Friday, August 01, 2008


My first bronze pieces done in '99.
Necklace with opals, herkimer diamonds, silver and crystals.



Gifts from Carter Seibels! I could just eat them up! I am so pleased. I especially love the cute pouch, I think green ones would suit my goods.
I've got bronze on my mind, see my first pieces? My caster didn't make any masters of these pieces, so I had to re- carve the ones I wanted to keep, the rest are, shall we say 'limited edition'. I spent the last several days making tools for bronze clay (remember: cross contamination) and new molds to try out. I carved four: a tree, a fancy bird, an owl and a mermaid. I am very curious how these molds will look in bronze. Hopefully they look really good and I can have them for the upcoming California shows. I'm going to try to make bezels as well, to add to my pile of empty ones, ready to be filled with little sculptures. I love making them, its like 3-d painting. Speaking of paint, I picked up a Daniel Smith catalog and found watercolors made with gemstone pigments: turquoise, lapis, sugilite, bronzite and many others. I can't wait till my order gets here! I am a rock hound and watercolor tester ( I have quite a collection of tubes and cakes) what a combination! I tried making lapis powder (to make egg tempera) and I must've been a little over enthusiastic about grinding and completely bruised the color. It didn't look great. But this does, I bet I could gesso the interiors of the bezels and paint inside. I tried mounting watercolor paper and pouring resin on top, it bubbles like crazy! Too porous. Well, I feel like a mad scientist tonight, all ready to experiment, yet also ready to enjoy a cream soda float.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Love what you did with the Herkimer diamonds--we live for the sparkly. Hey, did you know all my Tucson stash is brown? What's up with that?

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Cynthia - Depending on what kind of watercolors you used, did you first try spraying them lightly with a fixative and letting that dry and then coating them with a clear gel medium? The paper itself is too porous and mixing the medium on top of the watercolors might "lift" the colors, but if you sandwich a coat of fixative, it might actually work. You wouldn't get any bubbles or worry about the watercolors coming off.

(Oh, and Eva... I remember a very spirited game with opals... so it couldn't be all brown.)

Anonymous said...

hi dink,

guess what. i started a blog! here it is: http://paintingmeditation.blogspot.com/

hope you guys like it.

remember last time i was in asheville? i ordered a set of plain daniel smith watercolors and told you about those stone pigments. they are cool aren't they? glad you are getting some, now i can try yours when i come to visit next month!

kiss that baby for me.
dink

Black Cat Ranch said...

LOVE your early bronzes! I for one would be interested in a duplicate of the horse. I would make a lovely pin!

Lucy
Black Cat Ranch

belvedere beads said...

i use all the daniel smith gemstone paints - watercolors and oils. you are in for a tremendous treat, they are luminous and luscious.