Spodee Giveaway!

To celebrate the upcoming launch of Spodee, we are doing a PSG/Spodee Giveaway!

You haven't heard of Spodee yet?! It's ok, it doesn't hit shelves until next week, but to tide you over until then we have a bit more info...

From spodeewine.com: Spodee was a Depression era hooch that mixed up homemade country wines with garden herbs, spices and moonshine. The resulting brew was then put into whatever containers they happened to have lying around…hence, the milk bottle. It may not be fancy pants, but it sure is tasty!

Spodee has offered up some some 'Spodee Gear' as a giveaway, and we are throwing in some 1 week memberships to the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym! 

We have 2 prize packages to offer:

Tank top prize package includes:

Spodee stickers

A Spodee Trucker Hat

A Spodee Tank Top

A Spodee Cup

and  

A One Week Pass to the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym!

Ringer Tee prize package includes:

Spodee stickers

A Spodee Trucker Hat

A Spodee Ringer Tee

A Spodee Cup

and  

A One Week Pass to the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym! 

 

To enter, visit the Spodee Wine website's recipes section and leave a comment here on the blog about which would be your drink of choice! For extra chances to win, tweet about the @SpodeeWine / @SculptureGym giveaway or share the info on Facebook (be sure to leave a comment for each additional entry.) You have until Noon on Friday May 4th to enter. We'll announce the winners here on the blog Friday afternoon! Good luck!

Awesome Product: Seal-Krete

 PSG Gallery wall

This weekend I sealed the bricks in the gallery using Seal-Krete, a water-based, acrylic sealer. It was recommended by Leo of Paper Box Studios and after we saw how great the brick surfaces in his building looked, we went for it. It was super easy to spray on...We just got a handheld pump garden sprayer, filled it up, covered the floor in drop clothes to protect against over spray and I got to sprayin'. The gallery walls took me only about 45 minutes for the first coat and gave them this crazy electric blue color. Once it soaked in the finish was clear and matte, but the color of the brick was deepened and they looked great. It also said that it prevents efflorescence and strengthens masonry joints...bonuses! I did the second coat the next day (even though you really only need to wait 2 hours between coats!) and it went on even more quickly. The bricks look awesome and there is still a ton of the stuff left... If you have any bricks that need sealing, I highly recommend the stuff!

And just so you know, no one is paying me to say this (though that would be nice!) I just really thought it was great stuff and wanted to share the info!

Speaking of Spring cleaning...Soap for sculptors.

Anyone who knows me knows that I try to be hyper aware of the ingredients that go into health and beauty items. I checked our "organic" and "all natural" products against the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database before Olivia was born and ended up tossing almost everything we used. Our bathroom cabinets are now filled with things like baking soda, apple cider vinegar, vitamin e oil, coconut oil and essential oils...I think the only thing that stayed from before was the Dr. Bronner's. There are so many things out there that are awful for you, even in things claiming to be "organic" or "all natural", that I try to take little steps that add up and make a difference. SO, one of the things that was on my mind (one of many things) is what kind of soap we will have at the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym...I know, I know...our doors are not even open yet and I'm worrying about soap...I said it was one of many (many) things! I wanted to find something that would work on sculpture grime and asked Rachel of LuSa Organics if she had something that would work. She recommended the Garden Scrub Soap, which is made of:
Saponified oils of *palm, *coconut, *olive, and *sunflower; shea butter (fair trade), essential oil blend (lavender, peppermint, spearmint, and rosemary), pumice, loofah. (*certified organic ingredient)
I'm ordering a few bars to test out and will report back. Anybody have soap that they swear by?


Image from lusaorganics.com

Cx5? Never heard of it...

Has anyone heard of this stuff yet? It sounds like another version of Casteline. A friend of mine told me about it and I admit that I'm intrigued because of how much Justin loved working with Casteline.

Here's a blip from the website:

Cx5 is a premium sculpting material that handles like clay when warm, but is hard as plastic when cool. Though neither a clay nor a wax it exhibits the best properties of both. 
It will never dry out. It is light, strong and completely self supporting. It does not need an armature, regardless of the size of the piece. It can be machined at low speed or slow feed, or with water as a cutting fluid. It can be filed, sanded and polished.
It produces perfect bubble free castings and has finishing properties superior to any wax on the market today. It was designed to replace all finish waxes and eliminate the need for creating waste molds. 
Cx5 is proudly manufactured by Adam Beane Industries in the USA, with environmentally responsible ingredients.
Cx5 is coming to market this year, 2011. Sign up for the mailing list to get release date announcements.