calDesign Naturals

Good Riddance 2011Hello 2012...

2012-02-18T15:48:00.016-06:00

Well let's just say 2011 did not get better after my last post... just so I can get it out we had a few passings in my family - my Mom passed away on May 21, my beautiful 19 year old Maine Coon Emmett in mid June, My Great Uncle Bert in July, my Sister's pup Cera in November, my Great Aunt Kate in late November and my precious little black rescue kitty Mikito (Titi) in early December. It was the hardest year I've ever had to live thru and I so hope that I never have to experience all that pain again.

That being said three things kept me partially sane... my beautiful twin 4 1/2 year old kits and creating. In the midst of all the craziness I created some beautiful pieces for friends and family and more Color Combo Challenge pieces. I've put some of the Color Combo Challenge pieces in my etsy shop but will show you some of the highlights here.

May 2011 -
Mother & Daughter Hearts...
created from Fine Silver for a friend and her daughter. The mom's heart has here daughter's birthstone and the daughter's has the Japanese symbol for "bond" on the back. They fit perfectly together as the daughter is her mother's heart.

Daffodil Daze...
A good friend saw my "Statement Ring" and said she had to have one... so I asked her favorite color and favorite flower and POOF came up with Daffodil Daze - a VERY LARGE ring making quite the statement. The cool thing is - it's a size 4 1/2 - TINY yet sooo large on top!! Created from Fine Silver each petal was hand shaped and the "cup" was hand formed around the stone. The band has the owners initial crafted onto it.

Rosary for Mom...
Created this Mother of Pearl Rosary for my Mom. She passed away earlier today after a brief illness. In a need to put my mind on something else while we struggled to wait and see if she would recover I started creating this Rosary for her. I don't remember her having one and thought maybe she'd like a personalized one.

This one is created from Mother of Pearl (Pearl's biblical meaning is "God's Wisdom") beads, vintage bronze wire all hand wired, and the cross and center piece were molded from an old rosary which had belonged to her mom and then created using bronze clay.

I then combined the Mother of Pearl Decades with Swarovski Crystals in the birthstone colors of all the kids and grand kids. The little fired-in-place Peridot CZ represents her one great-grand child. She loved her kids and grand/great grand kids and I think she would be very proud of this piece.

Will miss you Mom - we all will.

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Until next time... I leave you with this thought - take care of those you love - both 2 legged and 4 legged ... there is nothing like the love you have your family, friends and your pets. Special love to my two lost boys.. Emmett and Titi... love you.

Please take time to visit my friends using the links posted above. These gals make all their product by hand - in their work shops, rooms, studios. They are true artisans and I am so proud to present their work in my pieces.

Silver, Copper, Bronze... Color Combo Challenge And More!!

2011-06-23T21:54:00.013-05:00

Hey!! Wow it's been a long time since my last blog - Lordy I feel like I just knelt down in a confessional! But seriously - so much has been going on in 2011 and I'm a bit behind in my reporting!!

You know me, you know my style - I tend to create pieces for specific people - gifts... with specific people in mind. Which means I think about the person, and pull bits and pieces of them into the design. Well that tends to make it difficult for me to ... just make. So in mid January I joined a Facebook group called "Color Combo Challenge". This group is fantastic. I've watched it grow from less than 50 people to over 200 in a few short months. Each Monday a combination (palette) of colors is picked (or voted on) and you have one week to create a piece in that palette - the pics are then posted on Sunday or Monday and then the new colors are announced. I've had SO much fun! Besides the craziness of trying to find materials in the right colors and then creating something "just because" I've met some super great people and learned so much!!

Here are some pics of the pieces I've done for the Color Combo Challenge (the color squares show you the color palette we had that week):

8_Brown/Black, Topaz, Seafoam, Mint and Dusty Mint Greens

Necklace and Earrings: Bronze, Pale Green Granite (yep granite), Amber Glass Beads, Topaz Swarovski Crystals, Peace Stone, Sesame Jasper, hand-made chain and ear wires from vintage bronze wire. One lamp work bead is in the center of the focal - created by That Bead Girl. The necklace is approx 22" and the earrings are approx 2 1/2" long from top of ear wire.
Bracelet: Bronze, Green Granite (this piece has cool sandy pieces in it), Topaz Swarovski Crystals, Peace Stone, Amazonite, Amber Lamp Work Spacer by That Bead Girl, hand-made chain and forged closure.
Bracelet approx 7 1/4" long.

9_Honeysuckle (Pink) & Russet
Click Here to Buy Necklace! - or - Click Here to Buy Earrings!

Necklace: Bronze hand-sculpted rose focal with hand-forged texture. Two shades of pink lampwork beads by That Bead Girl. Swaros - Light Colorado Topaz, Smoked Topaz and Rose. Brown & White Enamel beads made by me (!) with hand-forged Antique Bronze wire work. Finished off with pink suede cord and hand-forged Antique Bronze hook with lampwork bead.

Earrings: Bronze flower drops with hand-forged texture. Pink Lampwork beads by That Bead Girl, Swaros - Light Colorado Topaz and Smoked Topaz. Antique Bronze wire.

11_ Mauves & Olive done with lamp work, Swarovski crystals,
vintage bronze and hand-dyed silk cord
Click Here to Buy Necklace! - or - Click Here to Buy Earrings!

Necklace: Beautiful lamp work heart by Bastille Bleu Lampwork and jungle twilight lamp work beads by That Bead Girl combined with vintage bronze wire to create what I think is a pretty cute necklace. Notice the vintage 10mm pink ab swaros (unsure the exact color but will find out)!! ;o) Piece is finished off with hand coiled beads, cord caps and a hand-forged vintage bronze "s" hook.

Earrings: More jungle twilight lamp work beads by That Bead Girl combined with green and pink swaros, and vintage bronze hand-coiled beads on hand-forged ear wires

12_Coral & Seafoam done with Fossil Coral Beads, Adventurine, Green Flourite, Red Jasper, Dark & Light Coral Czech Glass and Lampwork Beads and Bronze wire

SOLD... Necklace - Took the color challenge a little bit literal and used fossil coral beads for this necklace w/ adventurine and green flourite along w/ red jasper and coral & pink glass czech beads. Hand-forged bronze wire chain with hand-dyed silk cord. And two small lampwork beads at either end of the main focal section by That Bead Girl.

GIFTED... Earrings: Do not match the necklace - but I love these coral/pinky color shells (Strawberry Top Shells from Thunder Bird Supply). Matched w/ bronze hand-forged ear wires and coils along with VINTAGE peridot (or Chrysobryl (?sp)) swaros. I am checking on the Swaros.

14 - Teal/Seafoam/Royal - Bronze Component, Lampwork Beads,
African Jade and Blue Lapsis w/ Bronze Wire.
Bracelet - Bronze bracelet made from one of my bronze components, pretty blue/green lampwork beads by That Bead Girl, African Jade round beads and blue lapsis. Hand forged antique bronze wire chain. Closes with a square bronze toggle.

15 - Plum & Peach - Birds Eye Rayolite, Bronze Component,
Lampwork Beads, Harvest Stone, Swarovski Crystals w/ Bronze Wire.

Necklace - Birds Eye Rayolite focal surrounded by peach and plum lampwork spacers by That Bead Girl, Harvest Stone beads, and light peach Swarovski crystals. Purchased textured chain combined with bronze button component from my etsy shop as well as lampwork, Swarovski and harvest stone bead components. Hand forged closure. Necklace approx 20".

16_Pink Lemonade - Copper, Swarovski Crystals, Glass Beads,
Copper/Brass Wire, Copper Chain
Click Here to Buy Necklace! - or - Click Here to Buy Earrings!

Pink Lemonade Garden Party - Necklace & Earrings
Second try at 'beading' but first time on my own from start to finish. Came across a bracelet in a magazine this week that had these cool crystal bead components so I thought - hmmmm. Here's my try -

Necklace - "Beads" created from Sunflower, Vintage Rose, Rose Swarovski Crystals with size 15 pale pink glass beads. Combined with my own copper rose hips, hand-made jump rings from copper and brass twisted wire and Swarovski crystal w/ copper links. The toggle on this is a combination of Copper & Brass twisted wire and one of my copper twig with buds. Chains lengths are doubled to add to the flow.

Earrings - "Beads" created from Sunflower, Vintage Rose, Rose Swarovski Crystals with size 15 pale pink glass beads. Combined with my own copper rose hips as dangles. Hang from rose gold-filled ear wires for comfortable "non-greening" wear.

17_Green/Brown - Copper, Bronze, Swarovski Crystals, Harvest Stone,
Lamp work Beads, Suede Cording, Vintage Bronze Wire, Copper & Brass Chain
Click Here to Buy Me!

Necklace - dangle focal created from Lamp work beads by Bastille Bleu (rounds) combined with hand-coiled Vintage Bronze bail, patina'd Copper chain. Dangles are patina'd Copper Maple tree seed, Bronze rose hip, Swarovski crystals and a lamp work disc by That Bead Girl.

Focal hung from doubled beautiful green suede cord with side closure created from hand-coiled Vintage Bronze leather ends and hook with Copper/Brass chain and a rose-hip dangle with Swarovski crystals.
(Tutorial for the coiled bail from http://gailavira.etsy.com/)

20_ Teal/Gold/Purple - Bronze, Lampwork Beads,
Swarovski Crystals, Antiqued Bronze Wire
Click to Buy Me!

Necklace - Created this using a mold I made of a vintage pin. Used Bronze Clay, inset 2 fire-able CZs - Amythyst & Yellow Diamond. The Yellow Diamond lighted more than it was so it looks almost creamy clear. Then I took a piece of teal colored sea glass, smashed the crappola out of it and inset a small piece. Fired, tumbled, patina'd (carefully!!) w/ a torch to get some color on the lower wing and body. I added hand-made chain and Swarovski Crystals and Lampwork Spacers (by that bead girl). The chain on the necklace is purchased, the lampwork are all by that bead girl. The closure is also from Bronze clay. I'm SO excited that the piece worked w/ the crystals added in before firing - it opens up SOOO many more ideas for me!!

Earrings - used the lower wing of the butterfly for the earrings. These are done with hand made chain, Swarovski Crystals and again - Lampwork spacers by that bead girl. Hand-forged earring wires. If I had it to do over - and I prob will :o) I would add a crystal to one side of the wing and only two holes on the other side. I think they would dangle really pretty that way.

22_"Creamy Reds" - Pearls, Riverstone, Leopard Skin Jasper,
Swarovski Crystals, Sterling Silver
Click Here to Buy Earrings! - and - Click Here to Buy Bracelet!

Pulled this together quickly because I missed last weeks and 'needed' to do this! (LOL Afraid if I skip another week I'm doomed to skip all!) SO... I'm admitting that I was/am TOTALLY inspired by Jo Conway's beautiful LOOONNNG creamy pearl necklace that she posted in her shop this week.
(http://www.etsy.com/listing/72762044/long-glamourous-pearls)

Bracelet - Creamy little round ...Pearls, 6mm beigy/creme Riverstone, 8mm Black Diamond Swarovski round crystals, 8mm and 14mm Leopard Skin Jasper in cool reds, creams and black swirls. Finished off with 16g sterling silver "S" hook. Approx 8" finished.

Earrings - 8mm Leopard Skin Jasper, 6mm Black Diamond Swarovski Crystal rounds and 6mm beigy/creme Riverstone strung on hand made sterling silver earring wires. Approx 1 1/2" long

Thank you Jo for the inspiration! :o)

24_"Tropical Orange & Blue" Kazuri Beads, Lampwork Beads,
Swarovski Crystals, Copper & Brass Twisted Wire, Copper Viking Knit.

Bracelet - Hand-made copper viking knit chain w/ copper and brass twisted wire end caps. Decorated with two denim blue Kazuri ceramic beads, a large Swarovski Fire Opal Crystal and small Sapphire Swarovski Crystals, and two Orangie/Yellow lampwork bead spacers by that bead girl. Approx 7 1/2" finished.

Earrings - Hand-forged copper ear wires w/ copper and brass twisted jump rings from which dangle three small staggered lengths of chain with Swarovski Crystals (Fire Opal and Sapphire), a Clear AB Swarovski Crystal w/ Royal Blue lampwork spacer bead and Red Siam Swarovski Crystal w/ Orangie/Yellow lampwork spacer bead. Spacer beads by that bead girl. Approx 3" total.

25_Sea Green - Bracelet - Lampwork Beads, Swarovski Crystals,
Fine Silver, Hand-woven Sterling Silver Chain, African Jade.

I had some hand-woven sterling silver that I had made and used it for this bracelet. I used sterling silver wire to create the end caps for the chain and connected it to some sterling beading wire. The Lampwork Beads are gorgeous sea foam and pesto colored matte beads w/ silver made by Canyon Echoes Artisan Beads. They are combined with fine silver hand made bead caps w/ a carnation texture, four vintage pale green Swarovski Crystals and two larger black diamond Swarovski Crystals.

The center bead was created by me of fine silver and has a sea urchin texture. It's made with a large hole to fit over the viking chain but I wanted it to be the focal so I strung sterling beads and African Jade on the beading wire to go inside the fine silver bead. This allows the fine silver Urchin bead to slide back and forth and give it some movement.

28_Royal, Turquoise, White, Sand, Yellow - Lampwork, White Jade,
River Stone, Swarovski Crystals, Glass Beads, Sterling Silver.
SOLD...

Necklace - Lampwork beads by Firebabies, Focal by Bastille Bleu Lampwork, "Sea glass blue" spacers by Canyon Echoes Artisan Beads - tied together with beige River Stone and White Jade beads w/ silver balls. Hang on sterling silver rolo chain with a hand forged sterling silver s-hook. Small beads on hook and chain are crackled glass beads. Focal has Swarovski crystals in khaki, opal, sunflower, and sapphire.

Love how the lampwork from three different artists fell together in this set!! :o)

Some of these items are posted in my etsy shop - some are not -
if you are interested... let me know!! :o)

More Pics from My Enamel Vacation...

2011-02-19T19:50:00.003-06:00

More photos from my vacation... :o)

First - fine silver pieces created - then the enameling starts. The last pic there... that's my teacher and new friend Pam... watching her work was inspirational.

John C Campbell Folk School...

(Left) View from my dorm;

(Right) Some of the studios (the enamel area is building on left);

Enamel Bead Class...

"Bits 'n Pieces" Branching out!

2011-02-18T00:23:00.015-06:00

Recently I noticed a number of jewelry friends buying ceramic buttons to use in their jewelry pieces. (Heck I even bought some from Winchell Clayworks in Maine... ok so maybe I bought them at first because she's from Maine and I love Maine but ... YOU should buy them because HER PIECES ARE DELISH!!)

Ooops I digress...

So I asked one of these terrifically artistic gals what she thought about fine silver, bronze and copper buttons - her words were something along the lines of... "you make them - they will come". It sounded promising. Here's my problem... since I started with my metal clay obsession, folks have asked me "do you have a store?", "do you sell your pieces?" ... my answer was always "No." See, the reason for this is... ::deep breath:: I'm afraid of a number of things - that people don't really like them, that they won't sell and that it will become work ... and this isn't work it's FUN... this is my hobby. (Read between the lines people... I'm a chicken.) I do love making 'components' I use to make the jewelry pieces - almost more than creating the pieces. I love making pieces for people - having a person to create for, knowing that person and making a piece that is totally special and customized for them - but I also like process of making the pieces I use to build the jewelry piece from!

So I decided to take a slow ambling walk toward selling pieces. I thought - let's create some components... some "Bits 'n Pieces" and see how it works. I started the process (sloooowwwwllllyy because ... yup - you know it - I'm a big ole chicken - have I mentioned I LOVE roasted chicken? ;o) and this was a big step) ... I created a FB fan page calDESIGN Naturals an etsy shop, a new banner - NOTICE THE NEW BANNER ON THIS BLOG??. I started putting all my ducks in a row and then I got a little push - my friend Johanna from Canyon Echoes found my etsy site and every so often would send cryptic notes like... "that should be in your shop" or "still empty" LOL her support made me laugh and kept me going. Then another friend Audrey from Principessa Glass found my FB page "found ya" and had a request - make her a pair of heart dangles that she can make earrings from. That was the final push.

Introducing... calDESIGN Naturals "Bits 'n Pieces" -

I started with 2 pair of heart dangles - one flat, one slightly domed, a flat heart pendant dangle and 2 pair of "buttons". All in fine silver (.999) and all scooped up in the first day! OMG - thank you my friends for making me feel welcome! Audrey reserved both pair of dangles and the pendant and two other friends (yes Johanna was one) scooped up a pair of square fine silver textured buttons w/2 holes and a pair of leaf-shaped fine silver textured buttons w/ 2 holes.

After an offer from Canyon Echoes to add my etsy site to her monthly email newsletter I loaded 10 pair of bronze "buttons". These buttons are fantastic! The torch-applied patina is incredible. Square, round, triangular, diamond, rounded triangular...2 and 3 holes ... textured on one side, flat on the other - these "buttons" are fun!!! Average size is approx 5/8" to 3/4". Textures include wood grain, sea foam, floral, flourishes, and more! Such fun to make!!! All have been tumbled for 8 hours to ensure they are work hardened.

