Arrowmont Pt. 3

I know I'm ping ponging a bit, but I do want to show off some of the work I made at Arrowmont. My first workshop was Plastics and Resins for Jewelry with James Thurman. I have to admit, I'm not a plastics kinda gal. I tend to develop an uncomfortable skin rash as a result of working with most plastics. I also kinda hate the feelof most plastics. Give me stone or glass. But, I was interested in the mold making aspect of the workshop, and hoped to learn about some different resin products that I might not be allergic to.

We experimented with several casting resin, Rio's Colores system, two types of silicone mold materias, and made soon to be pateted Thurmanite; layers of paper held together by layers of industrial airplane resin. We went over the basics of how to turn our plastic components into jewelry, and some studio set up. We also had the best Tuesday night kareoke ever that week.

I, of course spent the week making plastic rocks from model train rock molds and molds I made from rocks I found. Which, as it turns out are pretty convincing as real rocks, leading me to believe that my only real talent is the parlor trick of making fake rocks out of anything. I also made some rosary components with air dry paper clay and the Colores System. I was pleasantly surprised that they turned out exactly how I wanted them too, seeing as I'd never worked with those two materials before. I'm pretty pleased with the finished rosary too, it's perfectly sparkly and oceanesque. Sorry I don't have a picture, but the white/turquoise pieces are the reject components.

I really enjoyed the Thurmanite also. The cutting/shaping isn't super fun, but I really like the results. I just wish I knew what to do with it.

James was super great also, super knowledgeable and super high energy. The class produced a TON of stuff. I probably produced the least, because I was concerned about my skin allergy (which did start to pop up by the end of the week). It was still a great workshop, even if I don't think plastics will ever be my thing (did I mention that I also hate being sticky?), but it's still a good set of skills to have.

Now what do I do with all those plastic rocks?