Metal clay - A love/hate relationship

Hadar Jacobson (City of Rings)

This year, one of my resolutions is to make something with metal clay. I’ve been trying to do it ever since it arrived in the country. I remember paying £10 (a huge amount as a poor student) for something like 10 grams of silver clay. Yes, it was a long time ago! It was PMC and all the instructions were in Japanese. I spent a long time creating a beautiful pendant, but couldn’t properly understand the picture instructions and it exploded right in front of me pretty much as soon as I put the torch on it. I should have just given up then… it’s never got much better!

I am determined that this year, I will master it and produce something wonderful, perfectly formed, fully sintered, an unexploded masterpiece… or at least something that doesn't crumble to dust! 

Gordon K. Uyehara 

I’ve tried most brands of clay so far, all equally unsuccessful, so for this round, I am trying Goldie bronze. I bought a test kit last year with 5 colours/types of bronze and 1 of copper. It’s different to others that I’ve tried as it’s not premixed. The majority of packs I’ve had before went off after I’d opened them, so I like the idea of mixing small amounts to test with.

The bronze comes in powder form and is mixed with water. I am using the hard version of Goldie Bronze.

I added a small amount of water and the mix started to turn crumbly. I guessed that I didn’t need much more water, so used a spritzer to add small amounts.

The clay started to form in to a solid lump.

It’s a bit like making scones! Once it’s bound together, the clay has to be conditioned by folding and rolling away from the seam for a few turns. You can feel it firm up as you work. It’s then left to rest for half an hour (maybe more like bread than scones!) I like that this clay doesn’t stick to your fingers as others do. It did stick to my non stick mat though???

Never one to start small, I took one of my many drawings of things I’d like to make in metal clay, a hollow lentil bead.

I rolled the clay 3 cards thick, and cut circles. They were formed into a half lentil shape over a painting palette 

Then I cut 2 more circles and lightly drew the design for the front of the bead.

This circle was formed over the palette and the design cut out with a scalpel.

They were then left to dry. I had some clay left, so rather than let it dry out, I made a hare pendant with cubic zirconia for eyes. No idea if this will work, but it’s worth a try! 

The hard bronze was really easy to use, similar to working with ceramic clay. It held it’s shape well and took lots of fine detail.

The lentil halves still weren’t dry, so I mixed up some of the Roman Bronze and made another. This clay is completely different. It’s fluffy in comparison to the hard version. It didn’t hold it’s shape very well and the grain was much larger, so it wouldn’t take much detail. What I did get on there was difficult to do. I think this would be better suited to simpler designs, where the rough texture of the design is the main focus. This hare got CZ eyes too… in for a penny!

Finally, the halves dried out, so I made up some clay paste and stuck them together. After drying again, they were sanded and cleaned up. And here they are ready for firing. You can just about make out the carved design inside... I'm hoping that with a patina and polish the design will be a bit more prominent!

Although I had tried the bronze before, I took the advice to do a test firing (thanks Lesley!) and I’m glad I did. The test strips didn’t fully sinter, so I don’t have finished pics to show you. Glad I didn’t put the proper pieces in, hopefully they’ll be done for my next post!

I hope this time's the charm... Keep your fingers crossed for me! 

September Component of the Month Reveal

Just when did there get to be only two weeks in a month... here we are seeing another one out and running headlong to the end of the year. Someone put the brakes on please!

On the up-side it does mean it's time for another AJE Component of the month reveal and we all get to see what the team and our guest designers have created with my bursting seed pods...

You can use the links below to hop around the blogs and see everyone's creations - I can't wait!

Guest designers:
Erin Prais-Hintz - Tesori Trovati
Cate - Fulgorine
Claire Lockwood - Something To Do With Your Hands

AJE team

Jennifer Cameron

Kristen Stevens

Jenny Davies-Reazor
Francesca Watson
Melissa Meman
Linda Landig
Susan Kennedy
Rebekah Payne
Caroline Dewison
Lesley Watt         


Kristi has also asked me to announce the winners of the October COM so the lucky readers who will get to work with Kristi's components are:

Michelle Buettner of MiShel Designs
Kym Hunter of Kym Hunter Designs

Enjoy!

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

Bournemouth Beach to Cambodia

One of the things I like about designing components is the interaction with my customers and how suggestions from them can lead to a kind of metamorphosis of a particular piece.

Some of my most popular components this year have been these beach house pendants and bracelet connectors which came about when I found a little stamp in a local hobby shop. I'm always inspired by the area I live in and it's an area proliferated by these, so they were a perfect subject...

Back in the summer I started selling my components through bricks and mortar store  The Bead Shop Liverpool and they were keen to stock beach huts too. I wanted to give them something exclusive so I adapted the design to reflect some of the smaller examples to be found locally as seen here... an out of season photo as you can see from the attire of my friends!

These were the pendants that eventually went to Liverpool...

