Art Jewelry Buzz: Metal Clay and Faux Bone

Over the course of the past several weeks I've been rummaging around the inter-webs looking at metal clay components and jewelry. This is an area I am beginning to investigate myself, so I've been eager to see what other artists have explored.

There's some pretty cool stuff being done with metal clay, and just recently I stumbled across a relatively new material, "Faux Bone".

Our own Kristi Bowman explores rich texture and color with her copper clay components:

Barbara Becker Simon makes interesting sculptural shaped beads out of metal clay (and has written a book about the topic, Metal Clay Beasds:

Barbara has also created entire pieces out of metal clay like these bronze bangles:

Though primarily a glass artist, Aja Vaz created these really interesting bronze beads a while back (I just happened upon these in a google search on metal clay beads). I love the ancient looking patina:

Robert Dancik is creating amazing mixed media jewelry using metal clay and a product he invented called "Faux Bone". When I came across this, I did a double take: Whaaa??? Followed by: "Whoa!!!" This is a media you can shape, carve, mark, and stain, to create components that look like ivory or bone. My head is swimming ideas as I have long been a fan of scrimshaw and other traditional or ancient styles using these old natural materials.

Here's a sampling of his work:

Another artist using these same materials is Don Pezzano (Urbandon):