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Kneeling Archer Geocoin


wenzelbub

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It sure would! Especially now that (as I have heard) archeologists have done ground soundings and found out that the army has cavalry units that still remain to be uncovered.

 

I'd totally buy one; I've been to Xi'an and seen the Terracotta Warriors and it was awesome (literally).

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Perhaps contact sssooocool (the guy who's family made the Four Spirit geocoins) to see if they could do them in terra cotta? :unsure: Li'l mini terra cotta warriors?

 

CF30

 

That is a GREAT IDEA!

 

Edited to add: I betcha the Chinese pottery place already has half-molds for mini terracotta warriors they could use. : )

Edited by Jackalgirl
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Perhaps contact sssooocool (the guy who's family made the Four Spirit geocoins) to see if they could do them in terra cotta? :o Li'l mini terra cotta warriors?

 

CF30

 

Wrote sssooocool an email.. just waiting for an answer..

 

If I have some time I'll ask some potteries in Frankfurt, if its possible for them to make me a trackable item. But I think it will be too expensive :/

 

And I'm looking for the pottery, which made the delft blue geocoin. Maybe they can make me an offer.

Edited by wenzelbub
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I had the idea to create a geocoin with the chinese terracotta army on it.

 

Do you know of a coin still existing?

 

greetings

Stefan

 

Hi Stefan,

 

Your PM received, thanks.

 

I did have almost the same ideal as yours to make a geocoin of Terracotta Army last year. The Kneeling Archer was the design I chose as the shape is quite awesome and suitable for a geocoin.

 

If you think it would be a help, you can share this ideal or make some change and have your coin made in your country.

 

The more comfortable way to make it is to make a copper or brass metal coin, no color filled, just in antique gold and antique silver finished. The front side is relief, the dark grey of back side is lower than light grey.

 

Make sure they can cut off the part between two legs, if not, adjust the design by moving his right leg a little bit.

 

kneelingarcher.jpg

 

Haima

sssooocool’s family

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More than one and a half year is gone since I asked for a coin of terracotta army... and it's still in my mind.

 

Finally, I made first draft and I want your opinion!

 

kneelingarcher_v2.jpg

 

- Front 3D

- Back 2D

- antique finishes

 

vertical chinese letters = "kneeling archer"

horizontal chinese letters = "terracotta army"

Edited by wenzelbub
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I love the idea!

 

I'm not a coin specialist at all, and you might not be looking for this type of feedback... But:

 

His position doesn't seem completely balanced. A person sitting like this would probably fall over. You might want to move his center of mass more to the right, do that it falls over his support. Perhaps the arms could be positioned more to the right, or feet further to the left. Sorry if I wasn't helpful.

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I love the idea!

 

I'm not a coin specialist at all, and you might not be looking for this type of feedback... But:

 

His position doesn't seem completely balanced. A person sitting like this would probably fall over. You might want to move his center of mass more to the right, do that it falls over his support. Perhaps the arms could be positioned more to the right, or feet further to the left. Sorry if I wasn't helpful.

 

I believe the front design is taken directly from a photo of one of the kneeling archers in the Terracotta Army of the Emperor Qin Shihuang. He would have held a crossbow in the 'ready to launch' position, the way his hands are positioned.

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I have been to Xi'an (when visiting China with the Olympic Torch Relay) and seen the terracotta army and also had the privilege to meet the farmer who discovered them.

 

Sadly, the only cache in the district (a virtual on the Xi'an city walls) was flash mobbed online by German cachers and it got archived, pity really as it was the only one within 400 miles at the time! Thankfully, I found it before that happened. I notice there now appears to be a cache by the museum the army is in.

 

Now to the coin, I am a great believer in coiners making coins to represent things in their own district, and would love to buy one if it were made by a Chinese (or far east) cacher - otherwise, to me, it just feels like stepping on the toes of the locals.

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It's also a different archer than the one that Haiwa showed. That's the cool thing about the Terracotta Army: they were made in a modular fashion, with several different versions of, say, the bodies and the heads etc, so that they could be mixed & matched around and look more like different people.