Both designs underwent a further incarnation a little later when our own AJE leader  Jen Cameron asked if I could make her a mixed set in the aubergine and teal colour scheme of her new lake house. Rather than use them as pendants, Jen turned them into personalised key fobs for each member of the family so they were readily identifiable - I thought this was a great idea!

 

And then just a few weeks ago I was asked if I could adapt the design to make it relevant for a very specific group of people. A friend of mine has been living in Singapore for many years and while there has been taking annual trips with a group women to support house building projects in Cambodia run by The Tabitha Foundation...

"Our mission is to enable the poorest of the poor in Cambodia to recognize and develop inherent skills and resources in  a way that brings dignity and respect within the people we work with;  within the country and within the world; and that will result in measurable and visible improvement in the lifestyles of the people we work with."
"Vision - The vision is to develop processes which will enable people to actively make their own choices and processes which will result in alleviation of poverty – results which can be clearly identified and seen."

These are are the houses the foundation and it's volunteers help to build...

My friend is now about to leave Singapore to return to the UK to live and the idea behind adapting the pendant design was for her to be able to give one to each of the the team of women as a parting gift. This was such a lovely and unique idea that I could hardy refuse so this is what I came up with.

I believe they have gone down well which is a relief!

So there you have a little bit about the evolution of a design idea... have you had anything similar happen with your own designs? If so we'd love the hear from you.

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

A Change Is As Good...

My much discussed bead show is a little over a week away now and apart from a small pile of finishing my inventory is almost complete and it's just as well because frankly, I've had enough. I'm tired...bone weary tired with painful hands and probably worse - I'm beginning to get bored.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't love what I do or appreciate the opportunity to meet customers face to face, but I usually only make small numbers of any item and I just don't do well with repetitive tasks - never have and never will. But it's easy enough to remedy and this week I've taken a few hours out just to do something a bit different and on a smaller, more joint friendly level.

A few weeks ago I started paying around with some ideas for combining enamel with Bronze Clay and made these flower pendants...

I've been wanting to progress with this idea some more and decided to try the process out with frit - the lovely crushed glass mixes that lampworkers use to decorate their beads. I have tried this once before and the results were a bit muddy so this time I set the frit on the base of white enamel and got a much clearer and brighter result...

I was really pleased with the effects I got here but wanted to do something other than flowers. The pieces need to have enough depth for the frit to pool in and this took me back to something else I've been wanting to develop more - these lovely shell sections.

And I have to say I'm really quite pleased with the results... the shell imprints create a kind of natural Cloisonne framework and I love the vibrancy of the colours within that.

 
This is definitely something I will be taking further and will be on the look out for interesting objects to create frames from - do let me know if you have any ideas.

So while I have to grit my teeth and return to completing my repetitive show tasks for a few more days, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and don't overdo it on the eggs.

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

Variation On A Theme...

And what would that theme be....yes. it's earrings of course. While I was making my entries for our AJE challenge last week I got to thinking that If I was going to make a pair of earrings every week for the whole of the year and exhibit them next to those of all the other talented designers; then maybe I need to find ways to change it up a bit and keep things interesting. I was fiddling about with some of my bronze headpins at the time and decided to have a go at adapting the process I use for those to make earring charms with integral ear wires.  

Here you can see the charms at the green ware stage with the wires inserted into the clay. They're still quite fragile at this point so sanding and filing up has to be done very carefully.

After drilling, firing and a good clean-up and tumble this is how they looked - a good tug on the wires with pliers to make sure the pieces are fully fused and then on to the next step.

.

This was simply a case of forming the wires in the same way as as would usually do (great ear wire tutorial here) - I use looping pliers but a pen or any other round object can be used as a form. I chose kidney shaped wires but wishbone and round wires are just as easy to do.

After trimming the wires to the correct length I hammered them to harden the metal and prevent them from becoming misshapen. I used 22g /.71mm bronze wire which is finer than I would use for silver or copper wires and those I would normally tumble to harden but, bronze wire is harder and more tensile so I find that hammering alone is enough.

After that it was just a case of adding lots of pretties to turn the charms into earrings...

Green patina on charms, enameled flower buds from Gardanne beads,

 copper headpins and seed bead accents.

Periwinkle patina on charms, periwinkle enameled bead caps by SueBeads 

and vintage cultured pearls.

Premium Czech glass beads and Vintaj bead caps

If you like this look but don't use metal clay, the same effect can be achieved by soldering wires to metal charms. I'll be continuing to look for other ways to add a twist to my earring designs so if you have any clever ideas you're willing to share, please do - all inspiration is gratefully received.

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

More Adventures in Goldie Bronze

A few months ago I shared my first foray in to the newest form of Bronze clay called Goldie Bronze.
 The firing instructions call for firing only one layer in the kiln at a time on a layer of carbon and then adding carbon then doing a second phase, well when you make as much inventory as I need to make that is not really a good use of my time.

I asked some questions on the Goldie Bronze Forum on Facebook and several people suggested firing 4-5 open shelf firings and then consolidating them in one Carbon Firing.

