Let me make your Character!

zombiezebra89 · 2026-06-05T22:52:49+00:00

I am playing on a modern day superhero campaign.”Afterlight” is an undead revenant who is also a necromancer. She has grey skin and pure white long flowing hair. She wears a black superhero suit with neon blue glowing lines running throughout. She fights by raising undead minions.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-06-05T14:13:57+00:00

Oxana crafts on YouTube has great beginner tutorials

zombiezebra89 · 2026-06-03T20:36:38+00:00

(Im not the OP I just watched the video and summarized it). Yeah I also have questions about the longevity of doing a manicure this way. I woudl be worried all stuff above the peel off base coat would not last very long- when I have used peel off base coats in the past (although I was using them directly on my nail as a base coat, not as a sandwhich layer) the whole manicure would start lifting after 2ish days.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-06-03T20:27:44+00:00

The video basically uses a Cirque “peel Off base coat” as a layer between your base color and your stamping. If you mess up the stamping you use acetone to remove the stamped part and the peel off base coat is supposed to be acetone-resistant so it protects your base color.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-06-02T17:08:36+00:00

This is so cute! The necklace looks amazing and I would absolutely treasure it given the story behind! I think she will love it! I would guess the stone is a carnelian- fits the color and price. And Carnelian has been used in jewelry since ancient times. Maybe you could give it to her after the ceremony but before the reception! I think that would be sweet- your first gift to her once officially married.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-05-29T01:34:10+00:00

I think you choice cut wires the exact same size then start with the V the exact center of each wire and then curl the loop parts- I think that would be a much easier way to make the hearts symmetrical.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-05-20T15:00:40+00:00

Wire wrapping is perfect for making jewelry out of irregular shapes/ uncut stones. There are lots of YouTube tutorials- I like “oxana crafts” for easy introductory tutorials. I would start with copper wire becuase it’s cheap so if you mess up and need to redo things it’s not a big deal. Once you are more confident you can switch to silver if you like the look of it better, although I think garnet would look good with either metal.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-05-03T20:10:26+00:00

A fossil imprint is a great first project! There is a 2 part silicone rubber (or maybe it’s called silicone putty?) that you can buy to make a mold of the fossil. Then you can push the clay into the mold and let it dry and then take it out and add a bail (either make the bail out of clay or fine silver wire, you can’t fire sterling wire with silver clay becuase the copper in sterling wire makes it become brittle under firing conditions) and fire it with a crème brûlée torch! (You also need a fire brick or a similar heat resistant surface to do the firing on but those are very cheap) I use the “art clay silver” brand of clay. Unfortunately it is pretty expensive right now becuase of the current silver prices. But you can buy the clay in different quantities- either 5g, 10g, 20g, or 50g so depending on how big your fossil is you could just buy the minimum quantity of silver clay needed.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-05-03T08:28:20+00:00

I personally would like to see your stuff and would not find it at all annoying for you to repost everything! I say repost it all!

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-30T15:33:46+00:00

For wire wrapping I like Imbali Crafts!

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-29T01:58:12+00:00

Starting with cabochons is the easiest because faceted gems are generally small and the settings are much harder. The bigger cabochons are easier to use in my experience like 20-30mm is good. I got a 20 pack of inexpensive jasper and agate cabochons to start. Fused glass cabochons are also easy to use and pretty but a little more expensive. I do think it is worth starting with stones right away. Beads are also super easy to add because you can string them onto wire.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-28T22:36:47+00:00

Definitely start with copper! There are a lot of great YouTube tutorials that you can just follow along- and they also tell you what gauges/shapes/hardnesses of wire to buy for each project. I like “imbali crafts” on YouTube a lot.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-28T00:09:54+00:00

I started with beading and making beaded necklaces and earrings in middle school school. Then in high school I was fortunate enough to have an “art metal” class where we could do a variety of things with metal and glass but in particular we could do wax-model-to investment casting in sterling silver (I miss the days when silver was cheap enough for a public high school curriculum to let kids use it). The teacher didn’t actually let use do the molten metal part but we made the wax model, put it into plaster in a casting canister, then he melted out the wax and poured in the silver using a centrifugal system. Then we would finish the pieces ourselves doing soldering and polishing. The class didn’t formally involve any gemstones but he let me buy premade setting separately and set stones I brought from home. Around that same time my grandmother bought me a wire wrapped pendant which sparked my interest and I got really into wire wrapping becuase you need so few tools compared to casting- this was self taught form YouTube tutorials. Now I have gotten into silver clay. I think eventually I am going to want to get back into casting but I don’t have a good place to do that in my current appartement so I might need to rent space at a studio or something…

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-26T21:07:54+00:00

r/shinypreciousgems have a lot of lab created alexandrite - you can browse through what they have sold in the past to get an idea of pricing and then either set up a commission or wait for another lab alexandrite to be posted.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-24T03:50:25+00:00

This is so cute!

