metal clay bird

quick sketch

I only found out about metal clay very recently. Its brilliant! It is clay made of very small particles of precious metals mixed with an organic binder and water. This week I tried PMC pro which is the silver clay. You shape it like any kind of modelling clay and when its fired  the binder burns away and you are left with o.999 pure silver!
As my first project I made a bird and flower pendant. You can fire PMC pro on a gas burner at home so it was super easy. I would definitely want to do more but 25 grams of silver clay costs $58 so its quite an expensive hobby. Bronze and copper clays cost about the same but need to be fired in a kiln. 10 grams of gold cost 600 Dollars! Ouch. I still have more left from the pack I bought so I will post more soon but here is my first try. What do you think?

Bird drying in clay form

All fired and polished

Sneek peek: Rockin' Babies

Happy New Year! These are illos from Rokin' Babies - a new book by Jenn Bermann and Cynthia Weil about everything babies and rock stars have in common - Its not going to be out until May so this is a little peak at 2 double spreads from it. Below is a photo I shot as a reference of the quintessential Brooklyn street (which in this picture happens to be Union Street in Park Slope) I love the Brooklyn look.