It's been a fun trip into the wonderful world of selling what you create - I've had an order for more hearts and have fine silver (.999) and bronze drying as I type. :o) I can't thank my friends enough for the support - from answering 1001 questions to providing moral support to actually purchasing my little "Bits 'n Pieces" and requesting more - I love them and THANK YOU!!! :o) (These earrings are the first pieces made with any of my "Bits 'n Pieces" - Audrey made them for herself - she shined them up a little to knock down some of the patina so they would show a little brighter with her dark hair. LOVE these little babies!!:o) )

Next post - Color Combo Challenge... creating pieces "just because" instead of for someone. It's pushed me to just make and I'm really enjoying it. Come back to see more! :o)

Until next time... I leave you with this thought - Please take time to visit my friends using the links posted above. These gals make all their product by hand - in their work shops, rooms, studios. They are true artisans and I am so proud to present their work in my pieces.

Bronze! I. Love. Bronze!

2011-02-17T23:54:00.011-06:00

I love bronze - oh wait, I already said that... but I want to scream it!! It's tough... it takes the not so delicate handling I give it and says "HA! I'll take that and more!" and I love it for that!! The clay works much like silver and copper it's just that it has a different firing method. And the new Prometheus bronze is a shorter firing time (perfect for my muffle kiln) and thanks to a wonderful artist from France - Sabine Alienor - I have been able to get fantastic results with firing using her technique. I have not had any failures in firing the bronze and whether it's simply brushed or tumbled it comes out fantastic. And... can it receive a patina! (I know - it sounded like a question but heck no! It was a statement for sure... It CAN take a patina!) I've used both liquid LOS patina as well as torch applied patina - o m g. The torch applied is my favorite the colors are incredible.

Here are some examples - the earrings you've seen before ...
the bronze holds a terrific texture and plain old squares can be hammered to form hand-forged texture.

My favorite earrings lately are the pair on the left - a delicate floral carnation texture, slightly domed leaf shape dangle on hand-forged vintage bronze ear wires. Peace Stones add a touch of organic color.

The other pair are hand-forged square bronze dangles with turquoise rondelles. Paired with vintage bronze ear wires and coils. Very light, very pretty!!

Cinderella's Pendant...
This piece I adore. I found a little skeleton key with lock in a scrap book store and thought - that looks like a pendant. Like a Cinderella carriage. I molded the lock plate and covered the key-hole area with polymer clay to make a bezel-like area in the pendant. The cabachon is ... polymer clay! Yes I actually made a piece from polymer clay that did not burn on me! The colors came out fabulous but I have to admit - I cheated... I used glossy coating vs all the hours of sanding that my friend Lisa does to get a coating free shine like this.

Below the Cinderella Pendant hangs a bronze key with a Principessa Glass lamp work heart and finishes with a Swarovski Crystal fringe in colors from the cab. The key is made from bronze and is cold connected to the lamp work heart. The cabachon was created to work with this heart! I had so much fun making this necklace. There are two Vintage Aspirin Peridot AB Swarovski Crystals and two small bronze colored lamp work spacers by That Bead Girl. The piece is completed with a hand-dyed silk cord in the PERFECT color by Jamn Glass and a hand-forged bronze "S" hook with another That Bead Girl spacer.

(I made the "S" hook a little on the large size so that it will help keep the necklace centered while wearing.)

I love this pretty necklace. It's approx 22" long.

Serenity Prayer Pendant...
While at Pam East's I found a secret for easily and efficiently cleaning a Photo Polymer Plate (PPP) and let me tell you it works!! I created this Serenity Prayer pendant using a PPP that was created from a design I did on the computer and transfered to the plate and then used like a stamp with the bronze clay.

It worked very nicely. I used some liquid LOS patina to darken up the words a little and then hit it with a torch to bring up some torch-fired patina colors. It hangs on a brown leather cord that knots in the back. It's a fabulous little piece - approx 1 1/4" diameter.

Double Heart Bracelet...
This bracelet is light and very comfortable to wear. The focal is formed with double hearts stacked on a diamond base. The hearts were wire brushed to bring up some shine while the base was left to provide a contrast. I combined the patina'd diamond shape bronze components with hand-made bronze coiled beads and Olive Jade rondelles. The piece comes together with brown suede cord and hand-forged bronze hook. The Olive Jade rondelles are very understated on their own but when combined with the leather, wire work and bronze they pop.

Until next time... I leave you with this thought - Please take time to visit my friends using the links posted above. These gals make all their product by hand - in their work shops, rooms, studios. They are true artisans and I am so proud to present their work in my pieces.

Earrings and Christmas!!

2011-02-17T22:53:00.023-06:00

December was a carry over of craziness from November. Conference in San Francisco - return on Thursday - Friday off, Silver Clay class on Saturday, and then to the airport again on Sunday headed for Boston for work and a surprise 95th Birthday party for my great uncle. I was away for another week and a half and started to have withdrawals after all the wonderful fun on vacation.

When Creativity time is minimal what do you do? I decided to make earrings! What better chance to take out some aggravation than hammering wire!! Enjoy!!

A = Made from Sterling Silver hand-forged paddle wires, Purple Spacer Lampwork Beads from That Bead Girl and coiled sterling silver wire - on Sterling Silver Ear Hooks.

B = Made from Sterling Silver hand-forged paddle wires, Green Spacer Lampwork Beads from That Bead Girl and Fine Silver (.999) bead caps - on Sterling Silver Ear Hooks.

C = Made from Sterling Silver hand-forged paddle wires, Blue Translucent Lampwork Beads w/ fine silver by Canyon Echoes and Metalic Blue Lampwork Spacer Beads by That Bead Girl and fine silver (.999) bead caps - on Sterling Silver Ear Hooks.
(These are special for my fav Postal Lady! She takes great care of my incoming beads!!! AND my outgoing packages!!!)

D = Made from Red Spacer Beads by That Bead Girl and fine silver (.999) bead caps - on Sterling Silver Ear Hooks.

Red & Gold "Bead of the Month"
Bead of the month club! That Bead Girl has this and each month it's like a mini little Christmas. I got these a month or so ago - and thought they screamed Earrings!

Made from - Brass, hand-forged wire with brass coils. Dark Red Lampwork Beads w/ Gold Foil on the top beads. Gold spacer bead. Made the wires from Gold-Plated head pins and the worked beautifully.

Lampwork and Sterling
These were the first pair I played with! Took me 4 tries to get the darn hole maker to make the hole in the right place. ::sigh:: of course it was user error vs mechanical error.

Made on Sterling Silver hand-forged paddles with sterling wrap. The pinkish clear spacers are by Firebabies Lampwork and the beautiful center beads are Pinkish-hued Lampwork Beads with fine silver by Canyon Echoes. I love this combo!! They hang on Sterling Ear Hooks.

Ahhh Swarovski Crystals!
How did I get sucked into loving those? THESE beauties are vintage Swaros that I got from Brandy and are paired with a pair of pretty purple bicone Lampwork Beads by Bastille Bleu. Sadly I am having problems catching this purple color correctly. Hang on Sterling Silver wire and Earring Hooks.

Lampwork & Sterling
These earrings were fun - last pair I made and enjoyed making the coiled wire.

Made from - Sterling, hand-forged paddles, gorgeous lamp work beads from That Bead Girl (the color is actually achieved from putting copper on the beads while making them!! Cool huh?), sterling silver coils and silver spacer beads. Hung on Sterling Silver ear wires.

Meteors & Copper
I LOVE THESE EARRINGS! I couldn't resist these lamp work beads when I saw them on That Bead Girls site one day. I had NO idea what I'd do with them. Then poking around while making the earrings I thought - YES!! Try them.

Made from - Copper hand-forged paddles with copper coils and antiqued copper coiled spacers (did not make but love). They hang from rose-gold ear wires which looks perfect with copper but won't turn ears green! :o) I need to make more of these - have an idea for different style - combining a style I learned at The Lancaster Bead Company in Lancaster PA w/ these beads. Yep, got to make more!

Green & Brass
These beads are STUNNING and I had to put them with brass - the goldish hue with the green is gorgeous.

Made on hand-forged brass wire paddles with brass coils and small gold beads. The Green lamp work beads are by That Bead Girl. I made the ear wires from gold plated head pins and poof they worked perfectly.

Here are some additional earrings that I've made over the past few months... copper and bronze - OMG I LOVE BRONZE!! Next post will be about bronze!!

Copper Fern Gully - Copper diamond-shaped dangles with vine design and black alcohol ink. The lamp work beads are by Bastille Bleu Lampwork. I use rose-gold filled ear wires with copper so that they don't cause your ears to be green and the rose-gold blends in perfectly.

Copper - Art Deco Earrings with lamp work beads by Bastille Bleu Lampwork. Copper chain with slight patina and rose-gold filled ear wires.

Bronze (!) Turquoise Squares - created from Prometheus Bronze clay in the same manner as silver clay or copper clay - just has a different firing time. I love this product the color is fantastic, it's easy to use and not complicated to fire. Hand-forged ear wires and coils from antique bronze wire.

MY FAVORITE!
I wear these often! Bronze leaf shape is probably 2" on it's own! Textured in a delicate floral (carnation) texture. Hand-forged ear wire with Peace Stone and antique bronze wire.

CHRISTMAS!
I was lucky enough to pull my new Sister-In-Law's name in the gift grab and that meant silver jewelry! She asked for something specially for her - and knowing she loves bling I used clear czs in this Pendant/Earring set.

Fine silver (.999) is combined with the clear czs. They were hand patina'd to bring out the detail of the textured areas and tumbled for approx 4 hours to bring out the high shine. They hang from sterling silver wires. The pendant hangs from a sterling silver chain with a Swarovski crystal just above the focal.

Until next time... I leave you with this thought - Please take time to visit my friends using the links posted above. These gals make all their product by hand - in their work shops, rooms, studios. They are true artisans and I am so proud to present their work in my pieces.

Enamel Vacation!

2011-02-17T22:04:00.018-06:00

November was a little crazy for me - I did something I've not done in probably 10 years. I went on vacation. Yes, a real vacation - not a vacation where I am traveling for work and go visit my family. A vacation where I did NOT even bring my work laptop with me! It. Was. FANTASTIC.

I traveled to Pam East's GA studio and took one of the most fantastic silver clay classes ever. Champleve Enameling on Silver Clay. The most important thing I learned was do not worry and take your time - there is a lot to be said about the actual finishing of a project. Pam taught 4 of us the ins and outs of silver clay in this two day class helping us open up to having no fear and creating beautiful pieces. We created pieces specifically for Champleve Enameling process. And the second day we enameled. What a blast - completely relaxing, you get into a zone and the pieces seemed to flow. I learned to build the enamel layer by layer creating the shading as you go. And then the finishing - how much I learned about this. When we were done you could run your finger across the top of our Champleve pieces and it felt like they had a layer of smooth, glossy varnish over it - but it was just the finely ground, smooth, beautifully finished silver and enamel. No edges, just smooth. I learned so much!

The second piece we did was at our request - she had a beautiful piece that had what we came to call a "river" of enamel flowing thru it. The silver piece was textured but the "river" was smooth and stood out from the texture. She showed us how and we had a couple of rivers and one heart from this project. I love my little heart on the rounded triangle shaped pendant. (So much that I bought a template of the rounded triangular shape to use at home.) On this piece we didn't carefully grind the enamel down because of the texture but what we did do was add patina using real liver of sulfur - something I had never used before. I have only used the gel form. I was / am very pleased with the colors I got that evening.

Those were two incredible days! Well... that wasn't the end of my vacation - ohhh no! I had found out that after our class Pam was headed to the John C Campbell Folk School in North Carolina - just over the border. So when I found out it was only a 2 hour drive from North Atlanta I signed up. I took Thursday off and relaxed and then checked out of the Hilton and headed north on Friday. The John C Campbell Folk School is an experience in itself. It's a little mini community a campus of buildings comprised of studios and living space. It was fantastic. You share a house (and sometimes a room - I did) with people you probably have never met before. You walk to the main building(s) for meals and gatherings, you walk to the studios for class and let me tell you - the classroom we had was fantastic.

Pam taught Enamel Bead class to 6 of us. Crafty ladies with differing levels of skill but none of us having had real hands-on large head torch experience before so it was great we all learned. I made over 60 beads in 2 days and was crazy happy with the techniques we learned. It wasn't a "making a finished piece of jewelery" class it was a "learning techniques" class. At the end of the weekend Pam gave us the opportunity to purchase our torch heads and other equipment. I came home from that week with the best new tools, techniques and FRIENDS!

OH speaking of new friends - you need to check out these gourd pieces... I met Judy Zeigler of Art of Critter Ridge at JCC in Pam's class. She was there to learn to make the beads to add to her beautiful gourds. I was so impressed I purchased this turquoise colored gourd and it sits proudly in my studio. She hand coils, paints and the inside is lined with hand-crafted papers. Check her out on FB!!

I finally returned home at 9pm on Sunday night to turn around and fly to San Francisco for Dreamforce conference (work) the next morning but let me tell you - that was THE BEST VACATION I have had in many, many, MANY years. Thank you Pam and all the wonderful gals I met!!

Until next time... I leave you with this thought - Please take time to visit my friends using the links posted above. These gals make all their product by hand - in their work shops, rooms, studios. They are true artisans and I am so proud to present their work in my pieces.

Happy New Year! Ok so I'm really, really behind!

2011-02-17T20:52:00.010-06:00

Hi! I'm so behind in my posts I'm trying to decide to I try to catch up or go from here? I think... because I love some of these pieces I'll do a quick photo show and move on from there? Sound good? Excellent! ;o)

Oh hey... like the new banner? More on that to come!!

Earrings for a gal who's not blue but known as Bastille Bleu in the lamp work world. She asked me to make a pair of earrings in the shape of a pair she had seen. I asked if I could design something specifically for her and she agreed. I came up with these! I call them Turquoise Burst.

These are fine silver (.999) with turquoise cabs set inside. The pieces were fired and the cab was tucked in and then the "burst" were formed down around the cab like a bezel. Patina was added and the colors are fantastic. The wires were hand-forged and kiln attached fine-silver wire. They measure approx 2" from top of wire to bottom of 'shield'

Frosty & Polar Bears...
My mom loves (LOVES) kitschy holiday clothing. If it's got a reindeer on it she loves it. When I saw these snowmen and polar bear lampwork beads by Bastille Bleu I knew that Mom would love them as earrings!

To bring them a little more of me - more than just putting them together, I created fine silver (.999) top hats for Frosty. I made them with a little popped up top (like the real Frosty) and added a little 4mm aquamarine cz to the band instead of a flower. Hand applied patina helps bring out the colors in Frosty's scarf. Coordinating Swarovski crystals finish off these cute earrings.

The polar bear earrings "Beary Merry" hang approximately 1 1/2" long from wire to bottom of the Swarovski crystal dangles. I created a hand-crafted fine silver (.999) bow to a a "touch of me" to the earrings. Mom was very happy with them - until she lost one of the Frosty's on Christmas eve at mass and panicked. Luckily Nik had some of the stringer left that she created the scarf with. She created two more Frosty's (hard to match one when you don't have it in your hand) and I'm making a pendant from the original surviving Frosty! Problem solved = Happy Mom!

Alaskan Love Key Fobs...
Created for a really special couple who celebrated their 1 year anniversary with an Alaskan cruise! Two days after I found out they went on a cruise two things happened... 1) Principessa Glass posted a fabulous lamp work heart she called "Glacier" and then 2) that same day a gal I have been buying antique Japanese and Korean glass fishing floats from had ALASKAN BEACH STONES on her site - drilled and everything. Coincidence? I think so! So I snatched up the lamp work heart along with one of similar feel called "Twisted Seas" and ordered the drilled Alaskan Beach Stone from Northern Sea Glass and created these two key fobs. I added some hollow fine silver (.999) beads that I added fine silver flake to before firing, a small Pyrite heart and birth stones in Swarovski Crystals. He got the one with HER birthstone and she got the one with HIS birthstone.

Love...
The second piece in what I'm calling my "Antiquities" line "Love" is the Japanese symbol for - well, Love and is done in fine silver (.999). I added 24kt gold to bring out the symbol and a hand-applied patina to bring in some blues. The piece is a comfortable size to wear - approx 1 1/2" long by 3/4" wide in the shape of a dog tag. The pendant hangs from a gold-filled chain.

Until next time... I leave you with this thought - Please take time to visit my friends using the links posted above. These gals make all their product by hand - in their work shops, rooms, studios. They are true artisans and I am so proud to present their work in my pieces.

Anniversary Gifts & Still More Birthdays! Nov 27, 2010

2010-11-27T00:47:00.020-06:00

Anniversaries are tough - specially in the jewelry creation world. I mean girls like bling - the husbands not so much. SO how do you create a piece for the wife and something coordinating for the husband that he won't be afraid to show because it's to 'girly'?

Here's my attempt -

My Niece (yes she and her little family are the main focus of my creative world in August and September!!) and her husband have been married for 3 years now. They had a GORGEOUS wedding w/ bright whites, dark reds and well - she's blonde haired, blue-eyed and simply gorgeous (LUCKILY she didn't get the family genes! ;o)) so it had to be beautiful.

