Studio Comforts

I've spent much of the past week or so preparing my home for the arrival on Friday of decorators who are giving it a much needed top to bottom face lift. Because they are doing the whole house I was trying to make sure everything I needed could be accessed as the contents of each room inevitably get shuffled around the house...I've already failed on that score but more about that later.

Even thought my studio extension was only built last year it is included in the make over so that some settlement cracks can be fixed and the paintwork can be freshened up. I'm not a collector by nature but I while I was in there trying to get it organised I realised that this was the one area of the house where I do tend to hold on to things and my worktable is home to a little collection of ephemera. This got me  thinking and I asked my AJE team mates what they had in the their studio's that inspires them or keeps them focused. I was thinking artwork, memento's, books, signage...anything other than tools that helped them with their work. Well, their answers were far more interesting than mine so l decided to share them here in their own words since they are far more meaningful than anything I could write.

First up is this beautiful work in progress from Francesca which obviously holds deep significance for her...

Francesca says "This piece will never be finished, from a weekend's worth of classes I took with Thomas Mann two years ago. There's a lot of complicated stuff wrapped up in it for me, and it is nearly always in view when I'm working.  The photo is of my mother, who died much too young. This is my favorite photo of her.  The class with Tom was brutally hard but also hugely gratifying. This piece represents the moment when I broke through a mental block I'd had about using the jeweler's saw, and reminds me not to give up when I'm tackling something challenging.  I began to see jewelry design in a whole new light as a result of this weekend, both in terms of technique and content, and this piece reminds me to take a "no BS" approach to the work - especially when I am feeling a little too full of myself".

Karen sent me some photos full of intriguing things which clearly influence her design ethos...

"The first part of the image is my bear fetish from zuni pueblo that I bought when I was traveling in the area 23 years ago. This was a 3 week solo trip. I rented a jeep and traveled / camped throughout the southwest. Bear is a very important animal totem to me, for a number of reasons I won't go into here. And yes I do plan to make my own bear totem some day."

I think I may just have seen that bear totem come to life on Facebook this week...

"The lower part of this image shows my altar where I keep him along with other items from my medicine bundle. This is located on my main workbench so it is daily in front of me. The white statuette is Tara, a female bodhisattva in mahayana buddhist tradition. (http://www.wildmind.org/mantras/figures/greentara).I was named after the 3rd of 21 forms of Tara (Golden Tara or Sonam Dolma) by my lama back in the early 2000's when I was studying tibetan buddhism. Interestingly, the southwest pueblo culture, in particular the Hopi, and the Tibetans are connected: https://artofdharma.com/when-tibetans-are-scattered-throughout-the-world-the-dharma-will-come-to-the-land-of-the-red-man/... I only learned of this connection recently but it kind of fits with my studies. I am deeply inspired by these sources. Some of the symbols and forms that I use come from them.

The wooden cat figure is from my dad - from when he was on tour in SE Asia during the Viet Nam war (he was an AF navigator, flew KC135s)".



"The second image is of my personal medicine bundle, that I have carried with me since childhood (I didn't use to call it that - it was just my little mini cigar box of stuff). It contains a collection of rocks, fossils, items my kids made for me, etc. The red arrowhead has a story behind it... my brother Jake found it in a cave near our house in south St. Louis when he was a teenager and gave it to my dad, who put it on the fireplace mantle. My dad decided to give it to someone who he thought would like it (I don't remember who)... but weeks later it reappeared back on the mantle even though the person had not been back to visit since having received it. So... my dad next gave it back to Jake, and Jake gave it to a friend of his, but again, sometime later, it reappeared back on the mantle. At this time I was living in Cambridge MA, while attending school there. When I visited over the holidays, my dad gave the arrow to me. And it has stayed with me ever since. This was before I developed an interest in native culture, but I feel it was a precursor to that, a "sign" if you will...

As you can see many of the items have influenced my work - the textures, forms, etc.

Fascinating stuff Karen!

Now Caroline has just moved into a lovely purpose built studio and I know she has spent a lot of time getting it to be her perfect working environment and she has created a wall of special art work that has helped her do this...

