posted 02-01-2021 01:06 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by SXPatches:
I do not recognize the spacecraft in the upper-right corner? I look forward to attending and receiving your wonderfully designed patch.

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The spacecraft in the upper right corner is the Chandra X-Ray Telescope launched from Columbia during STS-93 in 1999.

posted 02-01-2021 11:17 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by KSCartist:
The spacecraft in the upper right corner is the Chandra X-Ray Telescope launched from Columbia during STS-93 in 1999.

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posted 02-03-2021 05:34 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Paul J. Brennan:
Just made a purchase of these two and a few older ones.

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• Women of Space 428424 A-B Emblem China 01/21 40
  
• Artemis Team 429019 A-B Emblem China 01/21 01
  
• Artemis-Apollo 429202 A-B Emblem China 01/21 01

  Older patches;
  

• Skylab 7" 297426 Made In China 07/18 01 (old style label) (Also has a blank new style 'crown' emblem label on it too) Bryan B.
  
• Skylab 7" 297426 A-B Emblem China 12/18 01
  
• Mercury 8" 170004 A-B Emblem China 10/1840
  
• Gemini 10" 267835 Made In China 16 09 (old style label) Also has the gold on black diamond shaped 'A-B Emblem Licensee Division 866-403-3788' label too Bryan B.
  
• Gemini 10" 267835 A-B Emblem 0118 04 (USA) (the '4' is a smaller font than all the other numerals)

posted 03-26-2021 05:56 PM               

I wrote to the STS-1 crew asking if I might design their mission patch. They responded with appreciation for my interest but said it had been designed by Robert McCall. They did include a signed crew photo.

I met John Young in 1993 when he was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame and again in 1997 when the Apollo astronauts were inducted.

The first (and only) time I met the Columbia crew together was in 2003 when the Space Mirror was rededicated for the STS-107 crew. Thank you Torie Varkett for capturing this.

Well this year we celebrate those heady days of the beginning of the shuttle program. Jorge Cartes R and I created a new patch to mark the anniversary.

It is in production by A-B Emblem and will be offered by Skyforce Space Patches, The Space Store and USAFSpace.com. I expect them to ship about mid April.

I've hidden a couple of "Easter eggs" in the patch. Let me know when you find them.

posted 03-27-2021 01:34 PM               

Although I like the patch there is one area I have kind of a problem with: the missing faces. Is this intentional or related to embroidering? Or did I miss something?

posted 03-27-2021 09:23 PM               

I was really looking forward to this.

Tim and Jorge, I've always been a fan and a customer... but not this time.

Unless your "Easter eggs" include Young and Crippen's faces, this is just weird. If you didn't think they were executable in embroidery, you should probably have gone in another direction.

posted 03-28-2021 05:17 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by GoesTo11:
Hard pass.

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The patch is 5 inches high, which make the faces about 3/8" high. The patch I created for the Museum of the 99's for their Mercury 13 event last month was very well received. So I took a chance with this.

posted 03-29-2021 11:15 AM               

The Earth is shown at night with city lights sparkling below and stars above. Over the ocean the Astronaut Symbol points the way forward, towards dawn of a new day and beyond Earth to the stars.

Creating a 12 inch patch with all the names can be financially prohibitive so I requested A-B Emblem to add this tribute to my gallery of patches they offer so that this design lives on in tribute to those who gave "the last full measure of devotion" to the exploration of space.

posted 03-29-2021 11:28 AM               

This Final Flight patch has the SKU patch design number of;

• 430401 A-B Emblem Made In China 03/21 40

posted 04-02-2021 02:44 PM               

Maybe if I wait until the 60th anniversary of Gemini there might be a greater demand.

posted 04-02-2021 09:00 PM               

Intricate designs, and images that rely on tonal and shadow gradients to represent their subject matter just don't work with sewn patches that have such a restricted area to work within. Trying to replicate a photograph of the crew portrait, and offering an image that has the faces removed because they can't be replicated on a sewn patch, was a poor decision.

I have admired your work for many years but must admit that the patches you have presented that use such images, including the National Astronaut Day Apollo Commemorative Patch, the Artemis-Apollo patch, and the 60th Anniversary of the Mercury 13 testing at the Lovelace Clinic patch, where the sewing process of subject fine detail does not work well with the sewing media, and as a result, have lowered the standard.

Sometimes the use of negative space can be more important than trying to add too much detail, which makes the design confusing or busy. And for any artist, maintaining a style and level of finish is an important attribute that should be maintained. I believe that if you want to make patches that contain such intricate detail, different media needs to be chosen, which may open another wormhole for traditional pact enthusiasts.

posted 04-03-2021 03:26 AM               

Based on the recent comments, some want realism, but due to the limited space, any attempt at realism will result in something that appears as a cartoon and nobody would like that, including me. By removing the face you remove any attempt to convey emotion and likeness; however, using a silhouette of the face and hair along with the hairline, you can recognize differences and thus identify individuals. Brilliant!!! I defend Tim's decision and I believe it honors the astronauts as pictured in the photograph for STS-1.

The Lovelace patch... I have no trouble recognizing Eileen Collins, her hair is a giveaway. Does anyone recognize the woman being portrayed as one of the Mercury 13? I think NOT, at least not without some effort, but the point here is that there are 13 women being honored by one figure, so removing the face creates anonymity where any and all of the 13 women are represented. Again, brilliant.