To celebrate their Anniversary I contacted one of my favorite lamp-work bead artists and asked her if she could make me a custom bead. I had purchased a big-hole bead from Principessa Glass in the past that was larger than a normal big-hole bead ... this is what I wanted a bigger than normal bead. I asked for a sapphire bead w/ Amethyst and Peridot colors added to it. Sapphire for their wedding month (and her birthday month), Amethyst for his birthday month and Peridot for their daughter's birthday month. This is where my friend Audrey of Principessa Glass knows best - if the blue was the base color the others wouldn't show up well but she did have some shards in her words... "really look cool and have a different look from different angles". And they were plum which actually looks sort of "Amethyst-y" on the beads. So she created 7 beads for me to choose from. One was lighter than the others and I asked to have that one cored in brass (her brass cores look very vintage and cool) and two others I loved and asked to have them cored in sterling silver. B is the one I chose for her necklace, C has lighter dots and I had that cored in brass for me, and A you'll see below...

From those beads I created this necklace - "Anniversary Sparkles" - featuring custom focal big-hole bead cored in sterling silver by Principessa Glass with two of my hand-made, fine silver (.999) big-hole tube beads. I added tiny 3mm Amethyst and Sapphire CZs to the tubes before firing. Fired and tumbled them to a high shine. The beads are hanging on a hand-dyed silk Sapphire ribbon by Jamn Glass. I trimmed the ribbon to approx 20" and created the sterling silver coiled end-caps. It's finished off with a hand-forged sterling "S" hook with a Sapphire blue spacer bead by That Bead Girl (::wink:: part of my That Bead Girl booty!)

As you can see I think I spend too much time thinking about the pieces I make - but then, if I don't love the pieces making them wouldn't be as fun and thinking of how personalized they are and hoping that the reaction of the recipient is positive keeps me creating!

Now for the hubby... What do you create for a husband? Hmmm - how about a key fob? Something he can clip onto his keys and carry with him. Something not to flashy, something that represents them. So here's my attempt - Custom Principessa Glass bead "A" on a piece of hand-woven sterling silver viking knit chain. I coiled sterling silver wire over a thicker guage wire and coiled the whole piece around to make a sort of end-cap. I still really have no idea what I'm doing now... but thought hmmm ok - push the left over wire from the coil up thru the center of the viking knit chain, loop it and make a wrap at the top. BAM! One Anniversary Key Fob. "What do you think?"

Ok so not so sure about that so I'll be adding a gift certificate for both of them with the package when I mail it! ;o)

OCTOBER - Birthday -

I have a new Sister-In-Law ... well, relatively new - she married my brother last year on Halloween. Now think about it - kinda bizarre eh? Getting married on Halloween? I mean ... oi - never mind! ;o) Anyway - her birthday is in October. NOT a great month for birthstones in the silver clay world because most opals don't like FIRE. ::sigh:: which means you have to make a bezel and set the opals and it's something I struggle with! YIKES! So what do you make?

In this case I had purchased a set of beads in June from Bastille Bleu Lampwork that made me think of her. She's tiny and feisty and has dark hair and flashing eyes. PERFECT mate for my brother! "Tiger Tails and Leopard Spots" how's that for a name? I love the names that Nikki comes up with - actually all the folks that make lamp-work beads come up with some hum-dingers for names! It's the artist in them, they can't help it - it suits the beads and gets folks like me to buy them! ;o)I also scooped up a big hole bead w/ similar feel that she created later in the summer. I thought if I edge it w/ bronze it will fit in nicely as the focal for the bracelet.

I am rambling again aren't I? Any who... I've also been playing with Prometheus Bronze Clay... and I thought hmmm she's got pretty coloring that would work well with bronze - so I decided to combine the two - beads from "Tiger Tails and Leopard Spots" set and bronze metal beads. The Prometheus Bronze is interesting - different firing times, set-up and temperatures. Even the feel is different. You really have to work it to get it in condition to roll out. But I liked it. And I've not had any really bad firings. My first batch bubbled a little on the top which someone said was too high heat, but when I researched more I found that people who have really tested bronze clay say the bubbles are not from too much heat - they don't know what it's from. The bubbles go away if you hammer it. And let me tell you I hammered it! I beat the livin' crapola out of some chain pieces that I made and those babies held up great!

So I created some hollow tube beads w/ little 3mm Clear CZs on them. Very pleased with how they turned out. The texture I used was wood grain and it came out subtle but good on the little tube beads. I had used some bronze chain that I made on the first go round of the bracelet and although I liked it - it was too beginner/chunky for this bracelet. My next try was thinner and perfectly smooth! So I redesigned and restrung. It was also my attempt at an asymmetrical design... didn't quite sit right in my mind SO ... I created this lovely instead. The beads as I wrote above are by Bastille Bleu Lampwork and LOVE them! :o) (Luckily have a few left over from the set!) I added some of my hand-made bronze findings - big ole end-caps, the tube beads with clear CZs, the clasp bronze and wire - and then created some 2x2 chain using vintage bronze wire. Yep got all crazy on this one and cut, cut, cut, cut, cut and then connected, connected, connected, connected the chain together each little jump ring! LOL! I really enjoyed it actually and like how it feels. The little green spacers and bronzey/brown colored beads are all lampwork from my That Bead Girl booty! ;o) I really love this piece - it's the first piece I've done in bronze w/ no silver and I'm excited to see what she thinks.

OK so I'm finishing this one even though there is more - yes! So much more! Quick note - for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding anniversary I didn't make jewelry - SHOCKED? Me too! But I found something better! What do you get the couple that has each other therefore has everything? A custom, artisan made, lampwork wine stopper w/ coordinating appetizer forks! What? You didn't think of that? Well neither did I! Until I saw the most awesome stoppers on Amber's site! That Bead Girl is more than just a place for me to get a "bead fix". She has beautiful gifts as well - all made by HER hands!! I loved the wine stopper so much I had to get it and then ordered 10 forks to go with it as a set. She did a fantastic job and if I hadn't shipped them this afternoon I'd run and take a picture right now but I can show you a picture of the wine stopper!

Until next time... I leave you with this thought - Please take time to visit my friends using the links posted above. These gals make all their product by hand - in their work shops, rooms, studios. They are true artisans and I am so proud to present their work in my pieces.

Lordy, Lordy... It's been a while. Nov 26, 2010

2010-11-26T23:33:00.009-06:00

"DANG!" It's been a long time.
Work-work has been crazy. Changes and more changes and yet you know the saying - the more it changes the more it stays the same.

But I've been trying to keep busy on the creative side too - it helps keep my mind clear but sometimes I get caught up in the stressers of work and worrying about getting a piece done and then I step back and remember - this is fun... and try to relax. SO - here's some fun I've been having lately...

Gifts, Gifts ... late gifts!
August starts crazy birthday & anniversary time for our family! And as I indicated at the beginning of this post - it's been awful crazy couple of months so all my birthday and anniversary gifts are late! Yep - late... as in mailing tomorrow late! YIKES! OK enough of that - on to the good stuff!

In August my little great-niece turned two and I created two gifts for her - first is a charm bracelet I call "One to Grow On". It has little mother of pearl beads, Swarovski pearls and some precious hand-made lamp-work beads by Bastille Bleu Lampwork. The Rose is for her name, the cupcake because she loves cupcakes and the color is pretty close to her birthstone. The lady-bug is a nick name she has. The heart was hand-crafted by me from fine silver and stamped with Mom and Dad. The thought is that I can create fine silver charms and send to her and her mom can add them to the charm bracelet for her.

Now, knowing that she's only 2 and this has small pieces I figured that her mom would hold onto it for her for a little while so I created a cutesy little necklace that she can wear now to play dress-up with. Created with lamp-work beads from a number of artists but featuring a bear, ruffled disks and polka dot beads by Bastille Bleu Lampwork. The others are from Blissful Garden. The beads are strung on a piece of pink suede cord and knotted so that it can be shortened or lengthened as the little one desires!

September brings birthdays and anniversaries -

"Baby Love" is for my niece who is a wonderful mom. Her daughter is represented in this necklace. The pendant is hand-crafted completely by me in fine silver (.999). The heart starts on the lower left w/ a lily, curves up to the rose at the top and then curves down to a cz representing the babies birthday - Peridot. The pendant was made in stages w/ firings between each stage. I'm so in love with this pendant. From the little sparkly silver frit and patina in the lily flower to the rose made with individual-shaped rose petals to the leaves wrapped around the heart. It gave me grief but I learned a lot from it!

Now this beautiful (if I do say so myself) pendant hangs from a gorgeous, hand-dyed silk ribbon in chartreuse by Jamn Glass. I trimmed the ribbon to approx 20" and formed the sterling silver coiled end pieces and then hand-forged the sterling hook with a pretty little chartreuse lamp-work spacer by That Bead Girl capped on each end by my own fine silver (.999) hand-made, textured end-caps.

Oh now there's a fun story - Amber from That Bead Girl makes gorgeous bead, cabochons, and beautiful wine stoppers, appetizer forks, bookmarks, pendants and more all featuring her gorgeous lamp-work pieces. When she creates custom beads she makes extras to be sure her sizing, color, shapes are correct. When she has a large amount of these orphans she puts them together in a lot and posts them to ebay. Wellll let me tell you I scored one of her postings - 355 hand-made lamp-work beads. Spacers like nobodies business! Some focals, some regular beads, discs, mini's, roundels, OMG I was/am in bead heaven!!

So now you know how I ended up with the coordinating chartreuse lamp-work spacer for the hook!!!

OK - enough! Next post will be Anniversaries!! and still MORE birthdays!

Please take time to visit my friends using the links posted above. These gals make all their product by hand - in their work shops, rooms, studios. They are true artisans and I am so proud to present their work in my pieces.

Catching Up - Ramblings & Musings - Part 2 PLUS Creations!

2010-09-25T16:52:00.016-05:00

I spent a few hours with a friend one Wednesday afternoon as she tried her hand at jewelry making - beading. She had expressed interest but was unsure if it was really something she wanted to pursue so I thought wwweeelll... I have a 'crap ton' of beads - natural, lampwork, swaros, etc; a 'crap ton' of beading wire, crimps, crimp covers and tools - so I invited her over for a play day.

She walked into my kitchen where I had moved all my jars of beads onto a huge lazy susan on the table and looked at those and then at the trays of little plastic jars w/ more beads and said "OMGosh I don't know where to begin". I watched her pour over the beads... thinking of a bracelet first for her daughter and thinking purple (what is it with tweens and teens and purple??) and she reached for a Paradise Designs long purple focal that I had always imagined on a necklace and she made THAT the focal for the bracelet. She combined it with some purple spacers that went w/ the focal, some swaros and some shampoo glass spacers and came up with a really pretty bracelet. (And no... I stupidly did not take a photo but I'm going to either get one the next time I see them or ask them to send me one.) Not knowing it was created as a 'necklace' focal she just went with her gut and thought of that bead as I hadn't... as a bracelet focal. She did the EXACT same thing for hers - she reached for a Canyon Echoes focal that to me read necklace all over it, turned it sideways added swaros and lampwork spacers and voila another bracelet that I hadn't 'seen' in the bead.

I learned a lot from her today and it all came back to me when I saw the spoke to the flight attendant about her necklace. (Last post... Work-Work Takes Over - Ramblings & Musings.)

Now for some jewelry -

I've been away for quite a while - work-work has kept me very busy but it seems to be leveling out again. I did managed to squeeze in a few pieces.

Sea Treasures Necklace...
Sea Treasures was created from a focal of varnished sand dollar with piece of cobalt colored sea glass by Northern Sea Glass (they have awesome antique Japanese & Korean Fishing Floats too!) and a fine silver star fish with a 4mm ruby cz in the middle that I made. The glass beads are hollow lampwork beads by That Bead Girl and it is interspersed with shampoo glass spacers. A fine silver artist mark and hand forged sterling silver pendant bail finish the piece.

Bracelets have become my new favorite things to wear and make!

I purchased these two lovelies from Sea & Sand Designs (floral bracelet) and Lune Designs (plum colored beaded bracelet) for myself sometimes I just have to splurge - and I love supporting the artisans I've come to know. I love these pieces and encourage you to visit their shops for beautiful pieces. AND Keirsten (Lune Designs) has a terrific sense of humor... check out her blog... The Cerebral Dilettante!

I MADE the next few ...

Rose Garden (I never promised you...) was done for a wonderful lady who welcomed me into her project group and became like family to me over the 2 years we worked together. She recently re-evaluated her goals and decided to go back to her love - teaching - and to continue her education to gain her teaching certificate and teach History in Canada. She's a terrific mentor, project leader, and friend and I know that she will bring History to life for the lucky students who get her as a teacher.

The bracelet is made from beautiful rose garden 'chintz' lampwork beads by Bastille Bleu Lampwork. It contains small fine silver lentil beads textured with a carnation texture and made by me. It also contains Swarovski crystals and is held together with a magnetic clasp. I hope she enjoys wearing it as much as I have enjoyed finding just the right beads and creating the piece for her.

Beach Dreamin'... I made this for my god-mother. When I was growing up we use to go to her parents cottage (my great aunt and uncle) and to my other great aunt and uncle's cottage) in York Beach Maine. I LOVE Maine, I love the beaches there - sandy and rocky... COLD... and hot all at the same time.
My god-mother now owns her parents' cottage and has created a beautiful summer home for herself. The focal point of York Beach lies between Long Sand and Short Sand ... "Nubble Light" Light House. This picturesque lighthouse is known by anyone who has gone to York, traveled the Maine coast line or seen a book of light houses. It's picture graces calendars, note cards, and I imagine millions and millions of envelopes, boxes and albums of photos by the people who have visited.

When I think of the beach (besides the sand in your bathing suit that makes you crazy) I think of cozy, relaxing, Martha Steward meets Shabby Chic. And when my friend Nikki of Bastille Bleu Lampwork showed this set of blue chintz beads I immediately thought of the beach cottage. (The fact that I had missed my god-mother's birthday might have helped that thought along but still! it's the thought that counts! ;o) )

The bracelet has Bastille Bleu Lampwork blue chintz beads, a focal bead made by me of fine silver - big hole style with urchin texture created from a texture mold I made of an urchin shell - and green translucent enamel. It also has a sand dollar fine silver lentil bead and a carnation fine silver lentil bead. A fine silver star fish charm w/ green enamel and a sea shell charm also made from fine silver. To memorialize the "Nubble" as us 'locals' call it - I made a line drawing from one of my many photos of the light house, created a PPP (photo polymer plate) and then stamped it onto the clay. I added texture to the area where the rocks are by hand and then fired it. When it was done I tumbled it to bring out the shine and then added Liver of Sulfer to the piece to give it an antique look. I was able to obtain pinks and greens and blues along with the darker normal antique color of LOS. When you look at the charm it looks like the sun is setting an the colors are reflecting off the wet rocks along the base of the light house. I'm very pleased with the effect and the charm as a whole. This bracelet too is finished off with a magnetic closure.

Tweens... in one of my other blogs I asked "what is it with tweens and teenagers and their love of purple?"... I made this Peaceful Purple bracelet for a tween 'belonging' to a co-worker. Her mom said she loved purple and was into peace signs. My initial thought was to make the closure a peace sign but it got a little out of focus as I worked on it and so the peace sign because a charm.

The focal is a lampwork bead pillow by Bastille Bleu Lampwork and the purple dot beads and green spacers are also from hers. The purple spacers are by That Bead Girl and the cute little heart is by Principessa Glass. It has pale blue Czech spacers as well as lavender purple Swarovski beads and olive green pearlized Swarovski pearls.

The chain is a safety precaution in case it unhooks and it also will allow her to wear the bracelet for a long time by moving the hook she uses to close it to one of the jump rings added onto the chain. The s-hook closure is hand forged sterling silver wire. The end caps on the green spacers are fine silver stamped with a carnation floral stamp and dapped to form the slightly domed shape needed to fit over the spacer. I also added a fine silver leaf that has my artist mark on it and the peace sign charm also made from fine silver is the same carnation texture as the leaf and bead caps.

Alicia's Frog...
This little necklace was made for a friend for her August birthday. She loves frogs - yah I don't get it but she does!! AND I happen to have seen a frog bead on Bastille Bleu Lampworks etsy site and knew I had to have it. I created a "A" pendant w/ a fine silver artist mark leaf. The "A" pendant is highlighted w/ LOS patina.

And finally:

Desert Oasis ... this piece was spur of the moment and I LOVE IT!!
A turquoise/teal big hole bead w/ ivoried silver on it from Bastille Bleu Lampwork creates the focal point. Then I've added beautiful mushroom colored lampwork beads w/ silver as well as butter cream lampwork beads also with silver both from Canyon Echoes. The blue spacers are from That Bead Girl and the 8 little white-ish looking beads are river stone. The bracelet started out w/ a magnetic closure but she opted to have an S-hook attachment instead so I removed a couple of the river stone on each side to allow for the piece to close correctly. I adore how this came out and how I was able to "go shopping" in my bead hoard... ahh I mean bead supplies and find pieces from three different artisan's that work together so well in a piece!

ALMOST caught up... more later! :o)

Work-Work takes over... Ramblings & Musings

2010-09-25T16:07:00.006-05:00

OK so - Work-Work (another way of saying the work I do that pays the bills) has taken over. They've changed my role (yep again) and it's still computer based nothing creative so thank goodness for my jewelry obsession... which brings the reason for the big delay in blog posts AND why I'm typing this at 30,000 feet on Delta heading for Lancaster PA.

I have three diseases...

1) ID Disease
2) Promotional Product Disease
3) Jewelry Disease

Strange? Well yes, lest you forget - this is me thinking here!