"I am hugely inspired by the Scottish artist Pam Carter. I was introduced to her by a friend, who is sadly no longer with us, when she sent me a card with a print of one of her paintings. It was an image of the beach on the West Coast of Scotland where we met and became friends. I loved Pam's style and use of colour, so bought more of the cards for my new workshop. These sit on the wall next to my lamp work bench for a shot of colour inspiration and escapism when I need it"

Having spent time at Jenny's home this summer I new that her studio was full of things of deep meaning and significance to her and of course when I asked she came up with the goods..

"I have a shelf right above my jewelry table - With a huge glass case of seeds, pods, shells, and other fragile natural inspiration. Next to that is this view. A runic charm made by a super talented fae friend. Rabbit netsukes - rabbits are my totem if you will, and a symbol of fertile creativity. A polymer landscape from a stamp I carved of Glastonbury Tor. This is a pilgrimage site to me and means quite a bit mythically and spiritually. A vintage celluloid box with treasures inside. And the frame? Me and my bestie Cooky taken by friend and mentor Keith LoBue a few years ago (in San Diego). Living in San Diego helped reorient me on the jewelry mixed media path, so their presence in my creative space is essential."

"My altar/meditation table set up for Fall and the Dia de los Muertos."

"On my work table: I believe in having feminine goddess/muse images in many places. This old bronze was an auction find. And flotsam and jetsam end up here: a shell fragment, a single labyrinth earring, a UK coin..."

If you'd like to know more about Jenny's inspirations keep and eye on her blog as I know she is planning to cover this in more detail there soon.

And what about me then...well I'm beginning to regret not having that collectors gene as I have nothing so interesting as these ladies. I do have a collection of my early work and pieces from all the jewellery making courses I've been on - sadly I cant show you these because one of those shufflings I mention earlier happened while I was out yesterday and my work table is now hidden behind a wall of furniture and kilns - epic planning failure there then!

Like Caroline I do have a favourite piece of art that anchors me to my home town which I see very little of these days. I was born in Welwyn Garden City, one of the first developments to come about as part of the garden city movement - "a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts", containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and agriculture" (Wikipedia)

This is a reprint of the posters that were created to sell houses in the town in 1940 designed by Charles Paine who also designed posters for the London Underground around that time. The posters - one for each season were reprinted in 1990 and I bought a complete set for my parents. When they passed away I took 'Autumn' and 'Winter' and my brother has 'Spring' and 'Summer'. I love the late Deco feel of this design and the bold lines and strong colours not to mention the subject matter. If only modern real estate advertising were so beautiful!

Once the decorating is done they will be off to have new mounts and then back in pride of place along with a couple of other projects I have planned. Having met so many talented creative people in recent years I've acquired a fair bit of art work which is sadly, mostly hidden in cupboards and drawers so I'm aiming to create a dedicated Artisan wall to display all these pieces....I think that will get a post of it's own in the future. I'm also planning to try and do something with my glaze test tiles which until recently I made as very rough and ready strips of clay like these...

More recently however I've been using a these wheel formats with a view to turning them into some sort of morphing art installation... maybe using magnets to attach them to a wall so that I can remove them to refer to and repostion as the mood takes me. Early days on that one yet and  need a lot more tiles but watch this space.

So I hope you enjoyed that little insight into some of our studios... what do you surround yourself with to make your working environment more comfortable or inspiring..? we'd love  to hear.

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess

Things to do with headpins - 2 for 1 Tutorial

You may of heard on the blog… Beadfest happened recently! My friend, and AJE team member Lesley, kindly offered to take some of my beads across for swaps so I could share in the beady goodness! I got some amazing swaps back, some of which were headpins. 

I’ve been curious about glass headpins ever since I saw them while scrolling through Facebook, so I was thrilled to get some beautiful millefiori pins from Jen, and pretty green drop pins from Sue (which make me think of little jester’s hats!)

As with a lot of things I covet, once I got my hands on them, I had no clue what to do with them. I just wanted some as they were pretty. So they sat in my box of special things while I pondered. I’ve come up with a couple of ideas which I am going to share today. The demo’s are using Jen’s headpins as I think their shape works really well for these ideas.

The domed clear glass on Jen’s headpins give them such a wonderful depth that I thought they would make a pretty ring. 

Start by taking a headpin and holding it a couple of mm from the glass, bend the glass up so it sits at 90 degrees to the wire.

