Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Chalk Mountain

More like Brokeback Chalk Mountain, as you can see! This is part of my chalk collection....and yes, it is a hot mess. My favorite reds are in the second picture (Jocelyn ;-)). I love the dark reds! I also use a deep maroon color quite a bit, which is on the far left. I do alot of mixing.






20 comments:

  1. Part of magic potion to create perfect apples?

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  2. Love seeing the tools and materials that are used by an artist:)Lots of very nice colors. Must have taken some time to collect them all.

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  3. Ok, tell please, how do chalk figure in clay making? Yea, I am the most ignorant here but at least I am not afraid to ask ! You know, I bought my rolling pin because of you! Haha. That's why it is propped against the mirror because I don't know when I am going to use it. Do you even use one?

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  4. my comment disappeared again!! :( anyway, i was saying that is this entry for me?? -blushes furiously heehee. and my chalk is like the shades of the 2nd and 4th chalks from left in the 2nd photo, might try mine again sometime, they might just MAGICALLY work somehow! haha, how positive!

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  5. Great to see all those chalks! I've been trying to make a collection too! Keeping them all in one container, does it ever get messy or make it hard when you don't want a certain color rubbing on to a another?

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  6. Awww, thank you for liking my messy chalk collection, lol!!

    Susan, you grate the colors you want to use on your unbaked clay. For example, for apples, I grated one of my brighter red chalks and one of my darker reds, then mixed the powder together. I brush it on with a soft paintbrush.
    I do use a roller- a clear acrylic one! I roll out clay on my ceramic tile, but I use a bit of talc on the tile and the roller so it doesn't stick. Did you buy a wooden baker's rolling pin? Some people also use straight sided glass bottles for rolling out clay, too. Or, you can use a pasta machine! I just stick to my acrylic roller, though.

    Jocelyn, get some darker reds too! Like the third and last one from the left :-D

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  7. Christel, that is just one container of chalk! I have boxes of them in a drawer, too! Some are in complete sets, but I like to buy them individually so I get the exact colors I want. I have alot of Pearl Ex pigment powders too. It's out of control!!

    Hey Sara! YES, it is VERY messy!! You should see my hand when I go digging through there. You'd think that there would be a problem with the different colors rubbing off on eachother, but once I start grating them, it's fine. Ideally, you don't want to be as messy as I am though, HAHA!!! My chalks didn't start out looking like that, but over the years, they just turned into that pile!

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  8. my comment disappeared too :(

    i LOVE the reds! WANT!!!!!

    (i use a small glass bottle from when bf bought a vit-c drink XD )

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  9. HAHA!! Cindy, get your arse in gear and start collecting those reds :-D!! From crimson to indian red to burgundy- get them all. Sometimes I "paint" with the chalk powder too. I either mix it with a little water or a little varnish.

    You are going to outgrow that small glass bottle in no time, trust me, Cindy!

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  10. Thanks for all the neat advice Kiva!

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Oh by the way are these chalks pastels? What brand do you use? I'm going to start to collect awesome reds like you!

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  13. It is my absolute pleasure, Sara ;-)! I have a bunch of different brands but I tend to buy alot of Nu Pastels and Van Gogh (NOT Rembrandt, which I mentioned before but are softer) partly because there is an art store here that sells them individually. Just make sure that they are hard pastels/chalks and not the oil based ones. I made the mistake of buying oil ones when I first started and it was lovely trying to grate it, lol!! Ok, I just looked and I also have Daler-Rowney and Cretacolor brands as well.

    The Nu Pastels look like this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/prismacolor-nupastel-color-sets/

    And you lucky bugger!! I used to walk to Dick Blick when I lived in S.F.! I lived on Sutter Street, in the Steinhart (a historical building).

    Hey, I see that you mentioned your love for bone marrow! WOOT!! I used to eat it at The Grand Cafe in S.F.:

    http://www.grandcafe-sf.com/

    - I got my ex- boyfriend into it and he couldn't get enough! Every time he was in town, he wanted to eat there.

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  14. Ok, I just checked the menu online at the Grand Cafe, and it appears that they no longer serve the bone marrow!! WTF?? That is a major travesty. Sara, call them up, or better yet, GO there, and demand the marrow! Tell them that a friend recommended the bone marrow and you are dissapointed to find that it is now off the menu! If that doesn't work, tell them that you will walk up to Fleur de Lys ;-)

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  15. Hi, it's me again :-D! Sara, you asked about the "bloom" on my plums. Ok, I used to use talc (baby powder) but I hated the way it looked....so clumpy and heavy. Like, you should have been snorting it instead of "eating" it. I needed something finer, for sure. About a year or two ago, I started buying tons of mineral makeup (much of it remains unused to this day). I found a jar of Silica in my makeup stash and tried it, because I knew that it was SUPER fine. That did the trick! If you can't find silica, I'd recommend something like rice powder. But silica? This stuff is golden, man:

    http://www.coastalscents.com/cfwebstore/index.cfm/product/388_46/silica-powder-spheres.cfm

    It will give you the perfect bloom on your fruit...and give your face that much desired "airbrushed look"!

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  16. oh man those are precious tips Kiva! yes i used to use 'real' makeup on some of my works too, mainly the shimmer oils to mix into translucent FIMO/KATO to get a shimmery pale pink effect for some of my roses, i loooove the results ^ ^ pity i haven't had more time to make more.

    i'm also bugging cousin to pass me her 'old' makeup since i don't use any :)

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  17. It took me aaaaages to get accustomed to using chalks, as I don't actually like the 'feel' of them on my fingers - weird I guess, but they feel funny!?! Yeh I know, therapy LoL! It's great to see you work area Kiva!!! You have some wonderful colours in there . . .

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  18. Thanks Carol!! You know, I am the same way with the feel of newspaper. I can hold it in my hands and read it, but if it touches my arms...or especially my legs, I go apeshit! Weird, huh?? Maybe you could wear gloves when handling chalk? I do use gloves when I'm making something that I don't want ANY fingerprints on, but I hate them!!

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  19. Thanks Cindy ;-)!! Hey, makeup is great for clay isn't it?? When I first started and didn't know jack about shading/coloring clay, it drove me around the bend, trying to figure out how to make some croissants I made look baked!! I would look at The English Kitchen website and ask myself how in the hell she got that look on her baked goods! Finally, a light bulb went on and I grabbed some matte brown eye shadow I had. I was ecstatic, lol!! But yeah, instead of buying Pearl Ex pigments (the regular colors, iridescents, and metallics), you can just go to the drugstore and buy little pots of makeup!

    That silica powder is like Photoshop in a jar. I bought some for my mom and she LOVES it! She has seriously flawless skin, but when she wears it, she really does look airbrushed, lol! It is the EXACT same ingredient that they put in overpriced "high definition" face powders like the one by Makeup Forever.

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