Patina and stuff

I've recently been playing with White Copper and decided to see how it took different Patinas and colors compared to regular Copper. I hope you enjoy sharing in my experimentation.

This first piece is actually regular Copper that I sprayed VerDay Patina on some time ago.

This is White Copper that I used Gold Gilders Paste.

Regular Copper Clay with Coral Gilders Paste.

White Copper Clay with Coral Gilders paste.

Regular Copper with Patina Gilders Paste.

These White Copper pieces have Patina Gilders Paste. I can see I need to clean out the holes a little better, but I love the look!

White Copper with VerDay, I just sprayed these this morning and they take up to 48 hours to come to their finished color. I like the look so far so I hope the Patina gets even deeper.

VerDay on regular Copper. Again it needs more time to reach it's optimum color.

Click HERE to learn more about VerDay.

I really wanted to test some Liver of Sulphur on some of the White Copper but I could not find it!!

Here's what the White Copper looks like all by itself, no coloration at all just fired, tumbled and this is it!

This double star is one of my favorite new textures.

Love this Triple Star too!

Tribal Mask

My interpretation of a Buddhist Coin or Mandala.

Almost all of these textures today have been created on Scratch Foam.

I really love making original textures!

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy

KristiBowmanDesign on Artfire

WHITE COPPER

Customers within the European Union: Please be aware that this item contains nickel and may not be in compliance with EU regulation EN1811-2011.

http://media1.riogrande.com/Content/White-Copprclay-MSDS.pdf

A Small Update..

I've been SO busy wrapping up the studio we are building that I've barely had time for anything else. Hubs and I are knocking out most of the finishing touches this week.

View from one of the windows in the new studio

So here's a another small peak into what is going on...

First, some weeks ago our pipes and waste line froze. But we are starting to see some thawing. A drip of water started coming out of one of the drain pipes so Don spent part of today working on adding more heat to try to speed it along. The septic system installer put a cattle tank warmer into the tank to to heat it up. The tank had been filled with water right after the install to get it to weigh down into the ground, and THAT water is what froze the system. Argh. Anyway, we are seeing a TINY bit of progress in the thawing.

Don working on thawing the new waste line and tank

View out back - the ground is dug up from the initial excavation, and still pretty frozen about 4 feet deep.

Our friend and carpenter Jack has been working on the trim and doors - getting them stained and installed. He rigged this neat little system for staining doors. He basically mounted 3 at a time onto two large 6x2s. He did this by adding a screw in the middle of each door end,  allowing them to be easily pivoted for staining and varnishing. Genius! I think he is doing a fabulous job getting all this done.

Trim stained and read to be installed.

Doors getting stained and varnished.

Doors from Karen Totten on Vimeo.

Tiled floor in Clay Room.

Kitchen cabinets are installed. It is a small galley style kitchen. We chose a woodland / lodge theme so we decided on hickory cabinets. I plan to make tiles for the backsplash this summer. I have been looking at hardware for the doors and drawers. Here are some ideas I ran across (image below the cabinet pictures). I like the idea of a mix of twigs, leaves, and maybe some animal paw prints or whatever. They are a tad expensive so I might think about making some of them myself out of ceramic; maybe just get the twig styles in bronze and make the others in stoneware. Hmm....

One side of the galley kitchen...

...the other side.

Some ideas for door pulls and handles.

My large kiln has still not been moved to the new studio so my ceramic work is on hold for at least one more week. Meanwhile, I have been focusing on bronze work.

Last week's bronze.

That's it for now.  :)

Except for this...

April Component of the Month Announcement from Lesley Watt:

We have 3 winners! They are: 

• Johana Nunez
• Perri Jackson
• Leah Curtis

Color Inspiration Saturday...

I was thinking this week of creating some copper components to enamel for earring pairs that could be mixed and matched, but wasn't really sure what colors I wanted to incorporate, then remembered all the inspirational Pinterest photos I've seen featuring Pantone's Colors for Spring 2014. We have all been touting Radiant Orchid, Pantone's Color of the Year for 2014...why, even Karen Totten did a great blog post last month about the color. It is a bright and gorgeous color...one of my favorites of all time!  But, what about those other colors for Spring 2014 that Pantone included in its picks? I decided to find out...here is the list.  Look at these gorgeous spring shades!

Photo courtesy of www.ofdist.com, via Pinterest

I started going through my enamel stash to see what I had to match...some would have to be mixes of shades to get as close as I could, but I chose 4 to recreate for now.

Don't look at my crappy enameling job...these were sort of experiments and as such were done pretty quickly.  They will need some tweaking, but these are my versions of Celosia Orange, Freesia, Placid Blue, and Sand.  I put them in some different combos...lots of possibilities!

For you torch-fire enamel enthusiasts out there, my recipes are easy.  Pretty basic, and as I said, aren't perfect, but pretty close!

• Placid Blue - Robin's Egg
• Freesia - base of white with Egg yellow transparent
• Celosia Orange - Sunset Orange
• Sand - Nut Brown

Oh, and by the way, you can get a pretty good Radiant Orchid using white, or off-white as a base with Raspberry transparent on top!

Hope your day is drenched in color!


Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Folklore Friday - Amethyst

(Hello all - I am reprising a series of folklore posts I started a few years back for the Beads of Clay blog. I was researching gemstones/birthstones, their folklore, symbolism, and any famous - or infamous - specimens. While I am off a month as to the birthstones calendar - let me start here with Amethyst, February's Birthstone. Enjoy!)

Folklore Friday - Amethyst.

Species: Quartz

Color: Purple, violet, pale red-violet

Chemical composition: SiO, silicon dioxide

Crystal system: (Trigonal), hexagonal prisms

Hardness: 7 (Mohs scale)

Amethyst location and depositsThe most important deposits are in Brazil, namely the "Palmeira" amethysts of Rio Grande do Sul and the "Maraba" amethysts of Para. Other deposits are found in Bolivia, Canada, India, Madagascar, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Russia, Sri Lanka, United States (Arizona), Uruguay and Zambia.

Amethyst is a variety of quartz which occurs in transparent light to dark purple. The darker more intense colors are more valuable than the lighter smoky or lavender color. Dark rich, royal colors of amethyst have been treasured by kings and queens for centuries and can be traced back to the Minoan period in Greece (c. 2500 B.C.). During the 15th century the French fleur-de-lis brooch could only be worn by the Royal family on ceremonial occasions. (Logical as purple has long been a color associated with royalty - due to the nature of the rare dyes used to create the color.)

My amethyst palette: silks from Marsha Neal Studio, ceramic pendants by ... me.

My amethyst palette: silks from Marsha Neal Studio, ceramic pendants by ... me. 

• The name comes from the Ancient Greek ἀ a- ("not") and μέθυστος methustos ("intoxicated"), a reference to the belief that the stone protected its owner from drunkenness. The ancient Greeks and Romans wore amethyst and made drinking vessels of it in the belief that it would prevent intoxication. 

•  Medieval Bishop's wore amethyst rings - in an effort to keep these powerful men sober and in control of their faculties!
• Amethyst beads have been unearthed in Anglo Saxon graves in England. 

• In the Egyptian book of the dead, instructions are given for placing heart shaped amethysts on the body of the deceased.

• By far my favorite treasure I have discovered about amethyst? This myth from Ancient Greece - by way of a romantic French troubadour of the 16th century : 
  
  Dionysus, the god of intoxication, of wine, and grapes was pursuing a maiden named Amethystos, who refused his affections. Amethystos prayed to the gods to remain chaste, a prayer which the goddess Artemis answered, transforming her into a white stone. Humbled by Amethystos's desire to remain chaste, Dionysus poured wine over the stone as an offering, dyeing the crystals purple.
  Variations of the story include that Dionysus had been insulted by a mortal and swore to slay the next mortal who crossed his path, creating fierce tigers to carry out his wrath. The mortal turned out to be a beautiful young woman, Amethystos, who was on her way to pay tribute to Artemis. Her life was spared by Artemis, who transformed the maiden into a statue of pure crystalline quartz to protect her from the brutal claws. Dionysus wept tears of wine in remorse for his action at the sight of the beautiful statue. The god's tears then stained the quartz purple.

Portrait of Roman Emperor Caracalla;  Amethyst intaglio, ca. 212 CE. 

From the treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

Attributes of Amethyst: 

• thought to be helpful in overcoming addiction. 
•  used for hearing disorders, insomnia, headaches and other pain. 
• Worn to make the wearer gentle and amiable.
• Amethyst powers include: dreams, healing, peace, love, spiritual upliftment, courage,  protection against thieves, and happiness.

The largest Amethyst geode in the world,

The Empress of Uruguay,

resides in The Crystal Caves in Australia. (zivajewels.com)

Thanks to Wikipedia, Bernardine.com and gemselect.com. 

Stay tuned for more folklore - coming soon!
What's YOUR favorite gemstone? 

Jenny

www.jdaviesreazor.com