I used one of my existing rings to get the size. Put it on to your ring mandrel and mark with a felt tip where you need to wrap.

Hold the headpin on the mark with your thumb and wrap the wire around the mandrel, and loop it around the glass.

Keep looping until all the wire is around the head, tuck in the end of the wire and straighten the shank.

Put it on... cute!

Afterwards, I did think about adding seed beads around the shank and was going to make a second, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked that had a large enough hole… time for more bead shopping! If you do want to use beads, you would need put them on to the wire before sizing your ring on the mandrel.

Secondly, I decided to make a clasp. For such tiny heads, they make great focals, so my next design features the pin right in the middle. 

As with the ring design, hold the pin and bend the head to 90 degrees.

With bail making pliers wrap a wide loop on one side of the head.

Fold it round the top of the pin to hold it securely.

Do the same on the opposite side.

Wrap the remaining wire around either side of the head, tucking the end in neatly so it doesn’t catch.

Left as it is, it would make a great connector

Or you could do as I did and make a hook to turn the piece into a clasp.

With both designs, due to the heat needed to make the pins, the wire is quite soft, so it's nice and easy to use. But you may find that you need to harden your work when it's complete!

I hope I've inspired you to get wrapping with those headpins! To get some for yourself, visit Jen or Sue!

Thanks for reading!

Caroline

http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk

Tattooed Mice

Don't worry - no animals were harmed in the writing of this post!

You may remember a few months ago Caroline wrote a post about china painting as a way of decorating glazed ceramic. I knew I wanted to give this a go and went straight on line and bought a selection of paints which come in these adorable tiny jars...they've been sitting in a cupboard ever since!

Well yesterday I finally got around to using them. I'd made some little mouse charms and unusually for me glazed them in pastel shades which I felt needed jazzing up a bit. They have little tails on one side but I thought maybe a little tattoo on the other cheek might look cute.

Rather stupidly I forgot to take a photo of me working with the paints but you can find more about the process on Caroline's post. Basically you mix the finely powdered paint with a medium - either a commercial one or an improvised one as I did - I used 7UP. Then it's 'simply' a case of painting on your chosen design. Actually I found it anything but simple - I'm not good at small detail and it's very difficult to hold onto and paint on a tiny object with curved surfaces even with the simplistic designs I was trying to achieve. Needless to say there was frequent dropping, cleaning and starting again.

But I persevered and eventually ended up with all my meeces sporting a little heart or flower tattoos and ready for firing...

Compared to glaze firing this is a pretty quick process whereby you fire the kiln straight up to 700ºc and then let it cool straight back down. This is how they finished up.

I'm not entirely happy with them as I think they're a bit untidy. What I should have done is practice on an old plate or tile first to get a feel for the paints but when did I ever do anything that sensible? I'm sure I'll improve with practice though - even if I do have to decorate all my table china to do it!

Lesley
The Gossiping goddess

March Component of the Month Reveal

Today is the big reveal for my component and I'm bursting to see what everyone's made!

These luna moths have been handmade and carved from porcelain clay. After the glaze firing, they were coloured with precious metal lustres in gold, copper, platinum and lilac.

It was as much of a challenge for me as the rest of the team, as I hardly ever use my own components in my designs, but these moths are one of my favourite things to create so I had fun working out what to do with one!

As well as sending moths to members of the AJE team, there were two guest designers chosen to join us in the challenge.

I hope you'll come along and see what we've all created!

Guest Artists

Helen Simon – Helen's had to drop out due to a hand injury - get well soon Helen!

Niky Sayers – http://silverniknats.blogspot.co.uk

The AJE Team

Caroline Dewison – http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk 

Diana Ptaszynski - http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com

Susan Kennedy - http://suebeads.blogspot.co.uk

Kristen Stevens - http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.co.uk

Keirsten Giles - http://cerebraldilettante.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies-Reazor - http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog/

Melissa Meman –  http://melissameman.blogspot.co.uk

Rebekah Payne - www.treewingsstudio.com

Lesley Watt - http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.co.uk

Linda Landig - http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/

Francesca Watson - http://francescawatson.com

Caroline

http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk

Etching with transparencies

My love affair with etching copper continues as does my search for new ways to transfer the image on to the metal.

You may have seen on my blog, my idea of using stickers cut on a Silhouette Cameo to mask areas of metal to protect them from the etching chemicals. While this is a great way to create simple bold designs, it doesn't work so well on something with smaller fiddly details.

The most common way to transfer more complicated designs is by using Press and Peel Paper which is printed using a laser printer, the image peeled off and then ironed on to the metal. This produces a great result, the only down side is the cost. At around £20 GBP for 5 sheets, it's expensive.

I don't know about you, but using expensive materials to test ideas (which I do a lot) makes me a little nervous, and usually ends up with me only creating a mess. So having my regular scout around on the internet, I came across using laser transparencies. They're clear sheets of acetate, the same as used on the old school overhead projectors, but they're suitable for use at the temperatures needed to print on a laser.

So a quick call to the local stationary shop and 10 minutes later, I had 5 sheets for £1.25... bargain! I had to try it out and see how it worked for me, so here's my results...

To start, I drew up some designs and printed them on to the transparency.

So far so good! You can see the images here on the transparent sheet laid over white paper. My laser printer is a bit temperamental, but it shot through with no problems.

Next, I got out the iron. I tried at full temperature on my first attempt, which was too hot and started to melt the plastic. So after a couple of tries, I found a medium setting was best. You don't need anything to cover the transparency, just place the iron on it and check every 10 seconds how it's going. Be careful, the metal gets very hot!

If you look at the print on an angle, you can see that it changes to a more solid colour once it's stuck to the metal. You might need a few tries and some close looking to get the hang of what to look out for. 

Once it's stuck down, you need to leave it to cool. If you're as impatient as I am, you can run it under a tap for a second to speed it up.

Peel off the transparency and if it's worked, virtually all of the toner will be stuck to the metal and the transparency will be pretty much clean.

As you can see here, part of the design missed, but the great thing with this technique is, if it hasn't completely transferred, you can re-align the design and try again. You do sometimes get a bit of trouble near the edges if they're slightly higher than the flat part of the sheet through cutting, so just pop it back on and press again with the iron until the whole image is transferred.

And here's the image after etching with ferric chloride, you can now cut it from the sheet and use in your designs.

I hope you enjoyed reading and that you'll have a go!

To get you in the mood, here's a bit of inspiration... some of my favourite designs and components in etched copper.

Moongazing Hare ring by Anna McDade

Earrings by A Twist of Whimsy

Etched William Morris pendant by Thea Elements

Etched bangle by The Bronze Flower

Thanks for reading!

Caroline 

blueberribeads

Mudlarking

For anyone who may not know, 'Mudlark' was the name given to people who scavenged for valuables in the mud of the River Thames at low tide in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now obviously that's not exactly what I've been doing but I have been playing with a different sort of mud with the aim of making something that might have some artistic merit or value...

One of the things I really love about being part of this AJE team is the huge capacity my team mates have for sharing and supporting one another. You may just have noticed in the last couple of weeks that some of them came back from ArtBliss very excited about the new techniques they'd learnt and were eager to put into practice and about this time last week, that excitement got us all talking about mixed media work and where we wanted our creative paths to go.

I'd been saying for a long time that I wanted to have a go at making ceramic beads and I even bought a sample pack of clay way back last year. I only have a small, low temperature kiln so am limited to what I can do and have to admit to being a little bit intimidated by long and what seem to me to be complex firing schedules. But my team mates were having none of that and immediately proffered advice and information on how to get started and, more importantly encourage me to just have a go. Well, they got me so fired up (pardon the pun) that I got up on Friday morning and set straight to making some little tiles for glaze tests and some beads...

I found working with the clay very therapeutic especially as you have so much longer to work with it than you do the metal clay I'm used to where speed is of the essence to keep the clay conditioned. After a couple of hours I had a good few beads which I left to dry so they changed colour to a dusty grey...

At this point I had to do some shopping as I had no kiln furniture or glaze for the latter part of the process and I have to admit that I did disregard some of the advice I'd been given. Karen quite rightly suggested testing just one or two glazes before investing more but I'm afraid that's not in my nature. When I start something new I can't help diving in headlong and I was helpless when faced with an array of gorgeous colours and so of course I bought 10 of them! Some of them are hiding from Karen here...