The real judge should be those being portrayed. Many people are very critical of their photographs, so I suspect that not having a bad impression of their face that would live forever is a gift.

Tim has a gift for symbolism, and his treatment of the human face is no different in this case. I am designer myself, and until you actually work with the medium being used, it is easy to judge until you are the one making the decisions to realize the best possible outcomes.

By the way, I love the attention to detail and the use of thread that makes these embroidered patches works of art.

posted 04-03-2021 03:05 PM               

I had never seen the Lovelace patch, and whether or not it was "well received," my reaction to it was similar to the STS-1 commemorative.

I suspect that trying to depict realistic human facial features in embroidery is just aesthetically asking for trouble, even for artists as talented as Tim and Jorge.

These seem like an attempt to "split the difference," and for me it just doesn't work.

posted 04-04-2021 12:33 PM               

I went with the crew photo as is because I thought it could work.

Sometimes you hit it over the fence, sometimes you strike out. We'll see what happens.

posted 04-04-2021 01:56 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by GoesTo11:
These seem like an attempt to "split the difference," and for me it just doesn't work.

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posted 04-09-2021 07:57 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by KSCartist:
I expect them to ship about mid April.

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posted 04-22-2021 11:55 AM               

Today I received this email:

Tim, thank you for remembering the 40th anniversary and the nice patch.

posted 05-07-2021 07:00 AM               

There are just a limited edition of 500 of these patches that have been produced on one production run in China.

This STS-1 40th anniversary patch has the SKU patch design number 431602, and so far one date code has been seen.

• 431602 A-B Emblem Made In China 04/21 40 (April 2021)

The other three sellers are:

• The Space Store. Also has autographed patches for sale at $14.95 each.
  
• USAFSpace.com (website and on eBay). Awaiting patches before listing.
  
• Rocket STEM (a media foundation charity listing on eBay lot 353485108067). There were just 8 unsigned and two signed patches available. Bought and received one signed and one unsigned examples.

posted 05-09-2021 11:17 AM               

I requested A-B Emblem to make these for me the edition will be limited to a run of only 500. The retailers you mention have supported me for many years and were chosen by me.

posted 06-05-2021 12:57 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by KSCartist:
The patch I created for the Museum of the 99's for their Mercury 13 event last month was very well received.

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posted 07-16-2021 07:20 PM               

Noting Doug Hurley's recent departure from NASA, perhaps the career of the man who crewed the last flight of the Space Shuttle *and* the first manned flight of Crew Dragon — a decade apart, no less — might be worth a commemorative?

posted 08-06-2021 08:37 AM               

'Our Dream Realized' commemorative patch

On the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a pioneering woman aviator flew to space aboard a commercial spacecraft thus realizing a 60 year old dream of spaceflight.

In this design I imagine the view out the spacecraft window, a "Mercury 13" lapel pin floats in micro-gravity.

Context

In the early 1960s, Dr. William Lovelace’s "Woman in Space Program" was a short-lived, privately-funded project testing women pilots for astronaut fitness. Although nothing concrete resulted, the women who participated have since been recognized as trailblazers, whose ambitions to fly the newest and the fastest craft led them to be among the first American women to gain access to sophisticated aerospace medical tests.

Those women were considered at the time to be the "First Lady Astronaut Trainees."

In the end, thirteen women passed the same physical examinations that the Lovelace Foundation had developed for NASA’s astronaut selection process.

In 1995, when NASA's first woman pilot was launched into space, she invited the surviving members of the "FLATS" to her launch. The term "The Mercury 13" was coined by a Hollywood producer as a comparison to the Mercury Seven name given to the original male astronauts. The Mercury 13 women were not part of NASA's astronaut program, never flew in space as part of a NASA mission, and never met as a whole group.

This however doesn't diminish the fact that (given the same training), they COULD have performed as well as the Mercury 7.

posted 08-09-2021 07:09 PM               

Response has been gratifying but we are not quite across the goal line to make this project viable. Hopefully this news will help.

When Jorge and I created this patch last month, I reached out to Wally Funk via The Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots. Last night I received a response that gave me much joy.

Wally loved it, we all did!!!

posted 10-22-2021 12:04 PM               

Space Artist Tim Gagnon's latest creation is available for sale on our store today.

When the International Space Station (ISS) was proposed, critics said that it would be impossible due in part to the sheer number of Extravehicular Activities (spacewalks) necessary. It was a mountain too high to summit they said.

That criticism wasn't taken lightly and a lot of work went into planning, training the crews and manufacturing all of the equipment needed to accomplish the task of assembling and maintaining the ISS. That work has paid off beyond all expectations.

As of 3 September 2021, there have been 242 spacewalks devoted to assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station totaling 1527 hours and 35 minutes.

• 37 of those spacewalks were performed from a shuttle,

• 93 from the Quest Joint Airlock,

• 32 from the Pirs docking compartment, and two from the transfer compartment at the forward end of the Zvezda service module.

The idea of this patch originated with Tim's friend Eddy Ruytings of Belgium. Inspired by the lighthearted "Hubble Huggers" patch, "Station Steelworkers" celebrates all those who were involved in making the ISS spacewalks a success. The design was created by Tim Gagnon and Jorge Cartes.

posted 10-23-2021 07:01 PM               

The reason is simple, I've turned to A-B Emblem to keep my work alive long after I'm gone. They can reach more people than I ever will.