February COM...Metal Clay!

Hi all, it is time to show off the component of the month for February 2015!  I have the honor of providing this month's component. After polling the group, I decided to do some metal clay.

I am new to the medium, but as I talked about in previous posts, love it and strive to find my voice with it!

These are all copper, using the same original carved stamping by me.  The dots around certain designs are actually holes through the design, hard to see in the photo!

Three (3) of you will win components in copper, or white copper, not shown here, to create a design and bring your own unique spin to them, You will then participate in our Component of the Month blog hop!

Leave a comment on this post to win a chance to receive components of my choice and blog about your creative experience! You must have an active blog to participate.  Comments should include blog name and an email to contact you.

I will choose participants on Monday, 1/26/15!

Putting my own "stamp" on things...

I inherited my Dad's boyhood stamp collection. When I was a kid, sorting the stamps, deciphering foreign names of countries, identification... it was a treasure hunt. To me the stamps were miniature works of art, exquisitely detailed, hinting at history and events beyond my awareness. They evoked travel - would I ever see the places where this slip of paper had originated? These stamps encouraged my inquisitiveness, and my desire to learn, to experience...

One of the containers... 

I still have the stamps. I let go of the bulky book that was largely blank pages... Dad never really took to the whole hobby thing, and I didn't make huge progress in filling the pages either. I have stamps from countries that no longer exist. Its a window into history, a link to the past - both mine and the world's.

 Here are a few favorites:  

Folk costumes from Poland, report Greek myth stamps from Greece,
Classical monochromatic beauties from France, a few gems from down under. 

A childhood favorite - Austrian  farm girl; florals from Hungary, USSR, Gabon, Congo, San Marino;
Czech flora and fauna; Irish blackbird. 

Warning: if you are a hardcore philatelist, what you are about to see may shock you. 

I think stamps are a natural choice for mixed media pieces. The scale is perfect. I appreciate a little weathering, a postmark - they allude to travel, time, distance... a history. If you search for stamps in jewelry you will find a million and one offerings using resin and/or glass tiles. Logical first step - I have been there. These three new mixed media pieces are still on my work table waiting for necklace pairings. I started with a mother-of-pearl donut, designed a metal backing, and created a frame for the stamp. Attachments are made with either tabs or waxed linen. The stamps are sealed with Diamond glaze for durability and protection. 

Simple stamp under resin; three new mixed media pieces - mother-of-pearl bezels and copper/brass backings. 

These polymer pieces debuted at Beadfest last August. The settings are molds made from vintage stampings. Resin seals and secures the stamp image. The polymer color palettes are drawn from  the stamp art itself. ( I'll be teaching a similar class* at Beadfest in April.)

Polymer focals showcasing stamps, sealed with resin.  ( Mexico, USA, Italy, Malaysia)
And a ring, a class sample, just for fun. 

If you think stamps are for you... you don't have to start lurking in antique stores and flea markets. I personally doubt that any of my Dad's stamps are hidden treasures worth wagons of money... but I have seen Charade!  ( Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, stamps, Paris... whats not to love?!) There are plenty of stamps available now that are lovely and inspiring: 

Souvenir 'stamps' from the National Gallery of Art. I adore Matisse!
I've been holding onto this sheet for... umm... over 25 years! 

Current stamps in circulation. Images from USPS.com

The Breast Cancer awareness stamp was perhaps the first one I used in a piece of jewelry. I was teaching full time, maybe 20 years ago - and I made a pin, a sterling frame for the stamp depicting Artemis. It was for my dear friend and colleague who had just successfully battled breast cancer and won! 

The USPS lists this information about the stamp artist/designer: 

As of June 2014, the stamp has raised over $78.9 million for breast cancer research. By law, 70 percent of the net amount raised is given to the National Institutes of Health and 30 percent is given to the Medical Research Program at the Department of Defense.Designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, MD, the stamp features the phrases, “Fund the Fight” and “Find a Cure” and an illustration of a mythical “goddess of the hunt” by Whitney Sherman of Baltimore. 

As an artist, I find the design  process of stamps fascinating. They need to be easy to "read" from a distance, but rather detailed for their size. Many commemorate people, places, events, and some more recent motifs raise funds for research and conservation. The USPS site/store lists these and more available for purchase. And - for artwork they are rather affordable. ( As stamps, they are kind of expensive... LOL)  

Have you ever considered stamps as art? As jewelry? I'd love to hear how you put your 'stamp' on things. (Had to do it... ) 

* Philately (/fɪˈlætəliː/ fi-la-tə-lee) is the study of stamps and postal history and other related items. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting, which does not necessarily involve the study of stamps. It is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps. For instance, the stamps being studied may be very rare, or reside only in museums.

* My Spring 2015 Beadfest class info can be found here. 

You're really growing on me!

