Stan 1983 - 2008

My beloved old cockatiel Stan is now flying around heaven. I'm very sad and miss him terribly already.

Garage cleaning

Kelly decided it was time to get rid of one of the by-products of racing - the crashed helmets. They are so expensive (averaging $500 each) that you tend to hang on to them even though they are of no use anymore. Here are mine, lined up on my bike. After I took the picture, I remembered that there was still one more in the closet!

Faux Bone pieces

Here are my finished pieces from Robert's workshop. Very different from what I usually do! I really had a great time making these. I was able to let loose and experiment without worrying about the outcome. Working in a material that is not expensive is very freeing. Silver, especially PMC silver, is quite expensive these days, which makes it hard to do something completely experimental.

Robert Dancik workshop

I was fortunate to have attended a two day workshop last week with Robert Dancik, who was teaching how to use his Faux Bone product. FB is a plastic that you can do just about anything to. It's amazing stuff, but even more amazing was Robert himself! He is a truly gifted artist and wonderful teacher, and I got much more out of his class than I expected. I would take a class in floor mopping if he was offering it. Seriously! I hope to take photos tonight of the pieces I made, which are quite different than what I usually do.

Some Faux Bone examples:

The man and his glorious mess!

Art Therapy

My 25 1/2 year old cockatiel, Stan, has not being doing so well lately. In fact, I'm amazed that he is still here. 25.5 is VERY old for a cockatiel, the oldest my vet has seen is 21! I made myself this piece from a very cute photo of him, it was good therapy. He's getting lots of attention right now, and all his favorite foods - I'm grateful I have this time to dote on him. I've lived with Stan for over half my life!

New etched plates

Here are some newly etched brass plates. I use these to imprint on to the metal clay while it's wet. The fired pieces are then oxidized, and the black stays in the recessed areas, bringing out the image. This is the method I use for all my work. I hope to get pieces made from these plates listed tomorrow.

Another front page!

I made the front page again, and sold the piece almost immediately. Yay! I've got to make more concrete flowers pieces.