creative energy

[piranha]

lots of it today, which might explain why i am still up. whoa, i can see the colour of the sky change in the east.

experimented with pearly clays, trying to approach the nacre of mussels, but not quite getting there -- i realized early on i had used too much colour, and just went for a pearly spring texture. that turned out pretty well. also made some shell beads in the molds i made yesterday; they came out ok too, and look like they'll work fine with the beads that will result from the pearly spring texture:

  

the texture sheet is raw, and it's not from the best part of the block; the middle is swirlier. the shell beads and baked but they've not been polished yet.

i also played a lot with photoshop, which i am wont to do now and then, working on silversmithing designs and original textures. i got several fun ones, such as the stone texture of this amulet, and the golden plasma, as well as a painterly one that i think is just beautiful (warning, these are not reduced; they weigh in at more than 250kb each):

     

and last but not least (mostly for the paramour, but of course y'all are welcome to look), boat pictures from friday are those marked new in the appropriate category.

Comments

[swerved.livejournal.com]

Wow. Those are gorgeous. I'm also extremely jealous of the boat. :)

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

you could come visit. :)

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

Lovely! Thanks.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Pretty things! <claps hands in delight>

Is the stone amulet original, or based on a photo? It looks a bit like a New Zealand jade pendant in design.

And where are you heading in the boat once it's finished? Any chance of ever getting down under?

[(Anonymous)]

glad you like. :)

the amulet shape is definitely based on the style of NZ bone and jade carvings (though i didn't take the outline straight from a picture, but drew it myself). i love those designs. when my lapidary skills get there, i'd really like to try and shape several of those in a local stone. that'd be quite the challenge.

once the boat is finished, i anticipate that we'll travel around the georgia strait (between the canadian mainland and vancouver island) for quite a while -- neither of us has a lot of experience with a boat this size, and the BC coast with its many islands and fjords is so beautiful that one could easily spend several lifetimes here and not see everything.

though when we fantasize, we talk about travelling around the pacific rim, so eventually we'd get to australia, *grin*. we'll see about how that goes. it'd take serious planning and preparation, and serious saving up beforehand. and then there is the other direction, ya know -- i'd really like to visit costa rica, and then go through the panama canal and to the caribbean, and then maybe across the atlantic... *heh*. the boat is definitely capable of going that distance; whether we are is something we shall find out. before i met the paramour, i was looking at sailboats to circumnavigate (though in a rather more leisurely manner than that term indicates), but the depression has also dampened the gypsy lust.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I've visited BC briefly, including a bit of time on Vancouver Island. I can't begrudge you wanting to spend lots of time sailing around the area. It is lovely, and just the kind of place to explore by boat.