Imagine

ok guys...this ones from me...tony...remember me...tony...anyway...i'll start with a picture of "me"...don't ask me why...lisa seems to think i need to add some pictures of "me" on the blog every-now-and-then...soooooo...i'm standing in the window and lisa took the picture outside looking in...

i'm going to warn you here and now...this blog is going to have lot's of pictures of me soooooo beware...hey it'll make lisa happy...anyway back to the word of the day...

ok...as of late i've started thinking about mixing different metals together...trying to "imagine" how they would react with each other and what the end result might look like...as well as wanting to recycle some of the old metal i find at the salvage yard...sadly though i do not have a foundry so i have to search for things i can melt with my torch and cast with the equipment i have...anyway on our last trip to the salvage yard i found these old strips of brass...they seem to have come off an old trunk or something like that...soooooo...i started thinking about melting them and using them to cast...heres a picture of the metal strip...my torch...and me...thinking of melting the metal..

then i took my hack-saw cut up the brass strips...and decided to cast some of our hearts with this metal...

so i was only going to cast with this brass but then i thought...why not add some other metal...so i decided to add some copper as well as some silver to the mix...as i started melting the metal it looked very weird and i must admit i did not think it was going to work...



but hey...i'd gone this far...soooooo...might as well let it fly and see what happens...and to be honest i hoped i would get at least one cast but i had my doubts that i'd even get one...

but when all was said and done...everyone of them came out...i could not believe it...and i was soooooo happy...i went on to finish them using the same process i use on the shibuichi...and i was also very happy with the final look...

it has a brass look but with random bits of copper in it...anyway i love this and i'm going to keep working with the mixed...recycled metals...

as we said we are doing a give-away soooooo...after all this talk and pictures how could we not give away one of these hearts...so here it is...make a comment on this blog and at the end of the of the week we'll place the names of all who commented on the blog in a hat and draw a winner...soooooo...let us here from you...and good luck...

well it's time to get back to work...i did another casting last night with mixed metals and can't wait to finish them and see how these look...thanks for stopping by...

Etsy update

I've spent the last two days updateing our etsy store so be sure to go check out all the new things. http://www.zoaart.etsy.com/.

Tony has been playing around with his metals and has cast in bronze,copper and silver! And what i mean by that is he mixed them all together and we've come up with our new Bohemian Metals line! This is so beautiful! And the really great part of all this is the metals are all recycled!

Yes recycled! We made a trip to the salvage yard and found an old chest with a brass kick plate, Tony removed it and used his Hack-Saw( he loves that) cut it into pieces to use for casting.All of our copper also comes from the salvage yard. So where does the recycled silver come from?As you all know i work in PMC (precious metal clay) and i make all our original pieces from PMC then Tony makes a mold and we cast it. Well i take the slip and make tiny cookies on a hot plate and then cook them in the kiln at 1650 for 2 hours, and there you go.....casting grain. Everything is recycled in this house, no wasted materials here.

So here is our first Bohemian Metals casting......

So just let us know what you think and be looking for more Bohemian Metal real soon.

Here are a few other little ditys we put on etsy......

I'll leave you with a picture of my new hair cut.Love it......

on the way out.....

We are on our way to Wilmington,OH.But befor we go I just wanted to let you know that tuesday I will be up dateing our etsy shop. We have lots of new goodies so be watching for it!
And have you noticed our new pictures under Zoa Art and who we are? Well for the first time ever Tony and I got to do a photo shoot together.Our friend Dana is a great photographer and our building and alley way are great backdrops.So she came by and snapped some shots. I'll get more up when we get back.
Have a great weekend!
Soooo sweet!

I did it!

Thanks so much to you ,Lorelei!

This week....

Well we had a great weekend in Detroit as usual.......The classes where full and the show was great. Oh and i was so surprised to see the lovely Paula Best there! She's so sweet....

This weekend we will be in Wilmington,OH. We just got in to the show and its not listed on our schedual.The show is with Bead Merchantile.Come out and see us!

Also we are schedualed to be in Chicago oct.25 & 26 for a resin bracelet class, But the class is not full enough and if we dont get a few more sign ups we will have to canceal the class.I so hate to do that but with gas prices and the economy the way they are..........Its a long way to Chicago.I love Chicago and will be very sad if I dont get to go......The class is at Briolette Beads and I hear its a lovely store so come check it out!

Oh you all should check out http://www.kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/ she has this mixed tape thing on there that is so cool!And it seems easy to do so be looking for our mixed tape soon. Yesterday i listened to kellys all day while i worked.Also ....More great music.....Check out http://www.lorelei1141.blogspot.com/ , she had a you tube video(i've got to figure out how to do that) of Sia Furler-A Day To Soon. Its so beautiful! Check it out! I think its on saturdays post.

Okay so come see us this weekend in Wilmington,OH and call Briolette Beads and get in the Resin Breacelte class next weekend.......And listen to lots of music this week!

Far to long.......

Okay so the story of my life...........I just cant blog every day! It's just to much stress on myself so I'll just go with the flow and see where it takes me and how often I get here.

So we are on our way to Detroit,MI this weekend. I'll be teaching a Bronze metal clay class on Friday and a Keum-Boo with PMC earrings on Saturday.On Sunday we will be at the Great Lakes Beadworker Guild show. Come out and see us if your in the area, we have lots of new things to see.

These are a few things we will be doing in the classes.

I'm having such fun with the new Bronze clay! Here are some earrings and my first chain bracelet with one PMC piece in it. Then there are also a few earrings with the keum-boo.

This past weekend our little town had there Harvest Day Festival.We worked hard and got the store front of our beloved building ready to open the doors and invite the public in.We had so much fun and so many of our neighbors came by to say hello and welcome us to the town.

This is right out side our front door.......

And heres Tony and Ashleigh relaxing before we open the doors.

I'll be in Chicago Oct. 25th & 26th teaching at Briolette Bead store and would love to see you there if your in the area. We have a few spaces left so come and join us. I'll be teaching the Resin Bracelet class.

I will also be teaching this class in Charleston,SC Nov. 15th & 16th at The Beaded Venus.

We are in the process of planning our first Studio Workshop here in Inman,SC. It will be on Dec.6th and we will be working with PMC to make x-mass gifts.If you would like to register please email me @ zoaart@yahoo.com. I'll have more info on this class next week.

Until then.........