB', The Dark Half movie, Brisingr, Superior Saturday by Garth Nix (I already have & read Monday through Friday). Others are to come as they are not released yet so I don't know what else there might be turn up?

I just put down my sculpting tools to come and say hi to you all as it has been such a long time, too long!

We've both been busy busy busy, Mick with his guitar and music, repairs and DIY and me with, well, as you all now know...

"He sat on his throne, which is made of skulls"... The Crimson King. I've been working with Michael and having him check and appraise every detail of the piece.

It was a secret until Michael told Ari but then I never stipulated that Michael could not tell anyone. I did say to Michael & Audrey that I would keep it from going public until everything was agreed between us and the piece finished. Just wanted to make sure everything went smoothly and that Michael was 1000% happy with the final sculpture. Not to worry though, if Michael is OK with letting the cat out of the bag then I am more than happy for him to do so!!

A little info on how things are going. The piece is coming along very well and I'm now working on the upper torso arms and head/hood areas. I'll then start going over the whole piece fine tuning all the details over and over until I feel it is finished. The Jesters staff with the baby skull is finished but the feathers need a little more work to make them more spikey. Initially I had to make 600 adult skulls and a bunch of baby skulls. I then individually carved and reshaped each skull and added unique cracks, bullet holes broken eye sockets etc. For skulls with open jaws and the ones that look like they are smiling or odd shaped jawlines, missing bottom jawbones, I had to remove individual jawbones by cutting them away from the skulls and re-fix them into the sculpture with the mouth open etc. All the while Michael has been checking over the details and so far has had only one thing I need to adjust, the feathers on the staff, which is of great relief. I think the first skull went in place on the steps back in January and I have worked on it for at least a few hours a day since then. It's been challenging to say the least! Changing a painting into a sculpture is not as straight forward as one might first think as something that looks right and works in a painting may not physically work on a 3 dimensional sculpture. I don't know how long it will be before it is ready as this one demands the time and patience to get it perfect.

You will all be the first to know when it is finished

Our website domains are now set up and I have just a very basic homepage set up on there for now if any of you wish to pay us a visit you can find us at:

www.rachelreadman.com
www.rachelreadman.co.uk
www.blackrookstudios.co.uk

If any of you wish to get in touch, feel free to PM/email either myself or Mick (The Red Rose) and we will get back to you. It is always great to hear from you all! We will also check this thread and keep popping on the site when we can.

You all take good care of each other and keep in touch

Love to you all,
Rachel & Mick.

[Matt]

Hey Rachel, thanks for posting all this great information for us.

The websites look terrific!

[carlosdetweiller]

It is nice to hear from you, Rachel. I got pretty excited reading about The Crimson King sculpture and your progress with it. I know it will be fantastic. When the time comes I will be among the first to order one.

I've got my painted Constant Reader sculpture where I see it every day. I am still finding little details that I don't recall noticing before. It is a really great work of art.

[gsvec]

I, too, love my Constant Reader, Rachel - and like Bob, I can't wait to order my Crimson King! I still have all of the 'in progress' pics you posted on skfakes and am hoping you've taken a bunch of CK as well! Glad to hear you and Mick are staying so busy!

[wizardsrainbow]

Hey you two!!! Thanks so much for posting. Know that you both are loved and missed, but we understand the demands on your time. Just drop on by when you can. Am so glad to hear things are well, and I too look forward to your new work Rachel.

[Nerak]

I have seen pics of the base, and it's BEAUTIFUL!!! Am now going to poke Mick and tell him to send me updates!! It it phenomenal!!!!

Thanks for visiting Rachel!!!! You are missed around here!

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Am now going to poke Mick and tell him to send me updates!!

Hmmmm! Must mean something else in the USA.

[Nerak]

prevert!!!!

[Rachel Readman]

< Mick's face

Wonderful to catch up with you all again! Thank you all for your caring thoughts and your support.

It's good to hear that you're all still enjoying your Constant Reader sculptures and finding all the hidden details. Seems you're all eager to have the CK sculpture too, lots left to do on it yet though.