 

Wenzelbub, I like the coin, but I think that the back could use a little work. The spacing is a little off (some big gaps) and I'd also play with different fonts, or different uses of font (e.g., initial caps). Since you're working with antique finishes, you might want to consider something like sinking a recessed/semi-raised representation of the archer from the other side on the back, then having the text in raised letters. Or, if there's any evidence of the artist's (or artists') chop(s) on the warrior, represent that on the back in recessed/semi-raised metal, perhaps bleeding off the edge, with some other rough texture meant to represent clay (and, again, with the text in raised metal). The antiquing should make for some really nice contrast.

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Now to the coin, I am a great believer in coiners making coins to represent things in their own district, and would love to buy one if it were made by a Chinese (or far east) cacher - otherwise, to me, it just feels like stepping on the toes of the locals.

If I understand you right, only Egyptian themed coins by Egyptian coiners (or maybe African) or Mayan themed coins by South American coiners?

Then, in my opinion, a lot of great coins will never made :/

 

Wenzelbub, I like the coin, but I think that the back could use a little work. The spacing is a little off (some big gaps) and I'd also play with different fonts, or different uses of font (e.g., initial caps). Since you're working with antique finishes, you might want to consider something like sinking a recessed/semi-raised representation of the archer from the other side on the back, then having the text in raised letters. Or, if there's any evidence of the artist's (or artists') chop(s) on the warrior, represent that on the back in recessed/semi-raised metal, perhaps bleeding off the edge, with some other rough texture meant to represent clay (and, again, with the text in raised metal). The antiquing should make for some really nice contrast.

Ok, I'll try to understand this ;) My English isn't very well.

 

It's really a first draft and has potential for improvement.

I'll need to make text recessed, because.. ehmmm.. I can't tell :)

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I’m glad to see that you have your first draft.

 

On my post #11, on top of the sketch, you will find a Chinese Name (4 words) for the coin. They are “keeling”+ “shoot” + “figure buried with the dead” + “coin”. The vertical Chinese letters on you draft on post #12 that I read are “body” + “inch”.

 

If you put these “body” + “inch” together horizontally, that will be another word ---“shoot”. Please check it with your designer.

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Wenzelbub, I like the coin, but I think that the back could use a little work. The spacing is a little off (some big gaps) and I'd also play with different fonts, or different uses of font (e.g., initial caps). Since you're working with antique finishes, you might want to consider something like sinking a recessed/semi-raised representation of the archer from the other side on the back, then having the text in raised letters. Or, if there's any evidence of the artist's (or artists') chop(s) on the warrior, represent that on the back in recessed/semi-raised metal, perhaps bleeding off the edge, with some other rough texture meant to represent clay (and, again, with the text in raised metal). The antiquing should make for some really nice contrast.

Ok, I'll try to understand this ;) My English isn't very well.

 

It's really a first draft and has potential for improvement.

I'll need to make text recessed, because.. ehmmm.. I can't tell :)

 

It might be a little easier to show:

 

Multi-Level-Back_Example.jpg

 

The chop is the artist's signature, and looking at my example, I'd actually recommend NOT using it as a background: the text on top would make the signature difficult to read. If you have the signature and want to use it, I think it would be better to have it somewhere where there is no other text on top of it.

 

I do think that having a multi-level image of the back of the archer would be cool, with the text raised, as you see in my example.

 

If you're not sure what I mean by multi-level, check this out (sorry, it's big):

 

Compass_Back_Level-Example.jpg

 

In this graphic, I'm actually calling the levels out by numbers (that's how the mint does it). As you can see by the 2D level guide in the upper right-hand corner of the picture, level 1 is the highest level and level 4 is the lowest. When I say "multi-level", I'm talking about having the image of your warrior's back done in colors that indicate the lowest three levels, leaving level 1 for the text.

 

When the antiquing is applied, it's going to make those lower levels darker, so the text will "pop" and be easy to see (and read). I've used a pretty awful color scheme here because I want the mint to know exactly what I want, so I want the levels to be clear. Painfully clear, in this case. ; )

 

In my topmost example, I used a serif font (Beryllium) for the text and another one (Garamond) for the tracking number. A serif font is a font with serifs -- that is, those bits on the "legs" of the letter that curl out. For historical things, I tend to prefer using serif fonts (but that's just me).

