Kalaya Steede

I had the most intensive Faux Bone workshop EVER!   Robert Dancik decided to play in NOLA in the month of May teaching anyone who wanted to learn about Faux Bone at Thomas Mann's studioFlux and I was up to the challenge. What is Faux Bone you ask?   Well, it is PVC but a higher grade of PVC.  It is non-toxic, malleable, can be stained, dyed, twisted, and was founded by Robert. It comes in sheets of various thickness just like metal but sawing is like cutting through butter. I started off making one of Robert's designs so I can learn everything about the Faux Bone. After cutting out my shape and sanding to make it real smooth I used a Dremel engraver to draw my designs into the bone.  Next was to make those engraved sections pop, basically just adding some acrylic paint in the crevices and then wiping the excess off.  Last was to give it a good stain to make it look as though it had been aging for thousands of years. How do you ...

Hope everyone is managing to stay cool.   It is so hot outside even the mosquitoes are staying indoors and they had me for breakfast! Last weekend Thomas Mann's  studioFLUX  hosted Richard Salley .  What a great surprise when I found out Richard was going to be here in NOLA!  I have been wanting to take a workshop with him since FOREVER. It was a two day workshop about making a locket cuff.   So what did I do?   Got to see old friends... and make new ones... and made a couple of tools.   Which was totally cool!   I like making tools but I think you guys know that already.  Mr. Pointy was a scribe and then there is the bezel pusher/burnisher.  Fun to have your own tools that you make to work with. Here is my messy bench.  Everything had been etched, textured, punched, and hinged.  Putting it together is all that was left. Voilà  It was a locket for the man who had ins...