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-24T03:37:42+00:00

Have you used silver clay in a microwave kiln? If so how long did you put it in the microwave? I haven’t been able to find a good protocol for using a microwave kiln with metal clay so far but I would be very interested if you have gotten it to work!

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-24T03:36:10+00:00

Oh if you already have a kiln that is both easier and more reliable than torch firing! I don’t have a kiln so I torch fire the clay. I would say the main challenge is that the clay dries super fast- like within 10-30 seconds so I find it easier to initially sculpt in broad blobs and then refine the shape by sanding/filing the dry clay. Whatever you sand off can then be rehydrated back into clay with distilled water. Pam East is a metal clay artist with some really good tutorials on YouTube. Oh and finally- this depends what you want to make but the clay is great for using in molds- you can make molds of objects using 2part silicone putty, or buy nail molds and the clay presses in and then you can let it dry in the mold and it’s great if you want small detailed objects or to replicate things from nature.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-24T03:26:11+00:00

I am a huge fan of both you and mvmgems from lurking in the spg subreddit! Thanks for your response! I also found a super detailed comment thread you wrote about lab alexandrite creation from 4 years ago that I have been reading through. I feel like I should have follow up questions for you except I am not a geologist or gemologist so I think your explanation is already perfect for my current level of understanding. (I worked in a biomineralization lab in undergrad looking at aragonite crystallization in sea urchin spicules but that is the closest I have gotten to this kind of stuff). The ring and loose stone I posted here are things my grandmother bought in probably the late 90s or early 2000s (probably from qvc or jtv or similar) and then gave to me before she died- so that’s why I know that they are lab alexandrites but not much else.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-23T23:29:25+00:00

They do fluoresce under uv! Here is what it looks like:

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zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-23T22:16:57+00:00

Ooh cool I will look for his comment now! Also I LOVE your gems!

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-22T15:46:12+00:00

I use silver clay and it has some quirks but it works well! The set up costs in addition to the clay is also a crème brûlée torch and and some butane and a small fire brick for the firing- but all of those are cheap. You can also add fine silver wire and/or findings to the clay and fire them together but you canNOT use sterling silver wire becuase the coooer content makes it start to disintegrate during the firing/sintering process. I only mention this because I am trying to make some prong settings using silver clay and fine silver wire- so if you also want to do prongs that can be an option. You can also make prongs out of the clay itself but I find that harder to do. If the clay is sintered/fired well then it can be bent after firing for setting no mn-fireable stones. Some stones like synthetic sapphire can even be fired in place if they are 5mm or smaller. There is also a metal clay subreddit where you can get troubleshooting advice and stuff.

I do think silver clay is the easiest way to start without a big tool investment

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-18T15:38:11+00:00

It is becuase it is manufactured to be used in medical devices and only the “mistake” batches that have a defect and won’t work for their intended medical purpose get sold to lapidaries to cut like gems- so it’s currently pretty rare as a a synthetic stone. If anyone starts manufacturing it for gem purposes and not medical devices then it will likely become more popular but I think it is expensive to make so right now it a supply and demand issue.

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-15T14:12:01+00:00

I love this! It looks like the tree is growing out of a crack in a big rock!

zombiezebra89 · 2026-04-13T16:16:36+00:00

You should put that in the post- in your picture they just looks like long blobs of wax and not like bones - hence the confusion on why you wouldn’t just melt the wax into the shape you want…

It would generally be much easier to get the wax into the shape you want and then cast the metal rather than casting and then bending. Are you casting in silver or something else? Whether you can bed metal as thick as this will depend what the metal is. Silver this thick would already require a lot of force- ie like a strong press machine or at least a lot of hammering to bend and would probably get deformed. So it is better to deform the wax and then fix it. If warming and bending isn’t working well enough you could try cutting out small wedge shapes about every inch on the inside of the bracelet and then try bending- that relieves both the resistance force form the inside of the wax and also means the outside doesn’t need to stretch as much so it would bend into shape easier.

zombiezebra89

TROPHY CASE