January 23, 2006
Free time
I'm a bit late in posting this but better late than never, right? Justin went
home a day early, on Thursday, Jan. 12th. Of course, he's thrilled to be back in
comfortable surroundings again. He has adjusted well to being at home, having
already conquered going up and down stairs and showering on his own. He started
his outpatient therapy at the Shepherd Pathways facility last week as well and
is doing better than expected.
Now that I have some free time on my hands I decided to redo my art gallery on
my website. I've added a bunch of work, some old stuff from my high school and
college days as well as some more recent work. It has been organized into
categories for easier navigation. You can view the new gallery by clicking
here or using the link at the top of the page. Putting this gallery together
really made me realize how much I need to get off my butt and do some new
artwork. I've got a few crafty projects I've been itching to try so maybe I'll
have more stuff to add before long. Click around and try not to laugh too
hard... I did some of that stuff in high school... 
Posted by pixelbrat at 9:36 PM
December 4, 2005
Art: A good stress reliever
Since Justin has been doing so well lately (relatively speaking) I finally felt comfortable enough to take a break for some artwork. There is a silver pendant I've been wanting to make so I dragged out my silver clay and went to work. For those of you who aren't familiar with silver clay (also known as Precious Metal Clay or PMC) here's a quick explanation. PMC is a clay like material made of 99.9% pure silver held together with an organic binder. You can mold, sculpt or carve the PMC into jewelry or anything you like. When the piece is dry you can fire it with either a torch or in a kiln. The firing process burns away the organic binder leaving only the pure silver behind. After a bit of polishing you have a finished piece.
I made the pendant you see below. I just love the saying "Good Girl Gone Biker" and decided to use it along with my biker chick logo. Pretty neat, huh? It was a much needed stress reliever considering all that's going on right now.
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Posted by pixelbrat at 12:39 PM | Comments (1)
September 6, 2005
Ever wondered why your PC goes on the fritz?
It's probably this little guys fault! This is my interpretation of the little "gremlins" that reside in all of our computers, driving us mad with random reboots and dreaded BSOD's! (Blue Screen Of Death) I spent the weekend sculpting this little beastie out of polymer clay and some leftover computer parts. Living in a geek infested household we have lots of useless computer bits and pieces laying around. An old stick of memory and some little electronic doodads from a video board became the base. The photo below is deceptive. He's actually a wee little guy - measuring only about 2 inches tall.
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See more photos by clicking on the link below.
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Posted by pixelbrat at 7:28 PM | Comments (2)
August 21, 2005
My newest crafty obsession...
I've been on vacation all this week so I took advantage of the free time to get obsessed with a new craft... working with Precious Metal Clay. (PMC) This stuff is really cool!! PMC is a clay like material made of 99.9% pure silver held together with an organic binder. You can mold, sculpt or carve the PMC into jewelry or anything you like. When the piece is dry you can fire it with either a torch or in a kiln. The firing process burns away the organic binder leaving only the pure silver behind. After a bit of polishing you have a finished piece. Neat, huh?
As you might imagine this stuff isn't cheap but boy is it fun being able to make your own pure silver jewelry! Below is a photo of my 3 favorite pieces I made this week.
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You can see more detailed photos and a few more pieces by clicking the link below...
The piece on the right was one of the first pieces I made. I'm going to make it into a beaded bracelet eventually. The "Lady Rider" charm on the left can be used as a pendant or a zipper pull. I hope to sell a few of these on Ebay.
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The leaves below were made by painting PMC paste (watered down PMC) onto the back of leaves. When the pieces were fired in the kiln the leaves burned away leaving the detailed vein patterns imprinted into the silver.
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These last few pieces are my favorites. The rings were a challenge and took a lot of time to do but I'm pleased with the end results.
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Neat stuff, eh? Now if only I didn't have to go back to work on Monday...