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.

I made the front page!

I got to work this morning and discovered one of my pieces on the Etsy front page! Yay! The necklace featured went from 60 views to over 800 in about half an hour. Here's a screen shot:

My first Etsy treasury

Etsy treasuries (found on the left side nav of the Etsy home page) are items picked by members, and are a different way to browse through the jillions of really cool things on Etsy. There are a limited number of treasuries at any time, so it's hard to get one. I got my first today though, and featured my fellow Etsy MetalClay Team members (who have done the same for me!) It's a suprisingly fun thing to do, and if you're lucky, your treasury will make the front page. Or even better, a treasury with one of your pieces makes the front page (you're not supposed to put your own work in treasuries you make). Here's a screenshot of mine.

Another giveaway!

Made it back from the races in one piece (both me and my bike!) but I'm tired and dehydrated. I'm participating in another blog giveaway - check it out and enter at scoutiegirl.com

Off to the races

I'm off to Thunderhill this evening for 3 days of motorcycle racing. The photo is of me with my boyfriend Kelly behind me. It's fun, expensive and yes, dangerous, although crashing on a race track is far better than crashing on the street. There are workers in every corner to help you, and ambulances standing by should you get hurt.

I'm a member of the Etsy Metal Clay team!

I was accepted into the Etsy Metal Clay team - yay! You search do a search for emc and see all the work that has been tagged by our members. I need to go and edit my shop so my listings show up.

Bronzclay

Here is my second batch of Bronzclay pieces, unfired. They look like terra cotta, but will transform into bronze after 9 hours in my kiln. I make quite a mess working with the bronzclay - with the silver clay every last crumb and speck gets saved to be resued, but since the bronze is considerably less expensive, the dust and filings get everywhere! The upside is that now my bench gets cleaned more regularly.