I walk into the airport and my eyes automatically scan around and notice... TSA people are wearing their IDs on imprinted lanyards, baggage handlers and outside folks are displaying their ID in armband badge holders. Stewardess... ahhh flight attendants rather - are wearing theirs w/ a mix... lanyards, badge reels, beaded lanyards. THAT is ID Disease.

For instance you may not have noticed but - I believe it was Season 2 of "24" (I didn't see Season 1) they all used STRAP CLIPS to display their badges. Season 3 they switched to badge reels... some had translucent blue, others had solid black. Did you know that on "Rock of Love" with Brett Michaels his "VIP pass" that he gave out to the ho.. ummm 'ladies' on the show were 3/8" black break-away lanyards w/ white break-aways and white universal slide attachment holding an NPS swivel hook? I'm tellin ya, it's a freakin disease!! Once you start to work for an "ID" company you develop "ID Disease".

Promotional Product Disease - do YOU notice how many people are wearing 'branded' lanyards? From businesses using them for their employees (this mixes in w/ ID Disease) to bands selling them w/ holders for their show tickets (I guess Brett's budget was to cheap for Rock of Love lanyards!) Then there are the pens, the cups, the travel mugs, the bags. Actually, from where I'm sitting I can see Delta imprinted STYROFOAM CUPS and napkins (upgrades are gooood). I have an ipod w/ our company logo on it... and more bags than you can shake a stick at. This is the disease you get when you work for a promotional products company (and no... these diseases don't go away!)

On to the one that matters most right now... JEWELRY (do you spell it Jewelry or Jewelery???) Disease. Since starting on my journey into precious metal clay 13 months ago - yes it's been over a year now - I've started paying attention to what people are wearing. Sitting in first class is a great way to scope out what's popular, fun or different. (Like I said upgrades are good.) I've notice necklaces are smaller - ladies are wearing petite pendants on their necklaces - although don't get me wrong there was some serious BLING boarding the plane, but for the most part I've noticed a reduction in size on the 'basic' chain & pendant. "Big Hole" bead bracelets are becoming more and more popular with the regular folk. I can't tell a Pandora from a Troll (although in my head when I type troll I'm seeing the creepy little guy that lives under the bridge and bugs the billy goat) so I can't say which they are but it seems more and more folks are sporting big hole bead bracelets... which brings me to the reason that I decided I needed to type about my diseases...

The flight attendant today had on a simple black pleather cord folded in half worn lariat style w/ beads on the ends and little gold stoppers of some sort to keep the beads from falling off. To my bleary eyes (I was trying to nap when she came by and I was able to get a good look) they looked like lampwork. The next time she came by I had to as.. "Lampwork beads?" no - Pandora. Hmmm this made me INSTANTLY think of my friend Audrey at Principessa Glass and the cool new way she's been creating necklaces with big hole beads. (This link goes to her jewelry pieces the other link goes to her lampwork bead store.) Which leads me to think - what other techniques do we automatically think of when creating jewelry that could be done differently?

(The necklace above is by my friend Audrey. I LOVE how she's been using big hole beads lately - it's different and fun and well - see for yourself by clicking here!)

PS... TSA agents in Philadelphia International Airport were sporting Strap Clips today...

(It's a disease!!)

Bracelets & Bling... July 17, 2010

2010-07-17T20:31:00.010-05:00

I have gotten in to the swing of things and started stringing TWO bracelets tonight with another still in the creative mode. I have made silver lentils, silver beads, textured silver discs that I have started dapping into bead caps. I'm having a blast!

Here's a sneak peak...

The bottom one (blue) is right now, my favorite - I was loving the pink til I started the blue!! And then when my new BLING! arrived (swaros... lovely, lovely swaros!) I love these Chintz Lampwork Beads from Bastille Bleu and Swarovski Crystals!! I couldn't resist using the Montana rounds.

I played with the silver tube beads and I just adore the urchin texture and how it came out. I planned to use transparent enamels on that bead so you can see the color, the texture and ... well, I'm just excited!
There are two charms that will be added to this - more later.

The pink one will have the tiny little pink rose as a charm from the closure. I adore the silver lentil bead focal w/ the carnation texture. I can't wait to make more of these little beauties!

While I was working I 'NEEDED' a 5/8" round cutter to complete the sand dollar lentil for the blue bracelet so I ran to Hobby Lobby. MISTAKE! :o) I found some wooden pegs that to me say "LENTIL SHAPER!"
I was so excited. Then I came home and said how in hecks name am I going to keep these upright with two little 4-legged boys who like to "help" and often leap to the top of the studio to sleep on the bed up there?

POLYMER CLAY! Voila - my new Lentil Shaper Peg Caddies! (Isn't it interesting that when I make something from polymer clay that won't be a part of a piece of jewelry I do NOT burn it? ::grumble::)

Wanted to share :o)
Ok... back to the table! :o)

Creativity Flows July 5, 2010

2010-07-05T14:58:00.016-05:00

NOW... creativity is flowing! I've finished the Charms for Charity and become what one of my friends calls a 'bead hoard'. I saw a set created by Bastille Bleu Lampwork Beads and the juices started. It was a blue 'chintz' set that made me think of my grandmother's house, my two great aunt's cottages on the beach in Maine and shabby chic all rolled into one.
I'm pretty bad at remembering people's birthdays... correction - I REMEMBER I just don't always get the gifts/cards, etc out in time and this set made me think of my god mother and the fact that her birthday was in May and yes, I still hadn't sent anything.

She has a cottage in Maine and I thought ohhhh this would be pretty for her! So the ideas started flowing. Definitely a bracelet. I just finished one for a friend to give to her friend and I love how it came out. I need to make more!

Problem! How could there be a problem? Some other lucky soul picked up the Bastille Bleu Lampwork Beads before I did!! Yikes! So I sent a note to Nikki and said - next set has my name on it. She convo'd me back and sight unseen I became the owner of a pink set.

The next day I had hollow form class at the Memphis Botanic Garden with Brandy Boyd (my silver clay deal... ahhh teacher). Instead of the typical class with burn out cores we did lentil beads. How exciting!! I wanted to create a big focal lentil bead and have been thinking about it for months! Now I had a chance to make small ones as a test... AND it clicked something else in me ... HAND MADE SILVER BEADS for the charm bracelet!! Plus... did I mention that she's into antique swarovski beads??? Well, she's got me hooked on those too so I picked up a bunch of square rose swaros, some pretty green and dusty blue bicones and rounds. Woo hoo - creativity flows...

THEN... (you knew there had to be a then right?) my beads came in from Bastille Bleu Lampwork Beads - O M Gosh! they are beautiful! Now I'm on a roll - I read Kate McKinnon's book Sculptural Metal Clay and have come to the conclusion that I HAVE to have a dapping block so that I can make bead caps - yep... bead caps! So off to Harbor Freight I went in search of said dapping block and the metal clay gods were with me... they had two in stock in the store so no waiting for me!

On the way home I swung by BB&B (coffee needed! ;o) ) and Hobby Lobby. Not a safe place either of them but I lucked out and found some AWESOME cutters!!! Larger rounds (they are for biscuits actually!) for my big focal lentil I want to do and some smaller size cutters that will make great shapes for bead caps that I can then carve and add designs to.

I've spent time the past couple of days texturing and cutting pieces of metal clay to be fired into bead caps. I also created a smaller version of my carnation lentil bead to see if it's the correct size for charm bracelets. I also created a little larger one of a sand dollar for the shabby chic bracelet. All that's left now is to fire the pieces "full fire 1650 for 2 hours" as instructed by Kate's book so that I can dome the bead caps with the dapping block.

I know that the beads I've purchased for this bracelet probably will not need (nor work) with bead caps - the cool thing about these beads is they have the bumps on them that people associate with lamp work beads but the location are around the holes in the beads leaving the center decoration visible and lovely! :o) BUT I'll need them for another project also floating around my head! :o)

OK, enough yapping, I'm off to fire the caps and lentils!
Have a great week!!

PS... look at some of the beads I've scored over the past few months... now you'll understand why my friends call me a 'bead hoard'. (These are only the ones I've shot... "Hi my name is Cindy and I'm a bead addict"

Charms for Charity Done Tickets Still Available - July 5, 2010

2010-07-05T14:45:00.005-05:00

My Charms for Charity have been shipped... the hope is that they actually DO hit the PO Box they were sent to tomorrow as expected. The charm bracelet making party at Gage Design is tomorrow (6th) and I hope mine make it there in time.

Some where along the line I thought I read that a 'description' card w/ picture and name to help people identify the charms was required so I made these - I like how they came out so I'm posting them here ... the pics are a bit better than the ones I posted earlier.

This shows the first design with a bit of the second design added in. If you recall the ribbon was going to be plain silver. But you know me.. pretty things that are repeatable must be repeated! LOL So when I saw how lovely the hammered flake and the aquamarine translucent enamel looked I had to use it on these too. I sent 2 of this design in for the bracelets.

This one is the second design. Without the birth stones you can see the words clearer. I really liked how the enamel worked and I expect to do more of it in the near future! (IF ONLY the garage wasn't as hot as it is! ;o) Nothing like running a kiln in a 90 garage!!)

Now that the charms have shipped I simply have to finish selling some more tickets - $5 each or 5 for $20 people! ALL the money goes to the charity of your choice (The American Cancer Society or the Marrow Foundation) AND you get a chance to win a bracelet that has to be worth over $500!! Imagine owning a bracelet with a charm created by some of the best metal artists in the world!! I'm so excited to have a chance for my charms to be included with these great artisans!! You can bet I'm buying a bunch of tickets for me!!

Charms for Charity... Part Deux! 06/29/10

2010-06-30T00:33:00.006-05:00

WE HAVE CHARMS!!!

(The good thing is, the charms look better than these not so great pics. I need to ship them on Wednesday and I'm going to try and re-shoot in the a.m. when I'm a little more alert.)

Charms...
PMC3 - Heart w/ Ribbon, Enamel, plus. I created two PPPs (Photo Polymer Plates) for these charms. The first was the base - the heart with the words in it and the second was the ribbon to go on top. The loop of ribbon forms the area for the jump ring to attach. The FIRST design (as shown on the previous post) was to have the ribbon all silver w/ words imprinted into the heart and birthstones: moon stone for a friend who is winning the battle w/ cancer and aquamarine for my great aunt who sadly lost her battle with cancer.

THEN I started working...
What looks great on paper didn't work so well in clay ... only because I don't feel you can see the words well enough with the birthstones added. SOOO... I adjusted. I added some flake (which I tapped down a bit) on one side of the ribbon to represent "moon stone" and then I added translucent enamel on the other half to represent aquamarine.

Enamel...
The enamel worked like a charm. I have to thank Pam East for her book "Enameling on Metal Clay"! I used it like a recipe book the whole way thru! While doing this I learned that when using the green glasses you aren't looking for COLOR so much as the look of the glass... granulated, orange peel, smooth. It was amazing that I could see the differences in the enamel as it heated. EVEN WITH my lousy eyes!! I have to say though that I FREAKED OUT... When I pulled the first charm off the Ultralite and took the glasses off I saw that the enamel looked LIGHT GREEN NOT LIGHT BLUE! OMG! What the heck?? Then POOF! the Enamel gods heard my dismay and as they cooled, the blue appeared! :o)

LOS...
I used a fine brush and added some LOS to the words that were imprinted in the hearts. The LOS spread a little more than I wanted... so I did something I wasn't sure I should, I re-tumbled them for about 30 minutes. My hope was that the LOS would come off a bit and that the enamel would NOT scratch. Luck of the charm gods were with me!! Everything came out of the tumbler OK!

All-In-All I'm very excited about the charms. I'm going to send all 7 to Holly and let her decide if she needs/wants the two w/ the stones in them. They aren't perfect, but they are pretty and who knows she may need 2 extras! I know these aren't the professional style, look and technique/quality of many of the other artists, but they represent my design, my friend, my great-aunt, me and my love of this cause!

My charms need to be in by July 6 but I still have tickets available and can sell them thru the 20th (need a couple days to get the money and tickets in before the conference) if you want tickets - please let me know!! :o)

Charms for Charity May 23, 2010

2010-05-23T17:22:00.007-05:00

I'm excited to be participating in the 2010 Charms for Charity this year. Metal Clay artists gather to create charms and charm bracelets to be raffled with donations going to the American Cancer Society and The Marrow Foundation.

A little back ground - here's the press release:

Jewelry Artists Charming Their Way to the Cure

In memory of one of their own felled by cancer, jewelry artists who work with Precious Metal Clay and Art Clay Silver have banded together for the second biennial fundraiser for cancer research, Charms for Charity.

Inspired by metal clay artist Robin Whitmore’s uplifting spirit and love of life, the entire community of metal clay artists has banded together to raise money by doing what they do best, making jewelry.

Robin died in 2007 after a courageous battle with cancer, leaving a legacy of courage and charity among her friends and colleagues. Now Metal Clay artists from around the country have decided to honor Robin and their own loved ones who have succumbed to this disease by raising funds to benefit The American Cancer Society and The Marrow Foundation. Individuals and local guilds are donating charms or complete bracelets to be raffled off.

The bracelets will be raffled off at the Precious Metal Clay (PMC) Conference in Perdue, IN, July 30, 2010, but raffle ticket holders do not need to be present to win.

This year, the metal clay artists hope to top the 2008 Charms for Charity donation of $12,270. Raffle tickets are $5.00 each or 5 for $20.00, and multiple winners will receive a sterling silver bracelet with many beautifully crafted charms made by artists from all over the world.

All checks will be made out directly to the organization, either The American Cancer Society or The Marrow Foundation.

Each ticket purchased brings with it the chance for a special piece of fine jewelry but it also brings us one step closer to a cure.

Bracelets & Charms...
The image of the bracelet is only one of many bracelets to be made. With so many charms coming in from so many different artist is it likely that there will be almost no two bracelets alike! :o)

I'm working on a charm that will be in remembrance of my Aunt Rita who passed away after her own struggle with Bone Cancer and in honor of my friend and co-worker Bryan who is currently fighting his own battle.

My hope is that the charms will come out as designed - I'll be working on them during the month of June so cross your fingers.

Any of you who are interested in buying tickets for the raffle can contact me!

Fire in the Hole! New Paragon SC2 Kiln & Copper

2010-05-15T21:15:00.015-05:00

At the beginning of March I decided I WAS going to take the next step in my obsession with metal clay and get a larger kiln. I love my Ultra Lite but it's to small to do anything larger than 2.5" diameter AND I can't do copper in it. SO at the end of March I ordered a Paragon SC2 kiln from Paragon rep Pam East.

How excited was I when less than two weeks later my new kiln arrived? :o) VERY! BUT... fear of the next step creeped in and it took me three weeks to open the box and 2 more weeks to fire it for the first time.

Here's my set-up.
Cleared out the rest of my garage corner and set up a 6' work station for "Blue" (my appropriately named SC2) and my enamel station. It's a bit "hoopty-bo-bo" but it works! Supplies - 1 - metal file cabinet, 1 - 16" x 16" x 2" cement stepping stone, 2 - 18" x 18" x 1/2" Travertine Tiles, 1 6' x 16" heavy-duty metal closet shelf, 5 - 12" x 12" x 1/4" Pinkish Marble Tiles. These, all combined together = one heck of a cool work area. :o) (I also borrow a corner of it to hold my light cube when taking photos... but I'm working on a new area for that.)

TONIGHT I fired up "Blue" for the first time. Did a pre-fire to get all the dust out and burn off any residue from my kiln furniture. Followed the great instructions that Pam sent with the purchase of my new kiln - much easier to understand than the garbly-goop that came w/ the kiln. Successful pre-fire! And yes dad, I had an extinguisher and my cell phone handy! :o)

THEN I heated it up to 1780 because I had a pair of copper earrings waiting to be fired. Of course, they've been waiting to be fired for 2 1/2 months. I purposely created them so that I would HAVE to get over the fear of first fire of "Blue" in order to get them done. They were too big torch fire! I had also done some quickie copper earring pieces from a mold I have so that I could test 'face up, face down' of firing Art Clay Copper on a shelf. See in my head I wondered - if I put it face down will it oxidize LESS or should it be face up.

I positioned the pieces on my small kiln shelf that came with "Blue" (the big one was already in and sitting on 1/2" stilts to allow for air flow and there were 2" stilts laying on their side to make them 1" above the floor waiting for the copper filled shelf to be placed on them) and waited for it to get up to 1780.

Note: I had a copper pod go to pieces after being fired for 30 mins in carbon and then picked, tumbled and refired w/ a torch to fix an 'issue'. I emailed Pam and told her exactly what had been done and asked for help and her recommendation was - if it's fired in carbon it needs to be fired for 3 1/2 hours. If it's done on the shelf - which she recommends for Art Clay Copper it's 30 mins at 1780, direct on the shelf. SO those are the directions I followed.

The kiln hit 1780 and I was ready. I picked up the shelf in some tongs opened the door, slid the shelf in - DANG 1780 is hot! - and then quickly closed the door. I wasn't that quick because it took approx 3 1/2 mins to get back up to 1780. Then the fun started... the binder started to burn off like it does normally - little flame... BUT the cool thing was (and I didn't know this so no pic) because there is limited oxygen the smoke that results swirls and twirls and looks so totally cool in the kiln (Love my window!). Then we wait. (NOTE: Pic is actually "Blue" cooling down after firing.)

30 mins later the kiln starts to beep and it's done. NOW... instructions are - pull the pieces out and immediately put into cold water to get as little oxidation on the pieces as possible and the cold water would help pop what oxidation did form off. WELLL... I didn't realize that the pieces may 'stick' to the shelf. So as I pull the shelf out and tip it over, nothing is falling out so what do I do?
I stuff the whole shelf upside down into the water ... bye, bye shelf! LOL! I had fire paper and why I did not use it I am not sure but next time, to be sure I will!!! (Pic is the remnants of the shelf. Kind of interesting. The pieces that came out had some areas of 'thick' oxidation. But the pieces that 'stuck' left that thick layer behind on the shelf.)

It sounded like pop corn as the oxidized copper popped off the pieces in the water bowl. Here's the results after I pulled them out of the water... Here's a pic of the pieces immediately out of the water.

The right pic shows the four pieces for the 'face-down, face-up' test. Unfortunately I forgot to pay attention to which was which but... here's my guess... the pair on the left were face up - and the back (shown on the lower left) was on the shelf and that is what stuck. The others.. the back (shown lower right) were probably up in the air and the oxidation is still there because there was nothing for it to stick to.

The left photo here show the back and the front of the larger earrings that have been very patiently waiting for a firing. These were put face down on the shelf BUT the design is raised. I used a stencil of a vine and used copper slip to fill in the stencil so that it is raised off the earrings. Because of this piece would not lay flat on the shelf which is PROBABLY why the oxidation did not stick to the shelf. BUT... I like it on this pair. We'll see how much comes off in pickling.

Right now, the pieces are in the pickle. NOTE... I have been using Silver Prep from Cool Tools to clean silver and copper... I recently bought the natural "Pickle It" recently released by Metal Clay Supply and not very excited about it. I ended up adding some Silver Prep to it and it's working much faster now. Maybe going back to my Silver Prep for future orders.

Cross fingers that the cleaning goes well because I have got some GLORIOUS Lampwork Beads from Bastille Bleu Lampwork Beads that will be used on the larger pair and some really sweet little natural beads for the little pieces.

Here's to healthy boobies!!May 3, 2010

2010-05-03T10:18:00.002-05:00

My creatively funny friend and oooh so terrific artisan Keirsten from the Cerebral Dilettante blog is having a give-away this week! In honor of her first ever mamogram and the "all clear" results she received, she is giving a way a gorgeous pair of hand crafted earrings.

Folks - if you haven't seen her Etsy shop - GO! Run don't walk. Go straight to her etsy site... her pieces are gorgeous. I have a number of favs and bought myself a pretty necklace and earrings w/ gift money from one of my relatives!! Happy Birthday to me!!

You can get in on her simple give-away by going to THIS link:
http://cerebraldilettante.blogspot.com/2010/05/boobie-prize-giveaway.html

Don't forget to visit her shop - oh and bookmark the blog - she's seriously funny - some days I find my self honestly laughing out loud to the point of running to the bathroom - yep, some days she's THAT funny! :o)

Happy shopping!! :o)
Cin ~

Nervous Adventures in Copper & Lampwork BeadsApril 16, 2010

2010-04-17T00:20:00.010-05:00

Greetings friends!!

Welcome to my nervous adventures in Copper and Lampwork Beads! I have already admitted my newly acquired addiction to beads... no, not just any beads but HAND-CRAFTED, Made in the USA, Lampwork beads. And not just any - I get mine from some very talented deale... ahhh artisans!

One of these is Canyon Echos - I purchased a couple of sets from her, the first being Desert Dreams. I'm sooo nervous about using these beads! They are so pretty - and professional and... oi! OK so, I saw this set and even though it has silver in it, I thought COPPER! For some reason I kept seeing wood when I look at these organic matte beads. That led me to thinking about bark... branches... you know - wood.

I pulled out my design book back in Feb and kept doodling a bail that is based on a tutorial by Deb Fitz of Paradise Cove. Except my bail kept turning into a piece of wood. Like a cut down branch w/ a thin branch still attached and swirling around to encompass the focal bead.

I have also fallen in love with Viking Knit Chain - and I learned to do this (thanks to one of my other deal... ahh enabler... ahhh artisans Nikki at Bastille Bleu). I kept seeing my chunky bail sliding on the viking knit chain.

That meant I needed end caps to finish off the chain and lead to the rest of my pretty Desert Dreams beads. Finish that off with a copper closure and POOF you have my first 'real' piece of creativity.

I used Art Clay Copper to create the branch, endcaps, and closure pieces. I crafted them and added the texture by hand before they dried. I feel more comfortable right now creating the texture of the bark when the pieces are wet rather than carving when they are dry. I fired the pieces w/ a butane torch, pickled and then tumbled them.

One of my evenings watching Project Runway I wove the Viking Knit chain. I love this chain. I love the fact that you start w/ a dowel and wire and end up with this smooth, silky feeling chain! And depending on how 'thick' you like it you can practically make it fit whatever need you have.

My hope is that the artisan of the Desert Dream bead set approves of the design and craftsmanship of the piece. Did I mention I was nervous? :o)

Blogging at 30,000 feet or..."Caution... The moving walkway is ending"March 21, 2010

2010-03-21T11:37:00.007-05:00

(started while at 30,000 ft on 3/8 - posted from Cincinnati International Airport 3/21)

OK so maybe not REAL TIME blogging but that's only because the little teeny-tiny plane they rebooked me on this morning doesn't have wifi. Honestly, it's so small I think that there are chipmunks in the bottom of it running and running on a treadmill to keep us in the air!

ANYWAY... it's been a long time and of course I didn't recheck my posts last night to see where I was so - here goes an attempt to catch up.

Copper & Silver...
I love precious metal silver clay. I have now used two types - Art Clay Silver (ACS) and Precious Metal Clay Silver (PMC+). I enjoy the shrinkage rate of the ACS - I find the PMC+ shrinks a little more BUT I enjoy the texture and pliability of the PMC+ when it comes out of the package.

I love the IDEA of quick-fire Copper Clay. I've only tried the Art Clay Copper (ACC) because it's the only one on the market right now that I can fire with a torch. My Ultralite kiln is to low a temp to fire the copper - and regular copper (those released before the December 2, 2009 launch of ACC) require a stainless steel container, charcoal, and a bunch of special things that just won't work in my baby Ultralite.

Combining the two.
I have tried (and you've seen the results if you are one of my 3 followers ;o) ) to combine silver and copper. First try was abysmal to say the least. It's the "Canyons on a Heart" piece that yes, I'm still working on. I made a mold and created the canyon without giving much thought to how it would 'connect' to the silver heart. needless to say, not such a good go-round.

I then tried to connect copper clay piece w/ a hole in the center to a silver piece using the silver clay as a "rivet" to hold them together. 1/2 Success here. I say half because I created two pieces. One I 'forgot' to put the copper piece (it's actually the Pug Paws piece previously posted) onto the silver piece before I dried the silver one. This meant I had to create the rivet by smushing silver clay into the hole in the copper, getting a good contact on to the silver piece on the back and making sure there was enough of a head on the front of the copper to keep it from shrinking up and sliding out the hole in the copper. The second piece I "remember" and smushed (note the technical terms used here) the finished copper paw onto the still wet silver paw. The clay came up through the hole, creating a rivet, and the silver was almost acting like a bezel around the edges of the paw. - OR SO I THOUGHT.

The "forgot" piece worked beautifully. The silver reduced, sintered and formed a pretty secure rivet (hoping my god-child Mary doesn't yank on it to test it). The "remembered" piece was a failure. The rivet snapped when I handled it. The silver had struggled to reduce in size around the copper paw and had done the only thing it could do ... bend backward and get all misshapen. Lesson learned.

I posted my findings and honestly - until I started typing about what happened I had no idea WHY the "remembered" piece had problems. It was as I described it that I realize it shrank away from the copper. However, my loyal Facebook "Art Clay Friends" (more aptly called gifts from the creative god mentors) gave me feedback. Gordon U... advised - "create the copper and let it lead the piece". So back to trying again.

My next test was to go back to the "Canyons on a Heart" piece. This time I worked it out step by step, created the canyon piece with a 'rivet-like' tack on the back of it. The thought was the tack and canyon form one piece. The silver heart is made and shaped AROUND the tack piece. The canyon sits on top of the heart and the cap (or top of the rivet) is on the other side of the silver holding the whole rivet together.

I used ACC and PMC+. I was thinking if I got lucky I could position the fired canyon tack so that there is enough edging of silver around the base and sides of it so that when the silver reduces it will end up with the canyon sitting right where it needs to be - even on the two sides and bottom of the silver heart.

SUCCESS! Well, partial. I can't call it total success because the tack is a little long and the piece doesn't sit perfectly together. It's a bit loose and a little uneven but I'm thinking that if it's sintered properly and not over fired I may be able to hammer it a tad to get the rivet to push down a bit onto itself and form a tighter bond.

To be continued...

Precious Metal Clay Class...

Although I've been addicted to Silver Clay since August of 2009 I have not taken a complete silver clay class. I've had a "how to make a mold" and then create a silver clay piece from that mold class, I've had a paint silver clay "slip" onto a dried cork clay form and create a hollow vessel and beads when they are fired in the kiln class. And I've taken a couple of enameling classes. But no straight from the hip "intro to silver clay" class.

SO - in February Brandy Boyd (aka the silver clay dealer to my addiction) had a beginners class. What fun! I felt good because I had learned quite a bit of what she taught on my own from reading, searching, and just taking a leap to try... but I also learned how to put texture on front and back of a piece (sounds easy but I was just plain doing it wrong!) and I saw how the heat and humidity in a room can change how Liver of Sulfur (LOS) works to patina a silver piece. We had colors I had never seen before - pinks and greens and gorgeous almost turquoise blue! A couple of new comers to the class said, "hmmm don't really like that pink and turquoise, I think I'll remove it all" and it was all I could do not to cry. But I had to forgive them didn't I? After all it was their first time and they simply "didn't understand". :o)

I lucked out and found a cute mold that went along with a vintage piece I had made a mold of in my very first class with Brandy. It is a pretty little piece and she molded well AND I got a pretty decent texture on the back of her (a test). I added a teeeny-tiny little CZ to the very bottom of the piece (I think I could have gone bigger but the teeeny-tiny one looked cute) that hardly shows. My inital thought was that she was going to go on a silver chain w/ pink stones wired to the chain. But my chain skills are not where they need to be and my idea was bigger than my capabilities.

So instead I used some beads I'd bought at the bead shop that we had the class in and tossed in some clear / silver beads I had and created a piece that looks pretty sweet. The picture doesn't show it well enough, but the patina is actually bluer in person and goes well with the blue beads.

Metal Clay Class Missed...
the last weekend of February was supposed to be the class that started my desire to learn more about this craft. Last year in early summer I had seen a class listing on the Memphis Botanic Garden website for making a silver leaf. I had NO IDEA what the product was but - ever distracted by bright, shiny objects - I wanted to take the class because the leaf was pretty!

As luck would have it, I had to go to Boston the week before and was unable to make it back in time for class. BUT - here it was - being repeated in February! woo hoo!

Not so much. I had visitors from the Boston area that weekend and unfortunately one of them has an attention span issue and LOL she wasn't up for sitting through a 6 hour class painting silver clay slip on a leaf and drying it between each layer! ;o) Obviously, although we are sisters, my idea of fun and her idea of fun are on far different edges of the 'fun' spectrum!

SO... instead, because I knew HOW to do it, I just had never actually done it. I stopped in and picked up a couple neat leafs from the class along with Brandy's very descriptive directions and proceeded to do four of them on my own that evening. The results are below...

Back paint vs. Front paint...
Brandy's instructions and other instructions I had seen online and in books & magazines stated to paint the silver clay "slip" onto the BACK of the leaf. Well Two of the leafs I had were cool looking on the front! Why can't I do it on the front? Hmmm. So I decided to try. first one was I THINK a plumeria leaf. It was lumpy and bumpy but not hairy. I thought hmmmm I have transparent enamels on the way and this leaf could be cool w/ enamel in the recesses if I painted it on the front. SO I tried. After about 6 layers the leaf had dried and silently fell off the silver! OH NO!! so I carefully continued the layering process until I had reached about 17. Now, the good thing about this is I was able to see what most people can't see until they fire the piece - what the front would look like. AND I was able to add a little clear CZ and stem design squiggle to the front of the leaf before firing.

The second piece did the same thing - the leaf fell off at about the 6th layer. I carefully did as I had done for the other and completed all 17 layers and then decided to add a red CZ to the front of this one and a curly stem on the back to act as a kind of bail.

The third leaf I did on the back and that piece stayed with the leaf til the firing process where it burned off, and the fourth piece was actually a piece of fungus I had pulled off a log in my back yard. That one - because it was not dry - had a very faint texture. The texture portion, when painted w/ slip became the inside of what looks like an oyster! (Funny thing, someone told me it's "oyster fungus" so maybe that's why it looks like an oyster!) Because I like the way it looked and the blue/grey of the patina added, I adorned it with a little faux pearl and it became a charm as did the third leave that I painted the back of. I'm excited that this is one piece I'm going to keep as my own and keep adding little 'charms' to it as I learn and grow in this wonderful medium.

OH OH - "at this time the use of any electronic equipment must be discontinued as we begin our decent into the Boston Area"... more later!!

February 11, 2010 BEADS! I Love Beads!

2010-02-11T19:41:00.017-06:00

I love beads.

I didn't realize it, but I do - I love beads. While working and learning and sucking the minds of my online mentors dry as I grow my metal clay addiction some how beads started to grow on me.

It could be the fact that I am SURROUNDED by these fabulous artisans who make the most gorgeous glass beads. It could be that I'm SURROUNDED by these fabulous artisans who USE beads to make gorgeous jewelery. Whichever it is, however it happened... I LOVE BEADS.

I have a small mason-like jar of what I call "Inspiration Beads"... beads made by Deb Fitz. These are so beautiful. They sit in the jar waiting for a design worthy of their beauty to dribble out of my brain and into my design book.

THEN... I bought the cutest (CUTEST) little cupcakes and lady bugs from Bastille Bleu. They look cute in the pictures, but photos do not do them justice... they are the cutest, littlest, sweetest cupcakes ever!

THEN... tonight, I ordered from Canyon Echos Johanna makes these gorgeous, organic beads that just look so natural and yet have these cool swirls of fine silver through them. I'm so excited to use her beads with my silver!! Here's what I ordered tonight... but add 2 more, slightly larger spacer beads to the brown set. She's special order making them for ME tonight. Yes... FOR ME! makes me all happy inside!!! :o)

OH OH.. and I know they are not beads, but I bought Titanium too. I used two gorgeous pieces of crystallized titanium that I got from Holly Gage in two pieces I made. AND when Chris & Holly sent out the email that they had to pull them off their site for a while I ordered three more pieces because they spoke to me... something pretty about them - and they too sit waiting for something gorgeously worthy of themI cant help but see grapes (thanks to Chris' description! :o) ) in the piece to the right and thanks to his power of description, I have an idea in mind for a larger pendant/closure piece. I'm excited because it will be the hardest, largest piece I try. And the piece in the middle... something about that chocolate 'lace' piece made me love it. I almost want to snip it into two... but the jury is out on that.

And finally - but not least. It is my goal to 'pay it back' to the people who help me on a daily basis as I learn and grow in this exciting medium. So I have allowed myself to purchase from the great artisans above and from some gorgeous jewelry makers. I lusted after this pewter heart necklace the minute Keirsten of Lune Design posted it.
And then when she posted the adorable earrings, I had to make them mine. Happy Birthday to me! The gorgeous pieces have a ton of garnet (my birthstone) in them and I simply love the look AND feel of these pieces. OH and her blog - the Cerebral Dilettante- hilariously delicious!!

And .. yes, there's more. I was asked by my brother and his new wife what I would like for my birthday ... well, I'd already bought the set above for myself (he he he) ... but I had my eye on a piece by Holly Gage. "When Peace Talks" this piece is strong, and meaningful, and gorgeous. All things I admire. And poof... two days after my birthday a gorgeous "When Peace Talks" arrived! Sterling silver on black cord w/ Venetian blue bead. mmmmm!! :o)

Feb 7, 2010 Trial & Error and Lessons Learned

2010-02-07T23:21:00.010-06:00

As I continue to try Art Clay Copper in the hopes of one day (soon) finishing the "problem child" project - aka Copper Canyons & Silver Heart - I worked on a piece this weekend I call "Pug Paws".

I created Polymer Clay clay "pug paw prints" one significantly smaller than the other and then made molds of these from 2-part molding compound. My goal was to make a small copper paw and attach it on a larger silver paw to signify two pugs.

I successfully made two of each. One (B in the pics) I partially dried (about 3/4 dry) the silver paw and then used thicker silver paste as a paste and "rivet" under and through the copper pug paw. (I had made a hole in the center of the copper paw before firing just for this purpose.) The other (A in the pics) I "smooshed" (technical term) the copper pug paw (also with a hole in the center) into the silver pug paw. I made sure that the silver came up through the hole in the copper paw and that it formed it's own rivet.

The only other difference between the two was that I put a rectangular 'artist mark' on the back of (B).

If I had been a betting person I would have put 90% of my money on the 'smooshed' (A) version and only 10% on the other (B). GOOD THING I DON'T BET!

Results...
(A) had a couple of issues... 1) the silver warped and cracked on the back and while writing this I now know why... as the silver shrank the copper kept it from shrinking evenly because of the copper being smooshed into it - DAH! Why didnt I think of that before RIGHT NOW? (Seriously I just thought of it now!!) My initial thought was that the rectangular 'artist mark' saved (B)... but now just seeing the picture of it firing in my head while I type I know that wasn't the case.

When (A) was put immediately into water to reduce the black fire scale on the copper the piece split apart - the silver rivet broke.

(B) had no issues that I could see. The rivet held, the silver shrunk perfectly because it wasn't impeded by the copper paw, and I just took it out of Silver Prep to remove the rest of the fire scale on the copper and it looks darn pretty!

I was going to ask my "Art Clay Friends" on Facebook to look at the pics and tell me why (A) had issues but I'm excited to say thanks to describing this to "all y'all" on the blog I know why.

Once (B) is dry, it will be polished - MAYBE tumbled - attached to a sterling silver chain and sent off to an unsuspecting recipient! I will post pics when completed!

Ta-Ta for now! :o)

February 3, 2010Update...

2010-02-03T22:31:00.006-06:00

What am I working on now?
Well, I have a 3" long copper pod that is waiting for me to figure out how to fire it. I was over excited by the pod I found in my back yard and thought ohhhhh copper! And didnt really give thought to firing it. Right now, Art Clay Copper can now be fired with a torch... but only to a certain size. You need to keep it evenly hot to completely sinter and my little micro butane is not going to cut it! (Maybe double handed torches but definitely not one.)

I also have a copper pendant that is actually fired and waiting for finishing! AND I worked more on the "copper canyons" for the wedding presents I'm still working on. BUT this time I'm taking it slow and easy. Hoping to do silver portion of the canyons this weekend.

AND right now, after I post this, I'm headed back to my 'studio' to box up a special package that is shipping to NH. My "Ribbons for Mitzi" were a big hit with her daughter and I received a request for 3 sets. One for Mitzi and one for each daughter. I finished those over the weekend and made the cutest box this evening. Sometimes I think I like making the packaging as much as I do the jewelry!!

I added some Red Picture Jasper beads to the ends of the chains. (OH THE CHAINS... I found the sweetest sterling silver chain made from linked hearts at Michael's this weekend. Nice find for this project!) The thought behind this was two-fold. One I had hopes that it would help keep the necklace from wigling around on them. And two - that the colors would help the ladies know which necklace was theirs. The mixed stone of blue/grey & pink is for Mitzi.

The box was made out of one sheet of gorgeous scrap book paper. One piece for the top and bottom. One piece. How cool! :o) The "Paris Couture" landing where it did was pure LUCK! :o)

After these are packaged and labeled for the post tomorrow, I'm going to work on a piece for my cousin who is also my 'god child'. Can't say what it is, she may be reading! :o)

More this weekend!

February 3, 2010 CRAZY WOMAN!

2010-02-03T22:17:00.003-06:00

The weekend of January 16 & 17 I was a CRAZY woman! Not only did I complete Hope's Hibiscus and redo the 'googly-eyed' heart, I also created a puzzle piece for Hope. She saw the puzzle pieces in my blog and mentioned that they were used to represent Autism. Hearing the interest in her voice I took a neat looking piece of puzzle from one of mine and made a mold from 2-part molding compound. I then formed the silver puzzle piece.

LOVED the texture!
When I saw the texture the cardboard back of the puzzle piece left while making the mold I thought.. hmm COOOL! So I kept that along with the ridge that naturally formed around the piece during the mold process. The piece is .999 Fine Silver on a 17" 2mm sterling silver beaded chain with magnetic closure. LOVE IT!

And finally Sunday night I made another Awareness Ribbon. This one for a co-worker who lost a dear friend to Lung Cancer recently.

In my love-hate relationship with polymer clay I attempted to make 'pearl' looking inset. Not sure if I accomplished it or not but she was very happy with her surprise! The piece is .999 fine silver with polymer clay inset on an 18" sterling silver chain.

The Results of Thinking, Designing & Creating

2010-01-15T22:48:00.008-06:00

Well! After a brief poll of my Art Clay Friends - I patina'd the hibiscus piece and finished both the pieces from last poll.

This piece... "Hibiscus Family" is made from precious metal clay which when fired results in .999 Fine Silver. The gold on one is 24kt gold applied over the fine silver. I used patina to darken the details in the flowers and then... learned a tip (from Lorena Angulo - check out her site here: http://www.lorenaangulo.com/) on how to apply the patina to get more colors.
SO I tried again - you can remove the patina by simply refiring the piece with a torch. And I LOVE the result, the colors, the piece just speaks!! :o) The stones represent a friends two children... moonstone and ruby. It hangs on an 18" sterling silver chain.

NEXT I had the problem of the 'googly-eyed' heart. I loved the idea, til I tried to work in the birth stones. Then all I could see was ... Googly-eyed heart. So I tried covering the heart hole with another heart.. not so much (I didnt even take a picture!!). See it? I'm sure you do!

Well, I couldn't bear it! So I opted to put together another heart for my friend whom I was seeing the very next day!! The result is a partially open fine silver heart with two birth stones representing garnet and emeralds. The texture is from silver flake being applied to the piece before it's fired. When it's tumbled the texture is really, really neat. The heart swings freely from an 18" sterling silver chain.

Thinking, Designing & Creating...

2010-01-13T20:29:00.019-06:00

Yes!

Back in the saddle so to speak. Two pieces currently in the works. Started working them at the same time. One is a heart w/ 2 birth stones. The other is a grouping of Hibiscus w/ 2 birthstones.

The heart is throwing me.

First I wanted it hollow - just an outline w/ the stones hanging in the middle. Then I decided I really liked the hidden hearts I've been working into some of my pieces so I made it solid w/ a heart cut through at the bottom. I couldn't decide so I got out the polymer clay (I KNOW, I KNOW I hate polymer clay - BUT I love playing with it). I created a heart w/ a little flip at the bottom and a carved out heart. Hmmm - me likey!

Then just because it would save time I cooked (ahhh I mean cured) the polymer and made a mold from 2-part molding material. Ahh the feel of fresh, new PMC clay! I filled the mold and cleaned it up enough to play with - BUT when you put the birth stones in it looks like a silly smiley face.

Oh brother!
And then ::key the hallelujah choir:: the UPS man rang my door with ::key them again:: my delivery from ACW ::one more time just 'cause I can::.... Silver flakes - fine, medium and rough. Ohhh what fun things could I do with this? Hmmm edge the heart... encompass the bezels? GO NUTS! :o)

OMG before I go on...
The timer just went off and poof there was a precious piece ready to come out of the kiln. Now - for those of you who have never done this before, when you incorporate gems in a piece for firing and you take the cover off and see the color COMPLETELY GONE from the gem (it was Ruby when I put it in... wasn't it??) and then when you pull it out and it starts to cool... the color comes back and I swear, I know it sounds hokey but - it's magic! :o)

OK enough about that - back to the hearts. Would adding an edging of medium fine silver flakes around help?

What about prongs? instead of setting the garnet and emerald in the piece, what about pronged settings? Would they just look like GOOGLY eyes on a silly smiley face? Hmmm what if...

OK now - for the hibiscus that stole my breath away when I opened the kiln.

Pretty hibiscus family - large, medium and two small. Birthstones representing the children - Moonstone and Ruby (those are the stones, not the children! ;o)). I played with some drawings in my design book and came up with a grouping that I liked. THEN because I knew I didnt have time to spend a lot of time carving - I reproduced the design on my computer and then created a PhotoPolymer Plate (PPP).

Because I'm still learning I tend to experiment. SO this one has a fine silver bezel for the moonstone (didnt think it would fire and put the bezel in and then tested a spare stone and POOF worked) and a PMC clay setting for the ruby. Plus I added a tweek of fine silver flakes on the tips of the two larger hibiscus stamens. AND now I'm thinking as I type this that I may put some 24K gold on the medium size hibiscus.

Off to finish the pieces - will post photos tomorrow. :o)

January 10, 2010 Silence... Designs

2010-01-11T00:04:00.002-06:00

Silence - sometimes it's welcome, sometimes it's deafening.

Right now it's not so bad. Although I've been absent for a bit from my blog it's not because I haven't been "working" it's that I've been working. Once again work interrupts life. BUT I used this time away to work on the design for two new pieces for friends and to work on getting answers to how to better attack the problem child that is the copper canyon pendant.

Keep an eye out for Carol's Heart and Hope's Hibiscus.

January 3, 2010 New Year!

2010-01-03T14:14:00.021-06:00

Hmmm...

Sickness is about gone - at least I'm sleeping now. And I'm trying to make up for losing about 12 days at the end of 2009. Not a bad thing in 'life' but when it comes to 12 lost days for "real work" that's bad.

BUT as I attempt to do 'real' work on this gorgeous 46 degree, blue sky, Memphis Sunday I keep thinking about a problem child - no, not one of the boys... but a project I'm working on for loved ones.

Here are the problems...

~ Copper and Silver.
~ Prongs.
~ Shrinkage factor.
~ Possible sintering problems w/ copper.

I think the main part of my problem is jumping for joy that the copper was available for me to use w/ a torch. I thought I had thought out the process of putting this piece together but maybe only on paper.

I started with a polymer clay carving of the heart w/ mountains and created a mold from the 2-part molding material. Originally it was going to be all silver THEN copper clay came along. Ohhh the joy! The mountains in the piece I'm making were red rock and the copper would be stunning!

So I thought use the mountain part of the mold and fill w/ copper. Then add a "tack" with the copper to the back of the mountains and fire.

Once that was done I would make a mold "filler" w/ polymer clay to block the mountain space in the mold. Then fill it with silver to make the heart portion. I was going to make a hole in the silver heart, slice it and form it around the mountains and the "tack" so that when the silver was fired it would shrink down around the 'tack' (maybe I should just call it a post) thus attaching the copper to the silver.

Here's where the problem came in. I skipped steps - I know, I know! Don't skip steps til you know the steps work in the first place!

I was over excited by the copper - and had to make a mountain - it came out awesome - really, really pretty - but I didn't put the 'post/tack' on it. Then of course I had to try the silver... but because I didn't have the post I didn't make the hole. I thought hmmm I'll use bezel wire on the silver and hold the copper to it that way.

Well - that didn't work out - I forgot about the shrinkage factor. The heart shrunk away from the bezel. (I had put it around the base of the heart and it pulled away from the bezel as it fired.)

Then I put the two pieces - copper mountains and silver heart together and POOF the heart shrunk more than the mountain and now it's a whole lotta mountain.

OH and did I mention prongs above - well you won't see them in the silver piece (which actually looked better before I pulled the bezel off, in the pic above it's just setting at the bottom of the heart). In my frustration with the bezel issue I popped the prongs off figured they weren't on there right and ... hmmm that may have been correct. They snapped right off. (I had only done one set of prongs before and they were wires embedded in the piece, these were silver clay and may not have been secured down enough PLUS they were not yet hardened in the tumbler.) ANYWAY - the prongs were going to hold a piece of the red rock I picked up to go on the hearts.

Now, back to the copper canyons - because the mountains were not sitting correctly I tried to bend it down a little with plyers and PPPPPOOOOOOFFFF! It snapped off. Looking at the snapped area I think it didn't sinter 100% through.

But as I'm only partially sure I know that not being sintered correctly means in my terms - it wasn't cooked long enough. So, I'm posting pictures of what I think it's NOT supposed to look like in the hopes that one of my smart Art Clay Friends will tell me yes, indeed it is not sintered correctly and that they are good pictures of what not to do.

What to do?

Unfortunately I have to travel this week so I have a week to think about it and no time to do anything about it til the weekend.

Suggestions on what I did wrong? Or am I going it the right direction and need to follow the steps I originally laid out?

Things that make you go hmmmmmm....

(PS... it's now 37 degrees, overcast and I still have to do 'real' work.)

December 21, 2009 Gifts Shipped, Sickness Sets In

2009-12-21T19:57:00.004-06:00

Well... at least the "Mucus" family waited til I had my silver gifts done before moving in!

I have one more gift to give and one more to ship but the rest are all given or shipped. Now it's time to clean the studio, clean the house, get healthy and enjoy a wonderful couple of weeks. :o)

December 20, 2009 Copper!

2009-12-20T02:10:00.003-06:00

In between creating Christmas presents I've been playing with copper since it arrived on 12/04. First attempt (as noted earlier in this blog) was not very successful BUT repeated tries have been a lot better.

I tried to do double sided texture on these earings and the only way I could think to do it was to texture two pieces and then put them together. It worked but to a point. One of the textures I used (lace) was a bit deep and caused the piece to break along the lace lines in 2 places. Luckily I was able to stick them back together.

I did a simple rectangle, cut it in half diagonally and then trimmed a section of the widest part of the triangles off to make the earring two pieces. Once they were dried I torch fired them. I added a little patina to the lace side to bring out the texture.

I used copper wire to make jump rings and 'stitched' the pieces together with the jump rings and then added a 12 mm Leopard Skin Bead and copper ear wire.

Not my usual style - but I'm excited to wear them out! :o)

UPDATED: December 21 - While in Michael's I found "rose gold" earring wires. With my sensitivity to copper I'm excited to put them on my copper earrings. I think the pinky color will bring out the pinky of the copper and should be very helpful in further projects! :o)

December 20, 2009 Puzzled Titanium

2009-12-20T01:44:00.006-06:00

Titanium brings to mind all kinds of things - hard, metal, 'austere'... but then I discovered Crystalized Titanium from Holly Gage (www.hollygage.com). As I posted yesterday - it's terrifying to have something so special and then try and use it in a way that suits it.

A few months ago I ordered two "you pick them for me" crystalized titanium pieces from Holly. I gave them an idea of what I was going to create and she and Chris did a great job finding me two pieces that would work together with the design I had in mind. (Note: that the photos do NOT show the gorgeous colors well on these pieces.) Then the hard part started....

I needed puzzle pieces. All the pieces I found on the internet were too 'thin' or didn't connect in the manner I wanted it to. So I pulled out my old nemisis "polymer clay" and started playing. I created two pieces that fit together and then cured them. I used 2-part molding compound to make molds of the polymer pieces and then created the silver pieces.

I spent a good amount of time trying to make the edges smooth but still puzzle like (rounded on the top straight on the bottom) and then worked to carve the hearts into the center of where the titanium would sit on the pieces. The hearts were made so that a little bit of the titanium could show through the silver. I added 24K gold to the pieces - the recipients wear gold... and I think that the 24K gold and the gold chain helps bring out the pretty yellow-gold in the titanium. All in all I'm excited at how it all 'fits'.

As you can see I still have a hard time working "thin" I think these puzzle pieces are probably close to 8 cards thick. Which makes for a medium heavy piece. I was concerned that the titanium would need the thickness but then after doing some more research on Holly's website last night I discovered I could probably have gone thinner with out any problem. A quick trip to Kohl's brought me such luck! Two matching 24" flat chains - about the width of the 24k Gold stripes on the pieces. So excited!!

The pieces were fun to do. I played with them for a couple of months from start to finish working on them in between the other projects.

I only wish I could have shot them to really show the gorgeous titanium! :o)

December 20, 2009 Wisdom & Intelligence

2009-12-20T01:17:00.010-06:00

My last Christmas gift is finished... Wisdom & Intelligence is patina'd fine silver with 18g Fine Silver loop on a 19" beaded strand of 4mm and 8mm Hematite and Amethyst with a magnetic closure.

The recipient is never satisfied with "because" as an answer. She looks deeper, researching and learning. Forever learning. The Japanese characters for Wisdom and Intelligence are stacked on this piece. It was designed to attempt an 'old' look. Note: the patina on the actual piece is not as dark as it appears in these photos. Not perfect in shape or imprint. I tried to get it to look like it was worn, by having the edges lower in some areas. The Japanese characters were stacked and the dog tag type outline were put together in PhotoShop. The image was printed on overlay and then a low relief Photo Polymer Plate was created and the piece was molded in silver clay.

Hematite and amethyst are both a favorite and the birthstone of the recipient. The back is tagged with "artist mark" (still find that funny to write! he he he!)

My hope is that she enjoys it and wears it in good health as she continues her journey.

December 19, 2009 Afraid to Fail...

2009-12-19T19:54:00.005-06:00

So close but so fearful!

I'm working on pieces for two very special people and I'm terrified to finish. Not because I dont think they will like the pieces but because I have Holly Gage titanium going on them and I'm afraid to mess up!!

The project are two puzzle pieces - that actually do fit together. They are silver w/ 24K gold (one of the recipients wears gold so I'm working gold into the piece and adding a gold chain to it - mixed with the yellows from the titanium it should look very nice) added to it. The rainbow colored crystalized titanium will sit on top of the puzzle pieces.

Probably a little to advanced for what I know how to do but I'm either daring or stupid... LOL not sure which! You choose!! :o)

Fingers crossed I'm headed back into the studio...

December 15, 2009 WORK Interferes

2009-12-15T22:21:00.015-06:00

I have read about addictions interfering with people's work - but work interfering with one's addiction? WELLL Yes! Here I am away from my studio on business of all things and I am 2 days into silver withdrawal and WORK is keeping me from posting the additional pieces I completed in my silver-crazed weekend!

What is up with that?

SO - reports done, email closed and should be sleeping for 2 1/2 hour drive to another site tomorrow but instead I'm getting a little silver fix by telling you about:

Gifts two & three... Brilliant Barnacles - Ahh my pretty little shells! Made for a wonderful lady that I work with and helps keep me sane (stop, I hear you laughing... so just stop). I designed the larger shell for her. The piece is approx 1.25" top to bottom and about 1" wide. It's all .999 fine silver except for the birthstones (clear and colored CZ). It is hanging on a sterling silver neck chain and has a magnetic closure. I used a found shell and 2-part mold compound to make a mold and then went from there.

I love the way the birthstone settings came out - it's the first time I've done anything like this and I thought that the way they ended up looked like barnacles. The stones repesent each of her little girls. The birthstones worried me. First shot at firing with stones in a piece resulted in liquified 'gem' ha! what a mess but very cool to experience. So when I put the blue CZs that Cool Tools labeled as ok for firing I got realllly nervous when I peeked in the kiln and discovered the once "Aquamarine" one was clear OMG don't do this to me!

I put the cover on and did a little dance to the silver gods and asked that they not take the color away. When I took the piece out I was so excited to watch the cz turn back to blue! WAYYYY Cool! :o)

The bail is textured and is another first for me... a bail that isn't a jump ring or part of a stem. I was very nervous but quite pleased with how it turned out. If you look at the piece the bail actually makes it look like an angel - I see potential for Angel items here!!

The Baby Barnacles were designed from another found shell and 2-part compound. One for each of her daughters. They are just about 3/4" wide x 3/4" high and hang from a sterling silver chain. By the way - anyone know the actual size of a necklace for a child?

The little girls were so excited! I loved watching them wearing the necklaces all evening long - it was a great experience! I love my silver clay addiction! :o)

December 14, 2009: Crazy, Silver-Fix Weekend!

2009-12-14T16:44:00.007-06:00

My weekend started Thursday evening after work because I was off on Friday. Well - the creative portion of my brain has been in over drive lately working on all these projects and it just wouldn't let me do something as lame as SLEEP! So needless to say my sleep schedule was shot when at 5am I decided I really needed to go to bed.

Waking up at 3pm was a little odd! But hey, I worked all night so why not?

Why not? WHY NOT?

Because then that creative brain took over the logical brain and said - "HEY! You slept all day - let's go back to the 'studio'" (ok ok it may only be a computer armoir disguised as a studio but it SOUNDS good!) "and get some more work done..."

I probably don't have to tell you that at 11am on Sunday when I was sitting in front of a spinach and tomato omelette at iHop that I'd been working the 'night shift' for 3 nights! AND I had to fly the next day - some how get back on a normal REAL WORK schedule. OMG what have I done? So here I am on the plane winging my way from Mem to BOS willing my self to stay awake!

BUT - excitement abounds!!

Four (yes 4) pieces COMPLETE! Ready to bestow on unexpecting friends ... so much excitement - I hope they like, like, like as much as I love, love, love these little 'gems'! :o)

Gift one... Wax Seal - This precious little seal is probably going to be one of my favorite molds. It was only the second free-hand piece that I made in polymer clay and then molded and I just love it. It's not big - maybe 3/4" from bail to bottom drip and about 5/8" wide. It starts out plain and then on this one I added two bezels for birth'stones' and some silver balls. (just because I love them! LOL) My hope is that eventually I'll end up with good stamps that I can use to put letters inside. :o)

It's hanging on an 18" Sterling Silver 2mm beaded chain with a magnetic clasp and a cute little (still working on this part) "artists signature charm" (he he he - love feeling all professional and such! "Artist Signature" he he!!

The birthstones I had were not fire friendly and the wrong type for the bezels I put in sooo I went again to my nemisis... (dark sounding music here please) Polymer Clay! The good thing is I had colors that would work for garnet and as I mentioned in a past blog (I know I'm repeating myself but I'm on a plane typing this and am still excited at how it came out) I had pieces of my pistachio and teal skinner blend that look EXACTLY like turquoise - who'd a thunk it? So I used a spare bezel as a cutter and pulled out little birth'stones' from the polymer. Cured them (yes, I sat in front of the darn oven again) and (patting myself on the back) I think they look pretty good!

OH did I mention the cool little packaging I came across?

I was in Hobby Lobby looking for some small boxes to use as gift boxes and found only one 3-pack. The only problem was the 3-pack had one kraft box (perfect) but also a black and a red box (not so much). Welll right beside it are some flat looking "pouches" that fold out to form a little pillow for earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. In 3 diff sizes. I thought 'hmmmmmm I wonder...'. So I bought one package.

Flash Back... During my outtings a week or so ago I discovered the stamp store that my dealer - ahhh I mean my teacher Brandy Boyd works at and had picked up some scrapbooking paper - no clue at the time what I was going to do with it but "boxes" kept seeming like a possibility.

Real time... So I took one of the sheets of this newly procured paper and carefully pulled apart one of the paper pouches that I bought and traced it onto the paper. A few cuts here, some scoring and folding there and PRESTO - POOF! I had a cool little pouch/pillow all ready and waiting for my caldDESIGN Naturals logos! The store bought pouch came with a card that you would attach the jewelry too (in this case I bought the earring version) so I traced it too, put a little logo on the bottom of the card, two slots on the top of the card - slide the neck chain into the slots, center the pendant on the front and again - PRESTO - POOF! all ready to insert necklace holder.

My excitement knows no bounds - ok ok I think I stated earlier... easily distracted by bright and shiny objects but I also have this thing for paper... pretty paper, journals, older looking stuff, I loooovvveeee my litte paper pillow/pouches!! (ha! say that 3x fast!)

Oh oh ... plane is "starting our decent into the Boston area" so I must close for now - and will pick up later!

Hi, My name is Cindy and I'm a Silver Addict.

December 12, 2009: Tumbling & Blogging

2009-12-13T06:49:00.004-06:00

Caught up!

I spent part of my evening running the tumbler. First time with the tumbler and I think I need to hand burnish the pieces a little more than I did this time and then tumble. OR I need to put more shot in, OR I need to put less silver in. I need to check with my Art Craft Friends on Facebook.

Then I spent the rest of the past 4+ hours setting up this blog. Going back to the beginning of my adventure with metal clay. Luckily I've posted on Facebook and taken photos of classes and projects which are all dated and once my memory was jogged I was able to post as if it was that day! :o)

Why?

Because I love what I'm doing. I'm having a blast and sometimes you just want to share that with people! As I indicated on my first post.. my family and friends are "about up to here" with listening to me go on and on about metal clay. My hope is that as they receive the gifts I'm working on they too will understand my excitement and enjoy the fruits of my labor as much as I enjoy making them!! And I am enjoying making them!!

If you are looking for gorgeous pieces to buy check out the ETSY sites of some of my Art Clay Friends from Facebook:

~ Dreamsome
~ Holly Gage
~ Lune Designs
~ Lizards Jewelry

It's 7:09 am here and I'm going to sign off and go put my polymer birth 'stones' into the wax stamp pendant then go find some breakfast!! :o)

December 11, 2009: Fire in the Hole!

2009-12-13T06:36:00.003-06:00

I became a firing machine tonight!

All pieces previously listed were fired tonight except the silver heart. That I've put aside til next weekend so that I can fully concentrate on them. I want to be sure that I use the best method possible to hold the copper mountains on.

I added 18 gauge fine silver wire to the puzzle pieces to form prongs for the crystalized titanium. I've never done this before so it will be interesting to see how it works. I also added a 'hidden' medium size bail on the back of each piece so that I wouldn't have to put a hole through the top of the puzzle piece.

The pieces are cute - they have a little tiny heart carved through each of them that can only be seen if the piece is flipped over. If all goes well the back side of the titanium that sits over this heart will have color right where the heart is so color will show through.

Now I just need to add the 24K gold stripes to the pieces. Why titanium and gold? because the recipients wear mostly gold. So I'm adding gold to the piece and will put them on gold chains which will allow it to fit in with their usual color preference. :o) Smaht thinkin' eh? :o)

The shells are gorgeous. Only ran into one problem. I used a Swarovski crystal for the birthstone on one of the charms. I used a Cool Tools labeled CZ Clear for the other one - to look like a diamond. The Cool Tools gem had the listing that it could be fired. The Swarovski did not. The surprise to me was the Swarovski crystal melted in the kiln... what a fun experience that was! LOL Better on this piece than on the large shell piece!

I recreated the little shell charm, put in a Cool Tools light blue 'gem' (approved for kiln) and then used the same 'gem' on the large shell. The cool thing about the shells are the 'bezel' I created makes it look like the birthstones are barnicles on the shell. So pretty.

Cool surprise when firing the blue 'gem'... when I looked in the kiln (bad habit) I noticed that it had TWO clear 'gems' ... I thought ohhh no! but when it came out I watched with absolute excitement as the color came back to the blue 'gem'. It is so pretty.

Waiting for Tumbling:
~ Large Shell Pendant w/ birthstones
~ Shell Charms (x2) w/ birthstones
~ Japanese Character Dog Tag-like Pendant
~ Wax Stamp Pendant - to hold 2 polymer clay birth 'stones'
~ Shell charm w/ melted birthstone (just for the heck of it)
~ calDESIGN tag - to be used on the Wax Stamp Pendant.

Photos coming Sunday!

December 10, 2009: Like Being Over Caffinated!

2009-12-13T06:24:00.004-06:00

This new metal clay addiction of mine is like being over caffinated!! I am working on 7 pieces - 4 of them started tonight - NOT counting my cute little acorn copper test pieces!

Started tonight:
Large Shell Pendant - to hold 2 birthstones w/ deco bail
Small Shell Charm (x2) - to hold 1 birthstone each
Japanese Character Pendant - shaped like dog tag
Silver Heart - will be two of them and will hold copper mountains and natural stones

In clean up:
Puzzle Piece Pendant (x2) - to hold crystalized titanium and 24K gold

Waiting on Tumbling:
Wax Seal Pendant - holds 2 birth'stones'

The shells were created from 2-part mold compound of shells I have from walking the beaches of Cape Cod. The Japanese characters were put together on the computer and then a Photo Polymer Plate (PPP) was created and used as a mold for the silver. The puzzle pieces were created from polymer clay and then molded using 2-part mold compound and the wax pendant was - as indicated in a previous post - created from polymer clay and then molded in 2-part compound mold material.

So much to do, so little time! :o)

December 9, 2009: Silver Clay Success!

2009-12-13T06:13:00.004-06:00

EXCITED! Yes, Excited!!!

I'm working on 7 projects right now. One of them a "Wax Stamp" pendant came out soo sweet tonight. It's adorable. I created the piece with polymer clay. Cooked it and then molded it with 2-part mold compound. Then I used the mold for the silver clay. I used bezels for the first time... little fine silver cups the size of the 'gems' that it will hold. They are attached to the piece before firing.

The idea for this is that the stamp holds birthstones of the receivers children.

Here's my question though - Do I put the 'gems' in and THEN tumble or TUMBLE then put gems in? I've looked and looked and don't find anything specifically along this line. (Tumble - putting the pieces in a jewelry tumbler with mixed size stainless steel shot and the pieces are burnished by the shot. I purchased a Lortone tumbler - yes another tool! :o) and it sits on the top shelf of my work bench out in the garage.)

My Art Clay Friends on Facebook all said that it needed to be done before the tumble. Because part of the thing that tumbling does is 'work harden' the silver. Meaning the more it is burnished the harder the silver becomes. A good thing when dealing with delicate bails.

So I attempted to put the gems in and discovered something - i have the wrong type of bezel. I bought bezel cups which you normally use for cabachons but what I needed were pronged settings. Sooo now what? Make due.

Here's the biggest problem. I originally made this piece for a different recipient. Then wanted to make 'charms' for her daughter and thought hmmm should use something else. So I decided to use this piece for another friend who also has two children. However the 'gems' I have for this project are not perfect circles and they won't fit ... what to do, what to do?

Polymer Clay!! Yep that's right. I used the correct colors mixed to look like Garnet and then went back to that slab of Skinner Blend left over from my polymer clay techniques class that is the PERFECT match for turquoise. I cooked the little pieces and once the piece is tumbled I'll glue the polymer into the bezels.

So much success - so little time!

Photos to come!

December 8, 2009: Bead Fix!

2009-12-13T06:06:00.003-06:00

Life is good! My bead addiction is full - for this minute. My Fire Mountain Gem order came in and oohhhh how lovely are the yellow jasper, leopardskin, chrysanthemum stone, harvest stone, crazy horse, serpentine and snow flake obsidian - ahhhh some of them will go soooo well with copper ... excitement abounds!

Why the excess? Well I'm working on some silver pieces and needed "aquamarine" gems for one of the pieces - March Birthstone. But the shipping was $5. Can't pay $5 for shipping for a $2.00 'gem'. LOL

So I browsed - and found the sale section. So many beads, so little time!

Off to finish the silver pieces!!

December 7, 2009: Copper & Pickle

2009-12-13T05:56:00.006-06:00

Sounds like a bad craving by a pregnant woman!

But it's not. Pickle is what you use to clean the black fire scale that is left on copper after you fire it. It eats away the black and leaves you with pretty copper waiting to be shined up like a new penny.

I chose to use Silver Prep. It's natural and not a haz mat accident waiting to happen. And according to some it smells 'less bad' than the regular pickle. Although it smells pretty bad!!!

So, my Silver Prep arrived. I went to Kroger in search of a Lil Dipper crock pot and found instead a 1.5 quart crock pot that was on sale for $10.88 - SCORE! Little larger and less expensive! PLUS the pot comes out and can be cleaned in my dish washer - got to love that!

I came home, read the directions for the 15th time and then let it go. About an hour later I checked and it was pretty hot so I added my copper test pieces - the good and the bad. The whole and the broken. I wanted a good test. Someone had said it may take longer with the non-toxic stuff so I left it in for 2 hours. A bit of over kill but IT WORKED! The pieces came out clean with no scale left at all.

And the mountains - ohhh boy is this piece going to be stunning!!! I'm very, very excited by copper now.

Still no pics - will post later. I'm on a mission to finish silver pieces that will be gifts before I head out on a business trip!

December 5, 2009: Copper Clay - Good & Bad

2009-12-13T05:44:00.003-06:00

Never one to let something kick me in the butt - copper clay has almost done this! I experimented... molded some (angel mold, shell, maple leaf, mountains), textured some (about 2 cards thick) and then sliced it into triangles thinking I could make earrings from it, and all the while thinking - it dries out faster than silver.

I fired the pieces:

Angel mold - too big for torch firing so after the piece was fired and dipped into water to stop the fire scale from popping off as it cooled and hitting me in the face - I waited a while and then stress tested it. In otherwords I mauled the piece. The wings snapped off but the head remained solid. I believe it was a sintering issue - I dont think I held it at 'salmon' for 5 full minutes. THAT and the fact that in trying to use less clay (remember by propensity for using too much) I put the clay into the mold in pieces and I personally think some of the breaks were along the lines where the pieces were mushed in.

Shell mold - seems good no breakage

Maple leaf mold - the stem broke off - and the piece was not 100% stable. See final reasoning above in Angel mold - I think it was 'Stupid User Error' in putting the clay into the mold.

Mountain mold - OMG worked great... settle, settle dont get all excited.

Texture sheets - not so good. After checking with my Art Clay Friends on Facebook I discovered that it could be because it was too thin. The break test failed in a major way.

Then I created an "acorn" pretty thick. That sintered completely after 5 mins of heating to 'salmon' stage. And I made a mold of a cool acorn cap and that too sintered well - although later when trying to put a hole through the stem, it broke off. That piece had been re-attached after I dropped it on the floor - dah, hard wood floor not good for pre-fired pieces!

So far, my one wish for copper is that the heart pieces I want to make for my Brother and Sister-in-law work out seems to be good-to-go.

Waiting on Silver Prep to come in so I can "pickle" them and see how they look once I burnish them.

No photos yet.

December 3, 2009: Copper Clay Arrives!!

2009-12-13T05:29:00.003-06:00

It's here! My copper clay has arrived.

Now you may be asking - why the sudden excitement in copper clay. Wellll - I've been working on a design of a piece that I want to do for my brother and his new wife.

They were married in Valley of Fire about an hour and a half outside of Las Vegas. The location was stunning! Red rock mountains, red sand, her white dress, his black tux - all stunningly beautiful. While there I took about a million photos and picked up a couple of small stones that were the same material as the mountains. I was thinking they would work as 'gems' in a piece to commemorate the event.

The design started out as a .999 Fine Silver heart with the mountains carved into the front and one of the stones on the silver heart portion. While talking about the design with a Facebook Art Clay friend she mentioned - copper. That got me thinking. Knowing that the new torch-able copper was coming out the next week I started playing with an idea that would have the mountains be COPPER. The red of the copper would make the mountains come alive ontop of the silver heart. In my head and on paper it was going to work.

Then the copper arrived - which brings me to where I am now. Working on the sofa, in front of a roaring fire .. doing - work. SAP VC work. SAP Marketing Master work. And the box with the copper is on the other side of the couch. Watching me. Eyeing me... I feel like I should be in one of those commercials with the money with big eyeballs staring at you. The box with the copper was staring at me - taunting me "ha ha you have to work and can't play with me yet!"

Thankfully tomorrow is a "personal day" I'll get you copper... I'll get you!!!

