What's New

New Texture sheet

 This pendent is made is with my newest wood block. I guess that makes it 'Wood Block Four'. It's not on my Real Textures page yet.

 I'll add 'think of better names' to my to do list. 

 Wood Block Four is molded from an amazing, hand carved wooden print block. It is the most finely carved print block I own, and it is in near perfect condition. These texture sheets are exquisite. 

 A few words about my texture sheets:

 I make each one of these individually,  by hand, one at a time.

 Each one is molded from the actual object.

 Yes, I do sit out in the woods. I mix and sheet RTV silicon, then press it into the one special ancient fallen tree that has the best spot to take a mold of the subtle texture I call 'Weathered Wood'.

 For the textile block patterns, I make each one from the actual hand carved wooden block. Most of these blocks are not perfect, they have areas of wear or damage.  I like this, I feel it gives them character and complexity.  If you scroll down this page to the tile made with 'Wood Block Two', you will see what I am talking about. 

 This gives my texture sheets a very different effect than a mass produced rubber stamps or plastic texture sheets. Rubber stamps have either IN, or OUT. My texture sheets are that, 'Texture', whole mini-mountain ranges of variable depth. Even my sheets made from the textile blocks have variable depth. Look at those soft pillow shapes between the carvings, nice.  

 I use a high quality, commercial, RTV silicon mold compound. These are thin, approximately  2mm, strong,  flexible sheets. You can wrap them around your finger to impress just a small area or edge. They are thin enough to go through most pasta machines with a sheet of clay.

 They are silicon. You do not need a release agent. Things don't stick to them. This is wonderful and will spoil you.

 I love these texture sheets, I think you will too! 

  The  land owner, Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, surprised the school with plans to sell the property the school is on to developers. The economic downturn had an upside, the developers dropped the negotiations.

 You can read about this on the Arrowmont web page:

www.arrowmont.org

Susan wrote in a note to me:

 'The intentions of the governing board of Pi Beta Phi to divest themselves of the land and the philanthropy of Arrowmont are now known, and the Arrowmont board of directors must move to protect the school from eviction by discussion with the fraternity, city of Gatlinburg and state of Tennessee. At any rate, all proceeds from the sale of arrowpinz go to the school and contributors get a receipt for donation.'

 I was so impressed by her pins, great work for a good cause. If you would like to donate to Arrowmont, there is a link on their web site.

Sandy Camp '08

Sandy Camp was a wonderful time ! It is such a inspiring event, with so many great artists.

My texture sheets sold well at the 'Artist Showcase' store, and I traded for some fantastic things ! A Kathy Davis pendent, a Jean Sheppard bracelet , and much more!

And speaking of SDPCG, Marie Segal has a great tutorial for sale on making bracelets. She had some great bracelets at Sandy Camp, one with my Lauhala my texture sheet:

www.mariesegal.com

My local guild Clayville California , web site has new pictures on the 'members page':

clayvillecalifornia.com

Thanks to Julie Picarello and Maureen Thomas for all their work for the guild.

I am still working on the examples pages for the new textures.

They are under construction, but take a look anyway. There are some nice pictures of what I've done with the texture sheets. 

 This vessel is on the examples page for Wood Block Two 

The ceramic look is Wood Block One

And, of course the last one is Desert Sandstone! I love that one.

 It's always something...but I will update the polymer  gallery pages soon.   

I mold it from a huge old tree, just no way to take it home with me.   

All but my newest texture sheet (see above), have been moved to the Real Textures page.

Along with that, I've changed the graphic. This picture, one of my favorites, will no longer grace the Real Textures page.