Fingers are rather less gluey but covered in plasters from where I keep sticking myself with the pins.

Ow!  :shock:

I'm on break too. I took the day off yesterday and only played with my paints. I'm gonna do the same today. I need more no-stress-days! 

What are these puppets made out of? Do they have pm heads? Are they simple or fancy or somewhere in between?

I'd like to learn to sew, but a sewing machine is too pricey for me. I go ga-ga over the different prints in the fabric store. Some are really pretty! And you can use fabric in PM too, instead of finishing with paint. I may try that eventually.

I'm making two different butterflies. One is for the swarm of color for the living room. That one is painted and then silkscreened. The other is a color print from the computer. You just glue this onto a thick paper, then glue a short stick onto it. It goes behind little girls' ears. I've already made a couple of these 'stick butterflies', and gave 'em to some 9 and 10 year old girls. They were delighted! That's the best part about any craft -- seeing the look on people's faces when you give 'em one! Yeah! This is fun!

Oh well.... I gotta get busy at being not busy!    I'm gonna try more experiments with these pearl paints today, get my rent paid, and get some groceries (ack! What a waste! All that money could be spent on PM supplies!  )

Doh! Sewing by hand would make me crazy. I have very little finger dexterity (maybe that's slownig me down).

I love the cat! the picture is awesome! You oughta put that in your gallery, even though it's not pm.

I learned a bit today about the pearls and gleams. Here's what I've learnt:

Erm.. back up a bit. Here's what I have to work with:

1 bottle Aqua Green pearl (near cyan, but on the green side)
1 bottle Bobby Blue pearl (definately blue, about as bright as half way up the gray scale if it were black and white)
1 tube Aquamarine blue (deep, dark)
1 tube Emerald green (deep, dark)

1 bottle Copper Gleen
1 bottle Metalic Gold (creamacoat's "Splendid Gold")

1 tube Titanium White

Okay, NOW here's what I learned: 

Layering:

Layering a pearl over primarily the same color regular acrylic works, but don't use a wide disparity in value. In other words, lighten the same color undercoat to about the value as your overcoat for best results.

Layering green over blue or vice versa, works to some extent, but tis better to mix the two.

Metallics, Pearls, and Gleams don't coat well. There is isufficient pigment in these. Allow them to dry a little, mixing them as they thicken for even drying of your puddle. You'll know when it's stiff enough that it will cover completely.

Fun with Metallics (copper and gold):

You can mix these into your primary colors!

Copper + straight emerald gives a brown similar to umber, but it sparkles! Mix in just a little black, and you have a burnt umber that sparkles! 

Gold + straight emerald produce a brown similar to Sienna that sparkles.
Mix in just a little black to get burnt!

Gold + copper + emerald produce another brown that's undescribable, but very pretty.

Copper + Gold makes a bevy of beauties! Mix these in ratios to your heart's desires!

Gold + light blue (3/4 way up the gray scale) produces an antique gold! IT IS STUNNING! You just gotta try this. I mean... you gotta!!

Gold or Copper mixed with straight Aquamarine is just plain ugly. I could get nothing accpetable except the gold+ light blue.


One last thing I learned: My skill with a paintbrush is not very good. I need to practice!  :shock:

I imagine that both the gold and copper will work extremely well with reds, oranges, and yellows. Tha's pretty much a no brainer, so I didn't go there.

So, that's about all I have to share. In a nutshell,

1`mix gleans with adjacent colors
2. layering same color pearls works, but still is better mixed.
3. gold plus copper in any ratio is superb
4. allow pearls, gleans, and metallics to dry a little for better coverage
5. Gold/Copper with dark green works, but Gold/Copper with deep blue doesn't
6. gold + light blue just simply wrocks!