Color . . .

Trial and error.

The 'trial' is the scan. My poor printer is not a high-quality piece and trying to get color and detail just right is probably not in the stars for this machine. I guess that makes this the 'error', as well.

Still.

A little colored pencil piece that I'm pretty proud of. A red 1957 Chevrolet front fender and bumper drawing that measures 2.5"x3.5" as in "ACEO size". The scan comes into play as I'd like to scan and print a limited run of all of my hotrod drawings for summer shows. A departure from jewelry for me. Labors of love, these little "jewels" are.

Love.

Sunday enamel play . . .

Such a great day!  I carved out a few hours this Sunday afternoon to play with my enamels and see what developed?  My goal is to keep at it until I know what to expect each time - I guess that's called consistency - and I'm slowly figuring out my technique issues as I go.

I took a few old pairs of copper earrings and here's what came from my playtime.

I love the orange dangly pair - what a wonderful color and I so like the way it darkened on the edges.

The sky blue pair turned out lumpy and I've got to figure that one out.  I think I need to leave the fire on it for a little while longer.  Not sure. Hmmm . . . . 

The flower pendant was turquoise with tangerine sprinkles on the edges.  I can see that I had a little bit of contaminant on one of the petals so next time I'll remember to clean a bit longer before I sift the enamel powder onto the piece.  The three silver balls are attached by first drilling holes where you want the decor, enameling and then threading the balled wire through and torch-pinning on the backside.  This one I'll keep for myself because it's got a boo-boo.

Overall, happy.  Happy and successful day.

And now for something complete different . . .

. . . a few of my drawings.

I have a 'thing' for drawing reflections and shiny metal not to mention a love affair with old cars. When we hit the car shows and cruise nights, I am constantly on the lookout for interesting shots. I take my own photos and crop and manipulate them until I come up with something 'pencil-worthy'. I use Prismacolor colored pencils on Arches paper.

These are a '55 Chevrolet BelAir and a '60 Ford Thunderbird. I sometimes get requests to draw the entire car but that's not my 'thang'. I prefer to get the angle that I think tells the most about the car. All the better if there is a reflection of another car!

Look closely - I also make sure when I take a picture that my own reflection is in each car somewhere. A nice contrast to the hard metals I usually work with.