Without a doubt, one of my favourite pieces. Any plans to make a coin with a similar design on a smaller piece of wood?
Nope, The 2015 Coins are done, #9 was just commissioned and a deposit paid, Once the balance is paid by Friday that will conclude the 10 coins for 2015. Coin # 10 will be listed for sale in the coming weeks and the secret of the 10 coins will be revealed. I will still make you a plaque if you want, no year listed but no more coins will be made until December of 2015 when i start the 2016 coins.
Man, can I be your apprentice or something-I'll work for free!
I wont be taking on an apprentice for a while, but when i do it will have a $500,000 price tag. There are under 100 Master Artisan Wood Carvers in the world and it requires 20 years to become a Master Artisan as well as doing your journeyman study as an apprentice of a Master Artisan. The price may sound steep but a Master Artisan makes 20 times that a year. There are a lot of great wood carvers in the world, but a single piece from a Master Artisian fetches 5-10 times that of a hobbyist, and after completing a journeyman study a Junior Artisan can make that money back within a year just having studied under one of the masters.
How many years does the journeyman study as an apprentice of the Master Artisan?
An Journeyman must study for 2 years minimum under the guidance of a Master Artisan to earn is Junior Artisan qualification Sometimes it takes 5 years, it all depends on how well you learn. As a Junior Artisan you can expect to earn $200k - $500k a year for your work. I must warn that 2 years studying under a master artisan is no picnic, it's not fun, and is enough to make a grown man cry. 2 Decades ago when i started my career, my liege (the master artisan whom i studied under) took a hatchet to a piece i had spent 6 months carving, told me it was absolute shit, and that i didnt deserve to lay my hands on such a beautiful piece of wood as i was incapable of letting it express its true beauty. I wanted to put the hatchet into his head ! But after i finished my Journeyman study and he approved my Opera d'arte (final work of art that you must complete to signal you are ready to move on) I realized that his harsh criticisms and ability to non-stop ride my ass pushed my levels of ability to that beyond what most ordinary men are able to do.
Once you complete your Journeyman study you must complete 5 years as a Junior Artisan, Sometimes this is done as an apprentice (instead of a student) to a master artisan, others as an independent study, this is where you learn to take the skills you picked up as a student and fine tune your craft, this is where your art defines itself in style and quality. I did my Junior study in Italy, France, and China, with frequent trips to other places to find my zone.
Once you complete your time as a Junior Artisan a Master Artisan must review another Opera d'arte then you become an Artisan. Artisans on average can earn $1 million to $2 million a year for their works. After 10 years as an artisan you are able to request a Opera d'arte review from a Master Artisan. This piece must be of the highest quality, with the utmost precision, with flawless lines, perfect curves, immaculate detail, perfectly embodied within the grain of your subject wood. In short, so perfect that nobody could ever replicate its existance, something so astounding that the most state of the art machines could not manufacture something as precise.
IF the Master Artisan feels that you have truly mastered your craft, that you have reached the highest level of craftsmanship that is possible, he may deem you a Master. Some Artisans spend their entire life trying to reach the Master level, very few ever do. Master Artisans are the top of the craft, earnings exceed $10 million a year on average, and a true Master Artisan piece of art can fetch upwards of $1 million USD by itself.
Artisan Wood Crafters are a society that have been around since the year of four emperors in 69 AD in Rome, Long before even the free masons and stone workers. Much lesser known as we are a quiet bunch, secrets are so secret that they are not even known as secrets. Meetings are never held but once every 50 years by the Masters. As a culture it started by the carving of the royal beds in 69 AD. Still today, Wherever the heads of royalty, or leaders of nations lay at night, you can pretty much guarantee it is in a bed created by a Master Artisan. A tradition over 2,000 years old
I have yet to lay out the "top of my skill" on a bitcoin piece that anyone has seen here on the forums, but when you see coin #10 you will understand why it holds a 500
BTC price tag even beyond the surprise that it holds. Coin #10 is a true masterpiece and the top of the trade.
$500k to take on a Journeyman when i decide to do so will be a solid investment in someones future, but i will not take on just anyone when i decide to do so. In today's dollars, i paid the equivalent of $2 million dollars to study under my liege 2 decades ago. But i was able to study under one of the greatest on the planet at the time, 50 years as a Master Artisan when he took me in as his under-study.