We do have some Constant Reader pieces available in Bronze or Pewter finishes for those that were not aware of it at the time or didn't get chance to get one of the painted editions. You can PM or email me if you want more info or wish to purchase one. (This is probably not the thread to be posting in though. Maybe I should start another thread and put pictures on there, but where should it go on here and is it OK for me to advertise my work for sale?)

Well, time for dinner then on with the sculpting!

[Rachel Readman]

How on earth do I PM someone? I followed the site FAQ but none of what it says to do is available on screen i.e. No PM button for any members on any posts.

I checked my user CP setting and it is all correct.

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

You need to have posted at least 5 messages before you can PM.

[Rachel Readman]

Ah, OK one more to go then, thanks for your help.

[Matt]

It is an attempt to stop SPAM Rachel--our board is getting killed with it as we get more popular.

You, however, are obviously not SPAM so I fixed your sign on so you can do whatever you like.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[jhanic]

Matt's a good guy!

John

[Rachel Readman]

Thanks Matt it's working fine now!

Sorry to be a pain but in relation to my other question from a few posts up: "(This is probably not the thread to be posting in though. Maybe I should start another thread and put pictures on there, but where should it go on here and is it OK for me to advertise my work for sale?)"

I'll get used to the boards after a little looking around...

Hi John, hope you're doing well these days!

[jhanic]

Hi Rachael,

Yeah, I'm doing pretty good. I'm looking forward to your pictures of your works!

John

[gsvec]

Rachel, I'd love it if you started a thread to post pics and some commentary!

[furrykids]

Terry and others - So sweet of you guys to think about me. I've actually been lurking around here but haven't posted because I don't collect King anymore so I don't feel I have much to add to the conversations. I still love keeping up to date on everyone's collections and checking out Bob's and Wizard's photos!

Yes, I was diagnosed HIV positive nearly one year ago to this day, but I'm far from sick, I've just been very, very busy with my personal life. (My personal favorite quote is "Living with it, not dying from it"). As the Mr Gay Salem for the year 2007-2008 I've been EXTREMLY busy with my duties, attending over 100 events around Washington & Oregon, raising money every weekend for local charities and organizations and appearing at events and fundraisers all the time. I was the president of the board and coordinator for our local Gay Pride festival which was attended by nearly 3,000 people, I put on a huge fundraiser event in July for an AIDs organization which was extremly successful bringing in a couple thousand dollars and I've been working help found the Gay Salem Businesses Association, the Gay Salem Archieves and a Gay Salem Family group. On top of all that, I've been happily "married" for 7 months. My partner, who I met when he was the current Mr Gay Portland, just recently moved in with me and we couldn't be happier.

I "step down" from my position at the 08-09 Gay Salem pageant in 12 days..my partner is stepping up as the current Mr, and I get to work on running for Mr Gay Oregon in June!

I promise to stick around and post more but again, thank you for all the concern and good thoughts. I'm doing fine, very healthy and am very happy in life..even though my interests in King collecting have shifted elsewhere.

Speaking of "old-timers"...I just recently connected again with Rosandra Montequin (old ebay ID of furrykids) who is living her life in Florida with her husband and daughter very happily and healthy.

Who you calling old, Jonathan? (just kidding)

I came upon this post when "Googling" for something along with my name. Gotta love Google...you never know what cool site you'll find that really had nothing to do with what you were searching for!

Yes, we are here in (mostly) sunny Florida, the lightning capital (and I think) the sinkhole capital also (if not it should be). We had one open up in our front lawn and, after having it checked out by an engineer, we found out we have several deep down that eventually would have swallowed up the house!

We've had more than our fair share of hurricanes everywhere we've moved since we met (Andrew in Miami, Floyd in NJ, and Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Faye were we now live). Apparently Faye was a weird good luck charm because if it weren't for her, we wouldn't have known what was going on under our house. (BTW, anyone else pick up on hurricanes beginning with "F" creating the most floods?)