So here's what that process looks like.

Here is the first layer

And 2 more layers for 3 total, I think I might have been able to get a 4th layer in.

 They are in the kiln right now.

The first stage of firing is 660F for 30 minutes.

Typically you do this on carbon and just add carbon to the top and do the second phase.

But since I want to do more at one time I'm going to layer all of these in to carbon after the first phase.

I have to let them cool completely before I remove them and transfer them to the carbon.

BEFORE 1st phase firing

Removing them after this first stage is making me very nervous,

they are extremely delicate only partially fired and last time I tried it they fell apart,

but I think it's because I took them out still warm AND I was not as gentle as I should have been.

So after this stage let them cool COMPLETELY and be very gentle as you transfer them to the carbon.

AFTER 1st phase firing

Very carefully removing partially fired pieces and transferring them in to carbon, I started using a knife then felt confident I could use my fingers and that was fine.

1st of 3 layers.

Carbon over the top and another layer.

My only casualty :(

This is the whole batch all tumbled, I would call this a success. 

I wanted to fire a large number at one time and it worked!!

I'm creating alot but not listing all of it on Etsy for a while

 because I'll be a vendor at the

 Whole Bead Show
 May 3-5 at the Lynnwood Convention Center.
But as always if you want something I've shown you just ask!!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

All Things Considered...

2012 has been pretty good to me but as it closes out I find myself thinking more and more about what I've done and what I want to do in 2013 to stretch my creativity and keep things fresh.

This time last year I was selling my jewellery with reasonable success and was idly pondering whether or not I should try to sell some of the metal clay components I use in my own designs. It took another couple of months of procrastinating and prevaricating before I finally bit the bullet and went for it. It's well documented elsewhere how delighted I am with the positive reception they've received which frankly is just as well, because selling finished jewellery online has been a whole lot harder this year. 

So, for the last nine months I've been pretty heavily focused on developing my components and inevitably I'm now feeling the need for a change, to shake it up a bit by trying something new or revisiting some things I've dabbled in in the past.

In the summer of 2011 I attended a kiln enameling workshop and just the other day I came across some of the pieces I made following that.

This Scraffito cuff connector has been sitting around for over a year so I finally decided to do something with it...

I also had a go at torch firing enamels and set up a makeshift area in my garage, but this didn't come quite as naturally to me as I don't seem to be very co-ordinated when it comes to working with mandrels. But in fairness I think it's one of those things that needs consistent practice and once I started on building up the metal clay components there wasn't really much time left.

Now that the bronze production is running pretty smoothly though, I want to go back and improve these techniques with the aim of adding an enameled range to the shop - a nice complement to the metal clay I think.

Back in November I treated myself to another workshop, this time etching and I  LOVED it! I worked with copper and used a ranged of methods including PNP (press and peal) paper, Aquatint, stickers and Shelac. PNP was by far my favourite and I got some great results with some art deco images.

The butterfly here was done with a sticker and the other two pieces were done using PNP. Not everything came out as well as these as you can see on this next piece where fine grains of the  pumice used to clean the copper have got under the PNP causing the blotches.

 

Still that's what workshops are for aren't they! 

I have a 'slightly' addictive personality so it was all I could do to stop myself from going out and buying all the kit straight away but I've promised myself that this is something I will definitely be trying again early in the new year.

There are lots of other things I could put on my technique 'to do' list but by limiting it to just a couple I think I have more chance of actually achieving them rather than just being overwhelmed. Besides which, I still have a lot ideas to try out on my metal clays.

I've been working a lot with patinas lately, especially the new ranges of commercial metal patinas which can produce great instant colour effects like these...

 

It's also possible to get some great patinas on bronze which occur naturally as part of the firing process....

I love it when this happens but sadly it's very unpredictable and I'm very bad at keeping records of the conditions that pieces like this result from. I really have got to be more scientific about this. One thing I really want to do is try out some of the other popular patina techniques to see how they work with bronze. Ammonia, Vinegar, Potato crisps (chips)...most of the tests I've seen have been done on copper or brass so I'm planning to do some comparisons on bronze and will share that with you when I have some results.

Obviously bronze has a long and distinguished history when it comes to jewellery. How great would it be if I could reproduce some of these effects on my own jewellery and components....

Bronze jewellery from the Neolithic settlement of Vinelz on Lake Biel, Switzerland, c. 2700 BC. Wiki Commons

English: German National Museum ( Nuremberg / Germany ). Bronze armlet with sun symbol, late Bronze Age ( 16th-13th century BC ), Hesse. Wiki Commons

Without having to wait thousands of years of course - well a girl can dream?!

So that's what I've got my sights set on for 2013, how about you...what are your jewellery related ambitions for the year ahead? I'd love to hear about them.

Now, since this is the last post I'll be doing until after the New Year I'd just like to wish you all a very merry festive season and a peaceful and happy new year. See you all on the other side!

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess