Saturday Share...The Hidden Truth

I recently was viewing a gorgeous coiled wire fibula on Pinterest and clicked through to see it more closely...not to study it and copy the design, but just to get some idea of the construction of the pin mechanism.  Alas, there were no photos of the back side :(  Likewise, I am drawn to a couple of talented enamel jewelry artists work and can never see the back of those sweet blossom earrings to figure out how the headpin is connected...you know what I mean?  I know that sometimes jewelry designers don't want to give away too much of the construction aspect of their work, especially if they use some signature, or secret technique that other designers would love to figure out.

Last month during our Component of the Month Challenge, Jenny Davies-Reazor created some amazing polymer clay components with vintage dictionary words embedded under resin.  I was amazed at the diverse, unique and plain old gorgeous designs that were produced from these.  I mean, they were so pretty, you could just hang them from a chain and call it a day, but, I think all the participants found that they were a bit of a challenge to design around, due to their construction.  Here are many of those creations on our Pinterest board for you to gawk at and drool over.

Here's mine...dream!

The biggest challenge I had was the fact that my component had 4 connector holes, which would be great if it was going to be a bracelet, but I really wanted a necklace for myself, so I set about trying to solve the 4 hole road block.

I am totally pleased with the outcome and have worn it almost every other day since its creation!  I described its construction on my COM blog post, and showed my beauty shots.  But...I didn't show the back.  The hidden secret of my piece.  Not sure why not.  I wasn't afraid of anyone copying the design, I mean, it has been done by others, most likely much better than I!  I got several queries about the back and never responded, but after the above-mentioned fibula back disappointment, I thought I would post this today.

See?  Nothing really earth shattering in the actual construction...copper wire, annealed to be flexible, curved into halves until a desired loop was made.  No real measurements were taken, I just laid the wire down on top and used my flat nose pliers to bend the corners... The hard part was figuring out how much to leave at the top to get a generous swirly thing and still he able to ball the ends in the flame a bit.  The head pin rivets were a stroke of genius on my part (she said, rolling her eyes).  I used 22 g wire, a bit big for wrapping like this, but wanted it to be sturdy.  I was a bit overzealous, unfortunately, as in really tugging the wire to tighten it, I pulled through the fragile hole Jenny had so meticulously drilled.  I cried and thought all was lost.  Luckily, the head pin stayed in place since there was a tiny grip of clay still around it, and the piece of the poor corner didn't fly off into oblivion, so I used my trusty E6000, and it has held so far!

The mended corner...you can see the extra glue that I should have tried to remove, but I was scared it would break again!

So, there you have it! My hidden truth!  Do you have any hidden truths you would like to share?  

Melissa Meman

Melismatic Art Jewelry

Art. Life. Love

Freeform Friday - ready, glaze, fire!

Ready, glaze, fire! 

A photo essay of sorts this week... regarding my process of glazing pendants for a ^10 reduction* firing. I love ceramic clay, "real" clay as it is so elemental. Made of earth and water, it is tempered air and fire. There are many clays on the market, to be sure... but there is a magic, an alchemy in true ceramic clay and the transformations it goes through during the firing....

I work in two clays - stoneware and earthenware. The earthenware is a lower temperature clay, low fire glazes, brighter colors... another days topic, I promise. But make no mistake - still a fired ceramic clay -  fired to 1850 deg F, mind you!

At the ceramics studio where I work/teach we use stoneware; and we fire  "High fire" to ^10  - a toasty  2381 degrees F (1305 C)! The studio has a palette of glazes that we mix in house. They are made in 5 gallon buckets and are the correct consistency for dipping functional ware. I have the glazes I use most often in containers for brushing; I like them to be a bit thicker.  For my pendants - I glaze the top, and then wipe off the surface, leaving glaze in the designs. I showed the process below on a figurative sculpture:

1. Containers of glaze, and coffee! 2. Glaze brushed into designs. 3. Sponged off, leaving glaze in designs only. 4. Goddess figures ready for stain.

1. Pendants, bisques and ready. 2. Top surface glazed. 3. Edges and backs cleaned with a sponge. 4. Backs stained, holes cleaned of glaze.

