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New Kiln
It has been a while but an update is definitely due on the last post made regarding firing of Fast Fire bronze clay. I have gotten a new kiln that apparently has made the difference in firing this and others bronze clays, so if you are having problems, heed the read. I decided to contact Cindy Silas, the developer of the clay giving me the struggle, Aureus Bright bronze , but of course it was not the clay’s problem that it couldn’t sinter after going through the FF process. Dumb me–really. More on that later. I can’t say more than that Cindy was accessible and full of information–a truly nice…
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Our Firing Schedule for Fast Fire Bronze clay
My next class is on October 29, when we’ll make a pair of earrings using FASTfire BRONZclay and a selection of beads from Lisa’s Two Loose Beads shop. To my eye I have an unnervingly huge selection of beads, so I had to narrow down those choices and put together a rustic, end-of-summer theme. The pieces are fired as seen below, and to the right is a pre-fire pair Lisa made that’ll be fired early next week. So cute, so rustic. I love the color of this fired clay and have little desire to do much else for this project except to burnish on the petals. It will polish to…
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New adventures in silver clay
Greetings! We first engaged our curiosity about silver clay many years ago, making pieces that prompted our lovely, perennial customers at the Mary Queen Christmas Bazaar to call us “the next James Avery.” We have always loved working in other media as well, while keeping the fires burning for metal clay. Now that our kids are grown we want to step up our creative trek and have gone back to this familiar medium, taking new paths for ourselves with it, and teaching others what we have found. I want to share some of our newest pieces in silver clay. Below are two fine silver cross pendants, one (left) with a…
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Papoose Update
Let the weaving begin! This part took patience. I have made progress on the papoose pendants. Other projects have distracted me, but hopefully I will persevere and get these finished very soon. One is farther along than the other, because I like the woven part better (below). It is made from copper wire that was textured as it passed through the rolling mill. At right is a photo of the beginning of the weaving process. Right: 18-gauge copper wire was passed through the rolling mill, with various textured plastic and metal sheets on top to vary the surfaces. Below, the “scarf” around the face displays a texture also achieved using…
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On to other things…
‘PAPOOSE’ PENDANTS Since my last project I moved on to the papoose pendants–call them what you like, but they remind me of the Fayum mummies of ancient Egypt. Here is an image of my one and only, sold to my friend, Kathy White (of Posey & Fern, wonderful soaps & balms, etc.), who bought it because the face resembled her son when he was a baby. This photo shows a printed image of the pendant with some new polymer faces and one “scarf” copper cutout laid on top. I am making two of these for now. At least one will have the woven copper strips and a silver cap at…
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Hello on this Thursday evening. It has been a busy day at work and at home, part of which involved finishing the Butterfly Girl Pendant. ↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝ Here is a look at the back: After painting the background with washes, butterfly cutouts were glued down with glitter tossed on top. Mica sheet covers it all. As with any beauty, it has a flaw here and there, but such does not detract from the overall effect. I hope you enjoy it! ↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝↜↝ Now I can move on to the other two pendants I want to make. One will also have a polymer face, what I call “The Papoose” but the other…
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….As promised
The face is painted now but will sit overnight. Already I see changes to be made. When done, this will have a varnish of clear gloss acrylic, Varathane, the most recommended product I have seen for a protective finish for polymer clay. If I didn’t want the surface shiny I would leave it, because they acrylic paint is sufficient.
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On the Bench….again
Greetings! This is me in my little studio. I have a guest bedroom in my house that’s been converted, much to the chagrin of the visiting members of family. Here is one side of it… I love that room. Last post I tacked up a drawing of this pendant….here it is with the unpainted face, unsecured cab and unfinished and unpolished setting. It’s just “un” as this point. But….things are looking up! More work was accomplished on the setting, and I began the polish and the back work. Yes, I have another job that has been kicking me around lately…so despite things looking up, they are looking up…
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On the Bench
I like to sketch faces and also sculpt them from polymer clay. I have been working on a pendant the last few days, my usual format for presentation of faces. I thought I would share what I have been doing on this new project. I’ve been making face pendants around two years now….as time allows. I tend to sketch until I draw something interesting…then I pull out the clay. Sometimes the end result resembles the sketch, but usually it doesn’t and that may not be important. Drawing all the time is important. Here is the face that will go in the pendant, unpainted but otherwise finished. The faces take a good…
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Faux Bone
Here is a photo of my first endeavor with faux bone. This material is a plastic–some on the net say (with disdain?) that it is a pvc material–that I found easy to carve once I got down to the detail. I have not carved actual bone so can’t compare the two. The most difficult part about cutting this plate was grinding down the level surrounding our star with swirl logo, to create relief. A variety of small burs and my Foredom made the rest a pleasurable experience, even getting into that swirled line, once I got a feel for the density of the material. The color consists of a layer…
