Old is new, and new is old

Our local chapter of the PMC Guild brought Robert Dancik into town last weekend for a workshop using "Faux Bone," a PVC material he developed. The workshop was a blast. Robert is a wonderful teacher and our group had a great time working with him. Lots of creativity in the air. It was great to spend a weekend just playing...

I have always loved saw-piercing metal and wondered how it would work with the Faux Bone. I decided to give it a try by sawing a cuff bracelet that was inspired by one I'd made 30 years ago as a metals student.

Gail Lannum caught me in the act of sawing...

Alcohol inks were used to color the material. I like the way the white shows around the openings when the color was sanded to tone down the intensity. It's a little rough, but it was a test. I'll probably go back in and finish it a little more one of these days.

Here is my original bracelet. And after all these years, it's still one of my favorite projects from my school days. The section set in the center was my first piece of Mokume-gane.

Many of the pieces made in the workshop took advantage of the possibilities of making Faux Bone look like an ancient relic. Gail made this one in the workshop. It was cool to take this shiny white PVC - something very new - and make it look very old. There are so many things you can do with this material.

We had some serious fun!