It’s all go here preparing for my next show this weekend, so I thought for todays post, I’d show you making some of my newest design of beads… Sand dollars.
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| Porcelain Sand Dollars |
Sea creatures are a great subject for bead makers, and an ocean palette is perfect for jewellery designing.
To make make this design, I first start with a lump of porcelain. The clay is wedged and rolled flat. I use bands on my rolling pin to get an even thickness when rolling. This clay has been rolled to about 5/6mm.
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| Ready to start |
Next, I cut circles with a cookie cutter.
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| Cut blanks |
Once I have enough, the clay is speared from one side to the other with a skewer. This takes a bit of practice. The clay is so thin that it’s easy to come out in the wrong place!
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| The start of the bead |
The top edge of the cut circle is pressed to make a rounded edge.
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| Starting to form |
A small slice of clay is removed from the front and back of the bead by cutting down to the skewer with a wire loop tool.
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| Cutting the first hole |
Marks are made on the bead to show where to cut through for the holes in the design.
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| Marking out |
I poke through the clay with a needle tool.
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| Piercing |
Then lightly draw the shape of the central ‘flower’ of the urchin.
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| Marking out |
Using a flat sharp sculpting tool, shallow cuts are made all the way round the shape to create the top design.
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| Carving the details |
And the flower is drawn on the back.
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| Sculpting the shape |
Once the beads are leather hard, they are sponged to smooth any rough edges, and when completely dry, they go in to the kiln.
And here they are finished!
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| Smoothed and finished |
I fired them unglazed for a natural finish. These will be coming along to the Stourbridge bead fair with me this weekend... Hope to see you there!
