Kalaya Steede

New Orleans is filled with many fantastic artists.  So why not interview some of them once in a blue moon?  Lucky for me that my good friend and artist Amber of Amber Leilani Designs allowed me to interview her. Amber Amber is originally from Plains, GA and had visited New Orleans several times before deciding to make it her home in 1997.  Currently she sculpts paper clay into these fabulous dolls but before we get into that let us see how she got there. Witches, dolls, and monsters oh my! I met Amber at a gallery here in NOLA many, many, moons ago.  Back then she was designing and creating some incredible beaded jewelry.  My favorite are her beaded bracelets but she has also made some beautiful pendants. Work in progress. Picture by Amber Leilani Amber had attend art school back in the day but decided it was not for her.  She is mainly self-taught and works part-time here in the city. How d...

I am experimenting with this new app called Diptic.  I used this app for all the pictures you see on today's post.  It was real easy to use and I like that a lot. I like it especially for when there are going to be lots of pictures and this post will have lots of pictures! Here is my Valentine's gift for my valentine this year.  I decided to make a piece of wall art which I have NEVER done.  Yay, a challenge! Basically I took a piece of wood, applied gesso, painted, and was going to mount this paper clay heart, that I sculpted, on top.  It was all ready to go when I decided that it needed MORE!!!   It needed dimension. It needed a top, a bottom, and some wings.  But how does one attach such things?  That is when plaster came to mind. I will make the parts out of card board and then use plaster wrap to put it all together. Looks easy enough.  Thanks to this book by Stephanie Lee & Judy Wise. I used maskin...

Here are some new things I've been working on. My good friend Amber has inspired me to sculpt.  For my second attempt (first was Grim) I decided to do some hearts.  At first they looked like cat heads but after some tips from Amber they started to look like hearts.  You rock Amber! These are made from paper clay.  All three are dry and ready for some paint. Yay!  It's Wednesday.  Can't wait for this weekend. Don't forget to come out to Art for Arts Sake this Saturday.  It's going to be an enchanting evening!  Hope to see you there. Namaste Kalaya