Plaster me with Diamonds

I had the most marvelous weekend. Got to make some art, hang out with my sweetie, see the grand kids, catch up with art friends, wallow around the house - geez, as far as I'm concerned it doesn't get much better than this.
I am taking Judy Wise & Stephanie Lee's Plaster class. It is wonderful and I am loving it. You all know how much I adore Wood Icing, well, I wanted to take this class to basically force myself to experiment with all the other plaster and plaster type products on the market. I guess I feel like I will be a better representative for Wood Icing if I completely understand how all the products work. And, after just one week of class, I have learned so much. If you aren't in the class, grab their book for sure.
Plaster Studio: Mixed-Media Techniques for Painting, Casting and Carving
It is chock full of interesting projects and techniques.
Ok, so here's my first attempt at using the Joint Compound.

12" x 6" Mixed media

And, so far I have learned that I like Plaster of Paris a lot.  It dries down nice and hard and the substrate feels familiar to me. But it is kind of a pain to have to mix it up since I am basically pretty lazy.Joint Compound.....mmm, I'm not as hip on it. I can't get it to do what I want as it doesn't want to hold the level of texture and when I rub it too hard, the texture sort of rubs off, it is hard to explain. I am glad I tried it though.
Overall, my infatuation with Wood Icing continues for several reasons - it holds a nice precise line when you carve into it and use stencils. It is super sturdy and doesn't crack off the substrate. Plus the drying time (of the Wood Icing) simply can't be beat. Geez Louise does it take a long time for some of these others to dry. I tend to want to use texture through my entire process, like I'll be painting and want to stencil some more texture on top, or palette texture over part of the piece and then write into it.....Wood Icing allows me to do that, but I can't see myself mixing up Plaster of Paris or using the Joint Compound due to drying issues.
All this being said, I still adore (!!!) the class with the genius Judy and Stephanie duo and am learning great things from them. They are top notch teachers.
I have some exciting news but it is going to have to wait as I'm still firming up details. Suffice to say it.is.big.