A friend of mine asked me to do a little project for her, she had these cheesy little cement chicks as lawn ornaments when she was a kid. They're all cracked and beat up now, she asked if I could restore them.

I was trying to figure out what would be the best way to fix them up in terms of their actual structure. Their beaks are broken off, and one of them has a big dent & crack in his head. Is it as simple as filling the spaces with quickcrete? Would I have to worry about it cracking as it dries? Will I be able to re-form a beak out of that? Or would I be better off making the beak out of Sculpey, and gluing it on? The surface just has to end up being paintable.

I'll post before & after pics when they're done.

I'm thinking of starting a project that borders on the more artsy side of artsycraftsies, and had a question about finding non-sucky paint for it. I'm used to my dinky little acrylic paints (which are good mostly because they are cheap and I am poor), but I know they tend to fade over time (not even that much time). Any suggestions for a brand of acrylic paint, or something like it, that's more resistant to fading?

Thankees

... out of nothing but cardboard and duct tape. Bonus points if it's seaworthy (ok, pond-worthy).

Yes, I've done it. Here's a pic:



I'm the one all the way to the left. We nearly won, until the dragon boat tried to eat my co-captain:

Here's the deal... I paint on rocks using acrylic paint, and normally seal them with acrylic sealant (aerosol stuff). Someone asked me if I could weatherproof a couple of my rocks for her... so I tried using polyurethane, but it isn't really working. After three hours it's still tacky and crumbles off the surface at the edges (taking the paint with it). Is this because it's intended for porous surfaces?

I only polyurethaned the backs of the rocks (anticipating something like this would happen). Sooo... should I  try and do the fronts carefully and hope there's no more crumbling? Can I use the acrylic sealant on the fronts and on top of the polyurethane? For some reason I imagine them reacting with each other and screwing me up further... would too many layers of sealant cause more crumbling? Any other suggestions?

I'm writing a resume for a scholarship application, and I'd like to include my artsy/craftsy endeavors on it. I have no idea what to put, though... I make a little money by selling custom paintings of people's pets and I have some paintings in a local gift shop, but it's not an actual job by any means. For some reason it seems weird to even call myself an artist. Any suggestions or examples?

I just finished painting this jar, it's a gift for a veterinarian who has offered a lot of help to Kim's Ark, an animal rescue group that I'm a member of. He works with wildlife as well as pet birds, so here we have...

... a Great Horned Owl...


... a Moluccan Cockatoo...


... a Red-Tailed Hawk...


... and an African Gray parrot.



(I wasn't sure which board this belonged on, I hope this is the right place )

I made this keychain for my friend for Christmas. We're both wildlife rehabilitators, one of her "specialties" is raising baby opossums. The opossum is made of polymer clay, painted and sealed. The beads are glass, so I was able to mold the opossum around the bead and bake them both together. Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

I just finished painting a few mason jars, and I was looking around for a place to buy more. The ones I have right now were given to me for free after they were found in storage. I tried searching for the company name, and to my surprise I found out that the particular jars I have were made in the 1940s and are sold on ebay as antiques for around $10 each!

I haven't been able to find any others like them - the craft stores I've been to only seem to have little tiny ones. The ones that are the right size (about 6 inches tall) have metal screw-tops, rather than the nice glass tops and wire closures. Any suggestions? Thanks