 

Arial, which is a sans-serif (no serif) font, is overused (in my opinion) and a bit too "clean" and modern in your case. (Again, this is my opinion; if you prefer it, then use it! : ) )

 

Note that the mint should be able to use a few different fonts for engraving. They tend to love Arial. But they should be able to use Garamond, which is a classic serif font. So if you want to use serif fonts for the back and want the serial number to also use a serial font, ask what they can do.

 

I hope this is a little easier -- sorry about my (muddy) first attempt!

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Now to the coin, I am a great believer in coiners making coins to represent things in their own district, and would love to buy one if it were made by a Chinese (or far east) cacher - otherwise, to me, it just feels like stepping on the toes of the locals.

If I understand you right, only Egyptian themed coins by Egyptian coiners (or maybe African) or Mayan themed coins by South American coiners?

Then, in my opinion, a lot of great coins will never made :/

 

 

Yep, call me old fashioned, but the days of empire building are over :laughing:

 

To me, it just adds to the provenance of the coin if the design comes from within the local community.

 

They are, after all, GEOcoins.

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kneelingarcher_v3.jpg

 

New draft with new front and back.

Thanks to Haima for translating into chinese and thanks to jackalgirl for "Garamond" hint :)

 

Text on backside is recessed.

 

Do you like draft? Something to change?

 

I'm not sure if it's allowed to write trackingcode like this, waiting for reply from Groundspeak.

EDIT: Reply from Groundspeak: "the way the code is listed will be just fine" :)

Edited by wenzelbub
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The new draft is quite a good idea that it has more space for words, and seems it has also solved the problem of cutting the area between two legs.

 

If you are making this coin smaller than your draft, please reduce the draft of Kneeling Archer to actual size to see if the words are readable. Meantime, send the draft of both sizes to the factory to check with them if they can make clear words on those sizes as showing in your actual one.

 

The other thing is the front view of a human face is more difficult to be engraved properly than the side view; however it might not a problem on this coin as the head of the archer is quite small.

 

Haima

sssooocool’s family

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I have to agree on wanting to see the back of the archer when viewing the back of the coin. I love the idea overall, but would also like to see an actual bow in the archer's hands, too. Weren't the actual weapons staged with the effigies? Possibly a plaque or shield over the 3d back could overcome the difficulty in displaying the text as well. :)

 

I did some research in the past but could not find a clear answer about additional armor or the weapon (bow or crossbow).

To make this coin look like found and displayed in Xi'an, I do not want to add parts maybe haven't been to this archer when he was built 2200 years ago.

 

kneelingarcher_back_v1.jpg

 

Moved the "track at .. " into the head to get some space and trackingcode is now written on a chinese roll.

 

Do you like it?

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Got two request to post current artwork so here wo go:

 

preartwork_kneelingarcher.jpg

 

i think the design is awkward in the different directions parts of the body are pointing. his head is looking off screen right but the upper body is straight ahead which makes the way the legs are pointed odd. the kneeling knee is pointing forwards while the other knee is pointing also screen right. in order to get the left elbow resting on the knee his upper body would have to be turned away slightly

 

this is a photo of an actual archer and you can see how the body parts all related to each other in an anatomically correct way. i just think the art work is not coming together.

 

41n3dfkYyeL._AA300_.jpg

 

a larger issue than design is the origin of the original photograph. if you used a photo of an actual piece, you need to think about plagiarism and copyright of the original photo. i am assuming you did not go to china and photograph the terra cotta figures.

 

my 2¢

Edited by RedShoesGirl
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They look really good. The copper is my favourite too, and I think the antique versions all look pretty good the way they are.

The only one that might need some colour would be the silver one (maybe with blue), as it doesn't look like the text stands out as much, but that could just be the photo.

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Kneeling_Archer_Set.jpg

 

- Kneeling Archer Antique Silver

- Kneeling Archer Antique Bronze

- Kneeling Archer Antique Copper

- Kneeling Archer 2-Tone Gold/Nickel + transparent red (XLE)

 

Only 25 of XLE has been made and they are only available in the Collectors-set!

 

After GFC2011 EU I have added the remaining Kneeling Archer to my webshop: www.WBcoins.de

Edited by Flying Spaghetti Monster
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