I'm warning you--I could spend a LOT of time on Egypt. I have always loved Egyptian art and my visit to Egypt almost a year ago was a dream come true for me. I have some simpler Egyptian themed pieces completed, with some more complex pieces, hopefully to come. My scarab necklace has proven to be more difficult than I'd first imagined. I haven't even sketched it out yet, but will, today and post it to this blog so that you can get somewhat of an idea of where I'm trying to go with it. One of my major problems with it is that I had planned to make one scarab of lapis colored glass--I've got that one covered--but I was also planning on scarabs of bronze and white bronze clays. I made molds and have made a few hollow scarab forms of white bronze clay--which I love the idea of, but have had too many technichal difficulties with it to persue. The main being that, even in a fired state it is very brittle. Much more so than even glass. The finish on it is unpredictable, too. Sometimes it looks shiny and much like silver, sometimes whitish with a very interesting, but matte finish which I have used and liked in other projects and sometimes it looks very much like bronze clay.
So--I am going to forget about white bronze scarabs and use either bronze and, hopefully steel metal clays--the steel is still also iffy, or go back to actual metals. I have recently learned of oval dapping forms which, if I can get in the size that I am thinking of, might change this project to actual metal--probably sterling silver and Nu-gold, which is a brass alloy that somewhat resembles gold.
The necklaces on the top of the page are part of my "Talk Like an Egyptian" series of names in heiroglyphics. The black one reads "Anne", the yellow is "Jennifer" and the fuzzy green one reads "Shelly/Sherry". I have two rings in the series too, which I can't find the photos of and are currently (or hopefully sold!) in the gallery. If interested you can see them on my Goulash Designs Facebook page.
.....more Egypt coming soon!