 Since this is a communal kiln, loaded by the instructors - it needs to be streamlined, no fiddley stuff. There's no way to hang or stilt my pendants, so they are free of glaze on the back surface. In a group ceramics studio - the kiln is filled and fired as needed - when there is enough work ready to go. During a session in our studio, this is usually once a week. To be clear - firing the kiln TAKES a week! Not the firing itself...
Monday - load the kiln - 3 people, with breaks in the cold - app. 3 hrs. 
Tuesday - Fire the kiln. Varies due to ambient temps - app. 8-9 hours. 
Wednesday - the kiln cools. all day. 
Thursday - unload the kiln.
(Friday - no class) 

Pendants arranged on a piece of shelf for ease of kiln loading. 

Pendants visible midway up stack of shelves, on right side.

Can you still see the pendants? The kiln is almost half loaded here...
I believe the firing chamber is 5' tall at the center.

There is an air of excitement and mystery for every kiln unloading. The reduction process* creates a unique atmosphere in the kiln and results can vary every time.  Glaze application varies - thicker, thinner. So it is always exciting to see this:

After the door is removed, unblock the opening... 

Looks good! 

That carved tree? Its on the side of my shrine... and the pendants are at the bottom right corner of this picture. 

Success! Kiln harvest of the week.

I have probably written on this topic before - but I confess... its very exciting to have things in the kiln! I haven't had anything in the high fire glaze kiln since... November last year? These are new designs for pendants and components, stamps I carved from linoleum during the Polar Vortex days of January. And Berks Bead Bazaar is right around the corner.... So thank you for sharing in this week's journey! 

Jenny

www.jdaviesreazor.com

* Reduction - Reduction (adjective) refers to a kiln atmosphere which does not have enough oxygen in it to completely consume the fuel as it burns. Due to this deficiency, the flame pulls oxygen molecules out of the clay bodies and glazes, changing their character. Reduction can be also be used to describe clay bodies and glazes that are especially developed for reducing atmospheres. Reduction (noun) refers to the state of being oxygen-starved. It can also be used to replace the full term, "reduction atmosphere".

For more information: 

( These are simple overviews, not in depth treatises... ) 

The firing process - bisque and glaze

Oxidation and reduction 

Kumihimo with Wire

Reading Susan's post earlier this week about her technique for finishing kumihimo ends gave me a push to try something I've had on my 'to do' list for ages. Kumihimo with wire. 

I visited the Stitch & Hobbycraft fair in Manchester about 15 years ago and was lucky enough to meet Jacqui Carey who was demonstrating the art of Japanese braiding. I was instantly mesmerised. She explained the origins of the art before going on to demonstrate on a beautiful wooden marudai with wooden bobbins and miles of gorgeous hand dyed silks.

Image from Samurai! Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection

Kumihimo braids were originally used by Samurai soldiers. They were used to connect the various pieces of armour. Being made from silk, they were strong, light and allowed the soldiers to move freely.

With the abolition of the Samurai class, the focus then shifted to fashion. The braids were used to make obi-jime, the ties used around the fabric sash of a kimino.

Image from http://en.japantravel.com/photos/bewitched-by-awara-geisha

And more recently, the marudai has been adopted by jewellery makers for making cords in their designs.

Sue's beautiful necklace - http://www.suebeads.blogspot.co.uk/

One of my own kumihimo creations with beads.

After the demonstration, we were given the opportunity to have a go of the Marudai and purchase our own. My budget at the time wouldn't stretch to the traditional wooden design (it was gorgeous, but a fortune!), but I absolutely had to have one, so I got an acrylic version with plastic weights.

It's really difficult to take a picture of with it being see through, but hopefully you can make it out.

It did have a pretty satin bag for adding stones to weight down the cord from the centre, but that has been misplaced, so I've repurposed and old knitting machine weight that has the same effect.

I've used 0.4mm copper wire and wrapped it around the spools, these are connected in the centre and the weight added to draw the finished cord through the centre hole of the marudai.

