Gourds

I am in love with GOURDS!!!

They are such an amazing surface to work on.
They take any art medium you could use on wood. :) Alcohol inks and dyes are great. Acrylic paints are wonderful- you can add mica powders and other shiney stuff too.
You can stamp on them.
I even coated one with OPALS embossing enamels.

I haven't tried wood burning yet.

Sharpie Markers work great.

New stuff

Been doing some new stuff.

Took some classes in Arizona. Had a great time. Really love the necklace I did in Cory Celaya's class. I'm even reasonably happy with the beading I did on this.

Very much like the coloring. I need to play with this technique more. I've got a lot of new ideas for this. :)

I think I need to do some mini book covers in this manner. I love the weight of them and the vibrancy of the colors.
Using the clear (Franklin) OPALS embossing enamels really makes these POP!

Everyone thinks they are glass. they sure look and feel like glass.

Cory is such a fantastic artist. *sigh* I miss her. Can't wait to go back for another visit.

another link thing

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/Zeborah

Encaustic

Encaustic wax is fun to play with. I've been experimenting with it using a warming tray and rubber stamps.

I should do this blog thing more often

I haven't played with this in a long time.

My friend Cory Celaya just started a new blog.

http://art-with-moxie.blogspot.com/

I love her work.

I got to do a CD cover

I got to design a CD cover for Heather Alexander! Heather's concept-I just put it together in Photoshop for her.
http://heatherlands.com/seafire/pages/merlin_splash.html

I love the songs I've heard in concert from this CD. Can't wait to get my copy. :)

More PMC

It's so easy to add stones to your pieces with PMC. (Precious Metal Clay)

I used lab grown gems- less likely to crack.

You can put the stones in before firing and don't need anything special to "set" them with.

The tiny leaf was done with the slip form of PMC. You can paint this over any organic matter, leaves twigs, butterfly wings!- or use paper clay or cork clay- and it creates a replica in silver. The organics burn away and you are left with just the silver piece.

These pieces were done with simple slab techniques. Just roll the clay out, texture, cut, layer.

I don't think you could ever run out of possibilities with this.

Lots of options for textures. I used stamps and texture sheets from Krafty Lady plus some laces and metal texture sheets.

I've ordered more texture plates. *sigh* So many cool tools available for this stuff.
I need to get a few punch shapes, too.

I used some blacking on these pieces after they were polished to bring out the lines and textures.

I think I used some of the syringe clay on the upper left piece.

PMC

I still haven't gotten brave enough to fire up the new kiln.
I've been pretty busy with Christmas preparations anyway.

I do want to make a couple of things with PMC for Christams presents though- so I guess I need to find some courage somewhere.

I have some pieces I made in class with Linda Hanson that I will be using as gifts. :)

Somebody likes me....

Another artist, who I admire greatly, asked me to contribute to a community weblog she created.

Susan Reynolds- be sure to check out her stuff. She is great.

http://susanreynolds.blogs.com/museumofpaper/2005/11/zeborah_loray_m.html

Getting set up for working with PMC

I have my equipment and supplies for working with PMC now.
PMC= Precious Metal Clay

The kiln is small and doesn't take up much space- the rock tumbler for polishing pieces is small too. You really don't need a lot of studio space to dedicate to this.

Now I just have to get brave enough to open a package of PMC and start creating something with it.

I've taken two classes from Linda Hanson of After Midnight Art Stamps. Loved the classes- turned out some work I was pretty happy with.

It is a lot more intimidating when I'm by myself. My muse needs some courage.

Rust

I bought some more "rusting solution" from Modern Options. I love this stuff.
It is great to be able to make anything you want rust. Paper, plastic, wood, leather, you can apply this stuff to anything. Not sure what I will do with these.

I experimented with the texture mats from Krafty Lady molds with a couple of these. Textured rust. Cool.