I can’t believe it’s been a fortnight since my last post. Where has the time gone??? A lot of it has been spent playing with my bronze clay. I didn’t realise that I’ve spent 2 weeks working out firing schedules and coming up with new ideas, so this is pretty much all I have to talk about this week.

To start, an update on the pieces I made 2 weeks ago. If you follow me on Facebook, you may have already seen that I cracked the firing schedule, and managed to successfully sinter the lentil beads and hare pendant.

It took 4 days of constant firing and adjusting, but I’m now confident that my creations will stay in one piece.

A good tip I picked up while researching, was that the majority of problems with pieces not sintering properly is to do with the first part of the firing and burning off the binder rather than the top temperature. Once I’d discovered that, I altered the schedule and it worked. It was a happy day! 

The lentils didn’t work brilliantly, they turned in to bronze with no problems, but they warped as they were fired and one cracked, I wonder if bronze clay is similar to ceramic clay in that it will warp if dried too quickly? A test for the future! 

I didn’t have anything to polish the insides with so you can’t make out the designs too well, and unfortunately the CZ clouded, but it’s all lessons learned (and the opportunity for shopping!)

One thing I really like about this brand of clay (Goldie hard) is that it’s really easy to fix. As I said, one of the lentils cracked, so I packed in some wet clay, left it to dry and ran through the schedule again. It filled the crack perfectly!

Once I had a couple of firings under my belt, I tried some more complex designs. Another hare, this time with an embedded bronze setting and some leaves and flower vines.

And then finally on to an idea that has been sitting in my head for a long time… making bezels. 

I rolled thick pieces of clay and carved out the inside with an undercut around the inner edge to set a tiny sculpture. 

I really like the variation of effects and colours you can get with this bronze. When first fired, it's rough with a grainy texture, but once polished, it's lovely and shiny and can range from bright and yellow to a warm gold.

Originally, I wanted to fill it with ceramic clay, but the firing temperatures are too different and trying to work out the shrinkage would have been a nightmare, so I created the design in polymer clay which was carved and baked in place. (I didn't realise how mucky I'd got it, I should have washed my hands properly after the polishing!)

Once cured, I painted it with acrylics.

I have some sealant on the way to finish this off and make it more durable, but I’m really pleased with how it’s looking so far (although I think his eye needs a bit more colour) and have a hundred and one ideas for more!

Metal clay, I owe you an apology, you’re not that bad after all!

Design Dilemma and Ethics

While working on my first piece (of hopefully several pieces)  for the January "use your stash" component of the month challenge (which is open to everyone who has an component created by one of the AJE team sitting in their stash), I decided on a weaving theme. I can't reveal WHY I selected a weaving theme, but I promise it will all become clear on the day of the reveal on January 31st. 

While trying to figure out how I would convey weaving in my piece, I remembered the class I took way back in 2008? 2009? with Sara Sally LaGrand and the neckpiece I created during that class. 

Basically on day 1 of the class, we created a bunch of lampwork pieces to make into a neckpiece and a "corsage". Day 2 we created the armature for both pieces and wired it all together. So I grabbed this out of my jewelry chest and looked at it. I love this piece, but this wasn't exactly what I wanted. However, I didn't know what I wanted. 

So I started exploring my way too expansive library for something that might work when I came across the gem of a book by Mary Hettmansperger called Wrap, Stitch, Fold, and Rivet. 

I don't think I ever truly explored this book. Mostly I glanced through it and made a mental note to look at it more closely later. Which I never did. I've been missing out! 

Several projects would have worked for what I had in mind, but strangely it was the project titled Wire-Wrapped Hands Bracelet, which wasn't very appealing to me, that ended up being what I needed. You can see a photo of a single hand in the photo below. 

Basically I wanted the spokes of the hands, loved the balled ends on the spokes, but wanted it to look more like a woven cloth than part of the anatomy. So I adapted the instructions to fit my needs. 

One the Hettmansperger does brilliantly is use a ring clamp to hold the fiddly bits of wire in place so you can start weaving. That was HUGE in helping me accomplish what I wanted to do. You can see the ring clamp in action below. 

And here's a finished woven component. I have made more, in different sizes. I haven't completely worked out how I'm going to attach everything together yet, but it's on the to do list for this weekend. 

Below is another project I want to tinker with to fit my needs. I already have an idea for how to take her component and make it into something completely different, but still paying homage to her design and skill.

That is the real purpose of tutorials, books, and magazines devoted to teaching the art and craft of jewelry making...to take what you learn and tinker with it to make it your own. Use the instructions to learn a skill or technique, but then make it your own and see how far you can push the technique and design process. 

Have you ever taken instructions and while using the same technique, completely changed the design? How did you feel about the design afterwards? 

If you have components created by someone on the AJE staff and would like to participate in the Use Your Stash component of the month design challenge, comment below. 

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