I also ordered myself a bead firing rack and was very impressed when it arrived the next day until I realised they'd sent the wrong size...how frustrating to have your plans delayed when you're so excited!

But anyway, I needed to bisque fire my beads before I could do any glazing so after pestering people with a mass of questions all weekend I bit the bullet on Monday and put them in the kiln and left them to fire overnight. Next day I was delighted to find this little pile of goodies all intact and crack free - phew!

By Tuesday the replacement bead rack hadn't yet arrived arrived so I set to and glazed my beads so they'd be ready when it did. It was not at all disconcerting that from 10 glazes I could only discern three colours most of which were nothing like the colour they would be when fired!

So yesterday the bead rack arrived...eek! Now I really had to be brave! After another round of questions about cones and ramps and soaks (might seem simple to you ceramic folk but it had my head spinning!) I took a deep breathe, programmed the kiln, shut the door, walked away and started counting down the hours...

The firing finished late last night and I was literally holding my breathe when I opened the kiln and found these...

Not perfect by any means but all in one piece and nothing stuck together so I am totally 'chuffed' (very, very happy) with the results - especially these two...

I would just like to say a huge thank you to the AJE team for their encouragement over the last week, especially Karen and Caroline who have answered and explained endlessly and without whom I couldn't have done it (excuse me while I have a Gwyneth moment...) and who were waiting like expectant grandparents for news last night.

And if you're wondering if I'm hooked...well I was looking at high temperature kilns yesterday and one of these just happened to fall into a shopping cart...oopsie!

So who has something new they want to try but is a bit nervous about giving it a go...do let us know. I would thoroughly recommend diving in if you can as it's such a great feeling of achievement when you do.

Lesley 
The Gosssiping Goddess

Patience is a Virtue: Mould Making

Caroline of Blueberri Beads so enjoyed writing for our readers, she's written another article for our wonderful AJE readers. Today she covers mold making. Enjoy!

__________________________________________________________

I've had a busy week this week, all my kids are in school and I've had some time to make some plans and get organised. I did expect to be standing here after week 1 with armfuls of creations, but I seem to have just run around trying to do everything at once... I think I need a lesson in pacing myself!

So next week is going to be better, I have a plan of action and am working at things in stages. So I thought I'd share stage 1 of what I'm working on.

For my first project, I'm going to make a ceramic moon cabochon and set him in copper. So as I want to it to be repeatable, I first need to make a mould.

I have discovered a great way of making really sharp moulds using polymer clay and RTV moulding silicone which I'm going to share today.

I use Super Sculpey original to make my masters. Although I like to sculpt in clay, the polymer makes a much better mould as it's less porous and so far, has worked every time! Unless ceramic clay is glazed, the liquid silicon will stick to it and destroy the mould when you come to take out the master.

Here are the moon faces ready to make in to moulds.

The moulding compound I use is the same as the 2 part putty, but comes in liquid form. I didn't really get on with the 2 part putty and found it difficult to use around anything that wasn't flat. The liquid type is much more cost effective, so you can make a decent size mould that should last for a long time.

To hold the master and the moulding compound, you will need to make a container, I've found thick cardboard works really well. Make it into high sided boxes.

Roll a sausage of Blu-tak and stick it around the bottom edge of your master and stick it in the box. The blu-tak will stop the silicon from seeping underneath and keep your master from moving about.

Weigh and mix the 2 parts of the moulding compound in a cup taking care not to add too many bubbles. The type I'm using is condensation cure and has a working time of about 15 minutes so don't hang about too much! When the mixture is an even colour it's ready to pour.

Pour it into the mould in a slow stream, this helps to remove any bubbles that are there from the mixing.

When the mould is dry (I leave mine overnight) peel off the box and remove the master. You might need to trim it a bit with a scalpel blade to make sure your clay comes out easily, and that's it! To use with clay, I brush a bit of oil in to help it release.

Here's the clay when it's just come out of the mould,

And here they are after being trimmed and cleaned up, drying out ready for firing.

And after promising to be patient, I was in a rush and put these in to fire on Sunday and put the wrong program in, completely missing the slow ramp section of the firing. I opened to kiln a few hours later to lots of little exploded moons... Good job I have moulds!

-Caroline 

Blueberri Beads