Kalaya Steede

Happy Friday everyone!   I thought I had an entire month to finish a piece but I didn't.  I only had until Friday, which is today!  It was time to stop procrastinating (which I do REALLY well) and get busy so I could send this baby on its way up north for a very lucky lady.   Like I said in an earlier post I had to design a pendant with an Ankh. Erin gave me total artistic freedom.  Merci buttercup! Anyway... The Ankh is an Egyptian symbol of eternal life. Another theory is that the loop represented the sun rising above the horizon, which is the crossbar, and below is the path of the sun ( The Ancient Ankh, Symbol of Life by Taylor Ray Ellison) .   Wow! So many different interpretations.  Which do you believe? The finished piece.   This was so much fun to make. What will I make next?  Stay tuned...but in the meantime have a FANTABULOUS Friday!    Namaste Kalaya

You know how sometimes one has unfinished pieces hanging around?  Well, I have a bunch.  This particular piece has been waiting for me to try a new technique.  Pictured below is the front.  I wanted to make the backside matte. When I enamel I usually like the glossy look but I wanted to try a matte finish.  I tried to use wet sandpaper 600 grit to get the matte finish but this is how it turned out. It was very uneven.  I decided to give etching cream a try and this is how it turned out. Oh well!  At least it's the backside.  I was going to put it back in the kiln to fix it but sometimes you just have to stop messing with it before it's too late.  I'm going to have to do more experiments to try and achieve that matte finish.  Here is the final piece on a cable chain.   Live and learn.  Have a great Sunday!   Kalaya