As for happy and healthy, the first depends on what the latest crises in my life and relationship is and the health has continued the downward spiral since 2000. We had to cancel my daughter's first birthday party (we waited until she actually wanted one) because she has a stomach virus and the flu. She was so excited about it because it was a Halloween/Birthday party. For the goodie bags, we got these cups that were your basic monsters (Drac, Mummy, etc.) with a straw coming out of their screw-on pink brain topsm plus pop-up and bendable Halloween characters. We got her this red flute (test tube) glass being held by a skeleton hand (sans the coffin) to toast to her birthday and were going to bring her the cake on a plate of two cupped skeleton hands. So much more cool scary stuff...It would have been a wicked party.

Obviously my little girl LOVES scary stuff...Nightmare Before Christmas, Haunted Mansion, a stuffed skeleton doll and scary bedtime stories. A "regular" Wednesday Addams in the making. My husband thinks she'll be like Abby in NCIS. (Keep in mind she's only a preschooler). Ironically her love of scary things began with a Halloween episode of Oobi! I guess she'll end up inheriting our collection (maybe even rebuilding it to its previous glory...

Speaking of which, I only sold about half of the collection before she arrived. I tried selling after she was born but I just couldn't deal with it and a new baby and since then, there's always something going on in my life . Maybe I'll eventually be able to get back to selling off the collection.

Of course, with no time to sell, there is no time to read (literally) anything. I hope to one day be alone with my books and all the time in the world to read them (then again, with my luck, it will probably be like that Twilight Zone episode, ""Time Enough At Last".

As for my health, I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy & congestive heart failure, completely out of the blue and for no discernible reason (my cholesterol is within limits, my blood pressure is low-normal, no blockages, etc.). At age 40, I found myself with an implanted bi-ventricular pacer and a defibrillator! But again, the bad comes with some "good". Certain events occurred that allowed it to be caught before it killed me (although I literally had one foot in the grave).

I believe this thread started with what our most prized possession is...I technically have two. The first is all the friends I made (although sadly, I haven't been able to keep up with them all, except for Dallas Mayr, aka Jack Ketchum).

The other is a slipcased From a Buick that King inscribed to me (not at some signing somewhere but in his own house specifically as a gift to me). It is a long story that I haven't really shared with many but every time I look at that book I think of a sister's love and pride for her brother, a brother who proved everyone wrong big time, the man who indirectly started his progress in life and my part in getting the three "together".

OK, I've probably bored you to death by now and I'm losing much needed sleep. I was just so excited to touch base with old acquantances as I have recently on Facebook (where Jonathan "re-found" me). I'll close with a "good to find you" to my fellow old-timers and "nice to meet ya" to those who I may "mee" down road to Dark Tower.

Rosandra

[jhanic]

It's good to hear from you, Rosandra. You and yours are now in my prayers!

John

[carlosdetweiller]

Thanks for taking the time to post, Rosandra. It is good to know what is going on with you and your family. You are in my prayers too. Please stick around and post again when you can.

Bob Jackson

[Matt]

Thanks Matt it's working fine now!

Sorry to be a pain but in relation to my other question from a few posts up: "(This is probably not the thread to be posting in though. Maybe I should start another thread and put pictures on there, but where should it go on here and is it OK for me to advertise my work for sale?)"

I'll get used to the boards after a little looking around...

Hi John, hope you're doing well these days!

It is totally okay to advertise your work any where you would like Rachel. I'm thinking a good spot for a thread would either be the Art Wall or Path of the Beam.

I can also put a link to your site in our link directory if you would like.

And, of course, we have DTbay if you have any specific items that you are looking to move.

[Rachel Readman]

Thanks once again Matt, that's great. We will get a thread up there soon...

I would love to be included in the link directory too. Although the website is minimal for the moment it will undergo a total transformation.

Still carving away, the shape of the CK's head is looking a lot like E.T. at the moment

[Matt]

Patrons of Calvin's Corner will be happy to know that our Collectibes Catalog is the secnod entry when searching google for

Dark Tower Collectibles