To start, I tried with a simple weave, square braid. It's not quite as easy with wire and I found that to get a neat finish, you had to be careful to keep an eye on the centre of the cord as it makes up. The process of weaving is to place your bobbins in pairs at North, South, East, and West. They are then moved into different positions across each other to create the cord.

Here you can see it appearing below the Kagami (mirror) of the marudai. 

As the weight touches the bottom, the cord can be wrapped up to keep the tension.

After trying a simple weave, I got a bit braver and decided to try a more complicated flat weave. You don't need to set up the marudai again with the wire, just start in the new pattern and then snip the sections off when you're finished.

I really like how the flat weave turned out, it's not the neatest, but reminds me of Celtic knots. I think a thicker wire could make a better finish. I need to order more wire and experiment!

The top weave here is the square braid. If you look closely, you can see on the left hand side where I changed the weight. The heavier the weight, the more it will draw the wire through and the longer the stitches in the weave, a lighter weight will make them closer together.

The final square braid ended up around 2mm thick. I snipped the ends and pulled it through a drawplate to pull in any loops that were a bit wider than they should have been.

I raided my stash for anything with a hole large enough to fit over the braid and found some ceramic beads I've been hoarding from Lesley Watt. They were perfect. A Bit of liver of Sulpur to darken the copper and a bit of a polish and here's the (nearly) finished design.

I was hoping to use Sue's technique for finishing the ends, but the weave was tighter than if it had been done in thread, so unfortunately the wire wouldn't push through. To hold the ends, I've just wrapped them with more wire for now.

If you'd like to find out a bit more about using a marudai, I can recommend Jacqui's book, Beginner's Guide to Braiding.

Her UK shop with marudai's, supplies and more books can be found here http://careycompany.com/

Thanks for reading!

Caroline

http://www.bluberribeads.co.uk

Book Review: Beautiful Leather Jewelry

When Kalmbach Publishing sent this book for my perusal, I wasn't really sure I would like it. My idea of using leather is 1mm or 2mm cord. Usually for hanging a focal bead. However, after looking through Beautiful Leather Jewelry by Melissa Cable, I think I am convinced otherwise. 

The book starts out with a section on Basics for Leatherworking. Subdivided further into 

Leather: in which you learn about the types of leather, types of tanning, weight, and how to source leather. 

Tools: which covers cutting, piercing, texturing, and setting tools and how to sharpen. Included is alternates in sewing or metal work when an equivalent exists. 

Hardware: including how to do snaps, eyelets, rivets, spots and screw posts. 

Finishing: includes a plethora of options for how to finish endings of cord and flat strap

Special Effects: dyes, paints, edge coats, distressing,  and sealants.

Preparing your Workspace: a chart that helps you figure out the basics of what you need to prevent being overwhelmed by all the choices on the previous pages. 

The next section is called Making Leather Jewelry, which starts out with a "warm-up" project for making a basic cuff. It goes over cutting, then embossing/texturing, dyeing, applying a secondary color,  finishing and piercing. After doing all the steps, you should be ready to make anything else in the book. 

The project section contains lots of wrist candy in the form of cuffs, bangles and bracelets. However, there are also pendants, necklaces and earrings. Some of the designs for the wrist include design variations for ears and necks.

Here are a few of the projects included in the book (please ignore my horrible photos of the book...taken with my phone using regular fluorescent lighting then processed through Instagram)

This one uses faux bone too!

But my absolute favorite part of the book is the last section that teaches how to make leather beads. I adore the leather capsule beads! In addition to the capsule beads, you will learn how to make a leather embellished wooden bead, leather spool bead, rolled leather column bead, and a leather panel bead. 

Once you learn how to make the beads, there are 5 jewelry projects for using your leather beads. 

Here are a couple of the projects in the leather beads section. The first one is my personal favorite in the entire book

 This one uses a few different leather bead styles and is super fun

 

If you are looking to add leather to your repertoire of materials and techniques for jewelry making, this book seems to be a pretty comprehensive source, yet tries to help you from going overboard buying every tool and supply. (Although, if you do, that would be considered totally normal in our world...lol!)

-Jen Cameron

Glass Addictions