Break Through!

I’ve finally found a product that works to color bone carvings as I’ve envisioned for over two years. It’s waterproof and lets the light of the bone shine through just like the paper's white does in my watercolor paintings.

I am basically a painter. When I was studying for my BA in Art - oh so many years ago - I ended up painting on my hand built ceramic sculptures.  I eventually chucked the ceramics and moved on to paper which thrilled me for years - and still does when I find time to use it. Painting on paper was more immediate than having to wait to fire the ceramics and hope with crossed fingers that it wouldn’t crack or the colors change dramatically.

Now I’m painting on bone. What a departure! And one I couldn’t have imagined without a crystal ball just a couple of years ago. However, I feel a bit hemmed in by the small assortment of colors I have after purchasing everything I could find in the local art store. I have no yellow or true red. So it’s on to Google Search for another source. 

It was such a thrill to have this click into place. I've been craving color in my mammoth jewelry which I’ve gotten using semi precious stone beads.  I still love the mammoth tusk and jet carvings but my muse is demanding something new. I knew abstractly what I wanted but didn’t have a concrete vision. That took time to come into focus and then ‘bang!’ it hit me that I wanted a watercolor look on the carvings.

The creative process is so exciting!  I love how stepping out of the way let’s the magic in - magic you couldn’t orchestrate on your own.  And often stepping out of the way is automatic - you don’t even realize you are doing it! 

Wings in Living Color!

 

I started posting about this process in July. At the time the colors I used sat opaquely the surface of the bone. Here's the entry I wrote and a photo of my early attempts:

http://susan-tereba.blogspot.com/2013/07/back-in-saddle.html