Art & Soul: Day One

I love learning new stuff - and it's one of those things that gets my creativity fired up. (Along with really good coffee!) September felt a little slow art-making wise, but October started with a bang because of Art & Soul Portland and I've been manically making ever since! Very inspiring stuff - The first class I took was a Plaster and Wax class with Stephanie Lee on Wednesday, October 1st . . . we poured plaster, carved it, colored it, and even cast it in molds. I had never realized what a flexible material it is - and once it's cured, it makes a great surface for encaustic painting.

Here's some plaster I poured, carved, and then colored with pastels during class:


It had cured by yesterday, so I layered some wax, and added a tiny hand cast in plaster . . .


The tiny hand was a gift from a fellow classmate (thank you, Beth!) . . . so, after I got home that night, I went out to the Goodwill and scrounged some dolls so that I could make my own tiny hand and arm molds!

At home, I've been doing some casting in PaperClay and layering it under encaustic . . . After taking the class with Stephanie, I've learned that the plaster is great because you can cast it a bit thicker than the PaperClay without worrying about cracking or shrinkage. The PaperClay is great because it's so easy, immediate, and flexible - and you can use the cracking that happens on larger pieces to great effect! I'll be teaching a class next month about casting in PaperClay and using it in acrylic painting . . . along with other texture effects. Here's the start of a piece that uses cast PaperClay under wax - and yes, those are cast from last weeks' scrounged dolls:

Gotta love the Goodwill! And the ideas that happen when you're in a room full of creative people!