December 1, 2009: Copper Clay!

2009-12-13T05:16:00.003-06:00

At 12:10am I went to ArtClayWorld.com and looked and sure enough, as promised Copper Clay was available for purchase. COPPER CLAY!

Ok - so I was excited because Silver Clay is all I can fire with my little baby kiln or my torch. That means I didnt have to 'wish' for bronze, copper or now steel clay supplies - because I couldnt fire them. HA! THEN they introduce low fire Metal Clay - Copper. Copper clay that can be fired without using a metal can with firing materials and a cover and a huge kiln - AND at $14.99 for 50g it's way more friendly on the wallet than silver ($80.40 for 50g at least today!).

So I ordered some... and ordered the copper "pickle" that I need to clean the fire scale off the copper and copper tongs.

Copper clay - another addition to my metal clay addiction!!

November 29, 2009: Thinking of Others

2009-12-13T04:41:00.009-06:00

I have a friend that I work with who is fighting a major battle with throat cancer right now. And every day I think of his strength, his good spirits and ::soft chuckle:: his self-proclaimed theme song "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba.

I have another friend - from high school - that I recently learned went through her own battle with breast cancer while her sister fights every day a battle with colon cancer.

All these people - and so many more fighting every day. I kept reflecting and the more I thought the more I wanted to do something to celebrate them and their families and possibly help in some little way.

I created this piece - a medalion of .999 Fine Silver with lapsis blue-colored polymer clay. It's hanging on an 18" sterling silver 2mm beaded chain with a magnetic clasp for easy closure. The design represents the The Fifth Chakra - Throat Healing.

I don't know how to express the feeling behind this piece. Depending on what you believe it could be a form of grasping at straws thinking that the dark lapsis blue color combined with the natural silver, the Fifth Chakra symbol, wearing it around the neck and the good thoughts, love and concern that were always present before - during the design and creation of the piece - and will continue after the gift is given, will - in some way - help to 'clear' the illness from his life.

Learn more about the Fifth Chakra.

For my friend from high school I made a necklace for her mom. The 18" sterling silver chain holds two "Awareness Ribbons" that I designed. The .999 fine silver ribbons are filled with polymer clay - one pink for breast cancer and one blue for colon cancer. The ribbons measure approx 1.25" long. I'm excited to post that I have received a request to make 2 more sets - one for her and her sister. A little part of me feels that I'm helping knowing that my pieces are going to help them bring awareness to the diseases that so need to be cured.

Notes: I used new techniques to create the molds for these pieces. Photo Polymer Plates. It's a way to take something you create on you computer and then print onto overlay material and then transfer to the Photo Polymer Plate using UV light. It's a great technique that I love along with making pieces from polymer clay and then molding them in 2-part molding compound.

November 21, 2009: Naturals

2009-12-13T04:16:00.004-06:00

While creating the Interchangeable Holly Pendant and Earrings for my mom I kept thinking all the pieces I am working on, the ones I really like - are natural - staight from nature. It's what I love, it's what I 'feel'. So Naturals came to mind.

Flash back... while growing up I was considered "crafty" no - not in a bad way! LOL! I would make cards and do cross stitch, paint, knit, I even made jewelry back then. And everytime I made a card my dad would say "when you care enough to send the very best you send a 'cal original'". My little signature on the back of my cards was always "Another CAL Original" with the date. Later on it evolved into calDESIGN and everytime I do something for someone - cards, logos, posters, t-shirts - my parents will ineveitably ask me "did you put your cal original on it?" (It doesn't matter how old you get, Mom & Dad always will ask the same things! :o) )

Back to the present... so Naturals came to mind... calDESIGN Naturals. I like it. I feel it. My "natural" instinct (pun intended) is to immediately pull out paper and a pencil and my computer and create a 'logo'. Drift wood, old wood. Old wooden sign. calDESIGN. calDESIGN Naturals. Shells. Flowers. Beach. Sand. Hmmm...

While I'm working I'm thinking - kraft (brown paperbag like look) boxes. Hmm. I came up with the logo you see above - and then went a step further and looked around the local "Hobby Lobby" (OMG that store, that store!) and found a couple of large shells and some cool looking wood along with sea sponges. These I will use for photos - an example are in my last post where you see Mom's pendants and earrings on these shells and hanging from the wood.

When I shipped Mom's pendant and earrings they were in a Kraft earring box w/ a calDESIGN Naturals logo on it along with a card explaining the process and the unique-ness of the pieces made specifically for her. The first pieces I have done that I have given as a gift.

November 16, 2009: Birthday Present for Mom

2009-12-13T03:46:00.016-06:00

My mom loves Christmas. And she loves Christmas shirts, sweaters, jewelry, everything. Of course - you can't wear Christmas jewelry all year now can you? Well... Mom's birthday was today - Nov 16 - and I've been working on a couple of pieces for her.

Interchangeable Christmas Pendant and Earrings. These little pieces are made for Christmas - molded from little holly leaves from my back-yard w/ red charms but can be worn during the rest of the year by switching out the red charm for the green/blue charms!

The Pendant is molded from a leaf mold made from 2-part mold compound. The bail is designed into the leaf like a stem that rolls forward to form the bail AND then loops up to form the hook for the charm. The charms are red/black glass beads with a gold glass bead on a stainless steel head pin that was hand twisted to make the loop.

The Earrings are made from metal clay paper - yes, metal clay that is as thin as paper. Sold in little 3" x 3" squares you can fold it just like paper. I used it and traced around the leaf to create the pieces. But the thinness of it worries me.
I really prefer the thickness of the molded pendant and when I create these again I'll use the mold for sure. The earrings 'stem' also is used to attach it to the sterling silver earring wires and jump rings and, like the pendant, curls down to create the hook that holds the little charms. The earrings have 24K gold added to them and the beads are green/blue glass beads on a stainless steel headpin tha twas hand twisted to make the loop.

The shot to the right is what the earrings look like "carded" Shows the interchange-ability with the red charms on the earrings and the green/blue charms on the card.

November 15, 2009: Polymer Clay & Silver Metal Clay

2009-12-13T03:22:00.009-06:00

The skinner blend I came home from Polymer Techniques class with was making me crazy. It looked like the ocean. I cut a shape out of it and cooked it.

It burned.

I tried again.

It burned.

One more time... not a lot of 'good' variations left... it worked. THANK GOODNESS! (of course I sat in front of the oven the entire time!)

I keep thinking ocean. I love the ocean. Being originally from New England I grew up being only an hour at the most from the ocean. I miss the wind, the smell, the pounding of the waves, the sounds. I miss it all. And the skinner piece kept making me think ocean - nature - natural ... then I started thinking: drift wood and shells. Ok back to polymer clay. They said I could mold it with my hands - lets see what I come up with. Ta Da! Drift wood (yes, it's over cooked but it worked!) I sprayed it with matte clear coat and after seeing it together wished I hadn't - I think that wet/dry sanding it would have been better - BUT I learned that technique AFTER I created the piece.

After molding the drift wood I used 2-part mold compound to make a mold of the drift wood and 3 tiny shells that I had laying around.

After this I filled (have I mentioned I STILL have issues with using too much clay?) the molds with metal clay and when dried I cleaned them up and fired them. I ran into problems. I should have attached the pieces together before firing them. Then fired them as one piece. But I was afraid that the torch wouldn't be able to handle all the pieces together because it was so big. (I had not yet fired up the kiln... you know back to that fear of stepping into the unknown mentioned in an earlier post.)

After much messing around and practically melting the silver pieces I finally got them to stick - Note to self: when firing multiple pre-fired pieces together use Metal Clay OIL not Metal Clay paste. Metal Clay paste works on pieces that are not yet fired, but Metal Clay Oil is what I should have used.

And now to put it all together - the torch makes cool little balls when you heat fine silver wire. AND if you pull the heat off just at the right moment the balls will stay attached to the wire - in what I think looks like seaweed! So I've put the polymer clay w/ the silver pieces and fine silver wire seaweed and come up with a really cool looking piece - a really cool HEAVY piece, but a really cool piece non-the-less.

Is it a pendant or a "broach"? I'm not sure. Right now it has a bail on it, but I really think it needs a pin.

November 7, 2009: Polymer Clay

2009-12-13T02:53:00.004-06:00

Ugh! I think I have a love-hate relationship with it. I don't like the little people and creatures that some folks make. It's nothing against them, I just don't like them. HOWEVER I took this class - Polymer Techniques again at the Memphis Botanical Garden (MBG) with ... yep you guessed it - Brandy Boyd! :o) Now... if you may be asking... "if you don't like polymer clay, why take a class?" Because I need to learn! LOL

Techniques learned in one medium can be used in others - sound familiar? I learned how to make a cane, make skinner blend, cook (although I have to admit I tend to burn pieces at home... thankfully I mainly use them for molds) and more!

I came out of the class with a better understanding that polymer clay is so much more than the little people and little animals that I feared we would make. I learned that I could use it in my silver pieces - and that you could make some cool looking jewelry with it if you wanted to!

October 22, 2009: Wanted: Bigger Studio Space!

2009-12-13T02:31:00.006-06:00

Well... the closet isn't cutting it! I need more room. Where to go, where to go? The 'dining room' in my house is not really a dining room. It's a 'library' it has book shelves, and display shelves, and a 6' Aruba Cat condo. But it has potential I mean what do I really use it for?

So - I did some hunting. The furniture I put in there is actually from the Christopher Lowell "Shores" set that is available at Office Depot. And wonder of wonders they have a computer armoir. hmmm bigger space. doors that close. close to the garage - ohhhh did I forget to mention that addition? (More on this later!)

I bought the new piece. It matches perfectly of course - and it's GREAT! I added boards to the inside of the open spaces that you can use to hang hooks, baskets, and more from. I put in a light with a magnifier on it, it has display area for my pieces as I get more done - right now if you look closely it holds my 2010 Holly Gage Metal Clay calendar - OMG - talk about eye candy!! The pieces are gorgeous!

(OH and the mascot on top? That's Nubbles - on is good as long as he and his brother don't figure out how to get IN! :o) )

Did I mention I bought a kiln? ha aha ha! I knew it wouldn't last, you probably knew it wouldn't last. I mean it's another tool! Don't get me wrong the micro torch is awesome. I use it for 80% of my works but I also wanted to do pieces that have 'gems' in it and you can't do that with a torch so I invested in a itty bitty kiln. It works perfect for metal clay - silver and enameling.

So I cleaned out the other side of my garage and put the kiln and my 'mini photo booth' on the work bench. (In the very near future it will hold my polymer clay oven and my Lortone tumbler - yes, yes, I know, I know... more tools! geeze!)

So now I'm working out of the 'library' it's right around the corner from the door to the garage - which puts it close to the kiln and the polymer clay oven. I have a wall that I could add another table if needed. And I have book space for my inspiration books. PLUS the boys can hang out and the guest room is once again a guest room! :o)

October 17, 2009: Ahhh Sweet Success!

2009-12-13T02:20:00.004-06:00

After buying all kinds of tools and 'getting ready' - honestly I think I was avoiding. You know, you buy everything you need, you read, you research, you quiz people, you draw - all while avoiding the one thing you really want to do 'create'. Anyway after the enamel class I decided... this is it. Just do it as the commercial says - so I did.

I made a mold of the maple leaf that I enameled in Enameling on Copper class. Then I made a silver clay maple leaf. AND... I fired it! OK so not a big deal but to me, yes. I needed to get past the hump of worry. Just do it.

I used my little micro torch - that is what drew me into this little addiction. The fact that I didnt need a big kiln to fire the pieces. I could fire it with a micro torch - the same thing the Iron Chefs would use for creme broulette. And I did it - it came out sooo cute! Then to add to the panic - I added 24K gold to the leaf! Yes, you read that right... 24K gold! Talk about nerve wracking. Not only had I never done it before but I'd never seen it done in person - only what I learned on the internet. God I love the internet!

Then I combined this sweet little silver maple leaf (well maybe not so little - I'm still working on the thickness thing! :o) ) with my enameled pieces from class - and with some gorgeous chocolate pearls from Fire Mountain Gems and poof - the kitchen sink was born! It's got a little bit of everything - copper, enamel, silver, gold, pearls - everything! :o)

I think this will forever be my favorite little piece. My first "on my own" and my first big step into metal clay.

October 10, 2009: Enameling on Copper

2009-12-13T01:48:00.006-06:00

OK so it's not fine silver clay BUT what you learn for one medium you can translate to another medium! :o)

Yet again a great Saturday found me at the Memphis Botanical Garden (MBG) and a class on Enameling on Copper being led by whom? Yep, you got it... Brandy Boyd. (I mentioned I consider her my "dealer" in this addiction right? :o) )

What a great time we had learning to enamel. This I will have you know is one of the techniques I needed to learn to work on Mom's Mother's Day pin. Check this off now!

OK did I written about Facebook? After spending a TON of time online researching this new metal clay addiction I thought - I wonder if more people than Brandy and I on Facebook love this medium. I found fellow addicts! And they are GOOD - CRAZY GOOD! This awesome group of artists have become my mentors. They deal with me asking questions: how do I do this? where do I find that? can this be done?

There are so many great people that I am learning from I can't even list them all. The ones listed here have websites with information I find interesting, helpful and inspiring. The first is Brandy Boyd and when she gets her site back up... I'll definately post aside from her metal clay, polymer, enameling skills - her photography skills are crazy good.

~ Pam East: www.pameast.net
~ Pam also has a great book "Enameling on Metal Clay"
~ Gordon K. Uyehara: www.honudream.com
~ Holly Gage: www.hollygage.com
~ Deb Fitz: http://debsdream.blogspot.com/
~ Lorena Angulo: different flavor - http://blog.lorenaangulo.com/
~ Kristi Bowman: http://DreamSome.Etsy.com

Photos from class can be found here:
Enameling on Copper

September 26, 2009: Vessel Making with Precious Metal Clay

2009-12-13T01:31:00.006-06:00

Another great class and further cementing me into this wonderful world of metal clay! Back at at the Memphis Botanical Garden (MBG), Brandy Boyd again was the leader of this terrific class. She came prepared with really cool little shapes made from cork clay. Yes, Cork Clay. I couldnt believe it either - first you tell me there's clay made from precious metal - silver, bronze, copper, gold - and now you tell me there's cork clay too? Hmmm

The theory behind the class is to paint many layers of metal clay that has been watered down to be a paste-like consistency onto the cork shape. Then you add design using metal clay, carving, texture... whatever you choose. And you fire. Here's the thing - when you fire the cork BURNS OUT and you are left with a hollow fine silver form. Be it bead or vessel - it's fine silver and it's hollow.

The picture is all I have from my class I was so engrossed in what I was doing I forgot to take pictures!! I probably sat there with my tongue between my teeth concentrating all I know is I was committed (or perhaps should be). The silver beads are hollow as is the vessel. The little pieces of black "coal" is what is left of the cork after it burned.

How cool is that? Warning though - the cork smells when it burns out.

Now I need to get some supplies. It's to much to handle. I must have supplies so I ordered -

~ silver clay
~ cork clay (gotta have cork)
~ tools (roller, torch, knives)
~ and so much more!

Where do you get these supplies?
www.firemountaingems.com ~ www.metalclaysupply.com ~ www.cooltools.us ~ www.wholelottawhimsey ~ www.riogrande.com ~ artclayworld.com

September 2009: Art Closet

2009-12-13T00:58:00.007-06:00

When my office moved into my house I lost the extra space that I would use for an "art studio" but this need to be creative has taken over. So I look for space - spare room - but if I have visitors where would they stay? Living room? Negative any place out in the open is free reign for my 'kids'. (Note: my kids are 4-legged and fluffy.) Anything out in the open has potential to be kicked off onto the floor, chased and even in Shadow's case - picked up and carried through the house. So I start looking closer.

Back to the guest room I decide to use the closet - coincidentally my drafting table slides right into it - the doors can shut and POOF it's 'kid proof'.

The first project to really get started in the "closet" is a pin for my mom for Mother's Day 2010 - the design is done, techniques are yet to be completely learned. I won't start it til I get everything down! It will be fine silver with enamel, 24K gold, and will have 'gems' attached.

The second is painting of my carved Cardinal. Did I mention I love to carve wood? My last project was a female cardinal. She was carved and burned and all she needed was color and I moved and got caught up in work. The picture shows her carved, burned and sprayed. She has two coats of gesso and the first coat of color - no going back now!

August 2009: Mold Making

2009-12-13T00:13:00.010-06:00

I consider Brandy Boyd to be my 'dealer' she got me hooked on this great new creative outlet. This first class was simple - how to make molds from 2-part silicon mold-maker and 1 part sculpy mold maker.

Take a found object and make a mold - then... and this was the kicker - then fill this mold with delicious material called metal clay, dry it, fire it and POOF .999 Fine Silver from what was a clay-like material. "Are you serious?" I thought. She was. We molded buttons, leaves, fungus, little objects - anything you can put the molding material on - we molded.

And then... then we made the silver! ohhhhhh let the addiction begin.

Photos from the class are here.

The adventure begins...

2009-12-12T23:49:00.004-06:00

Having made a move from Marketing Director for a promotional products supplier to Variant Configuration Manager for a security products company in August of 2008, I lost my creative outlet. For 23 years I worked as a graphic designer, a web designer, commercial artist - in public relations, advertising and marketing. Suddenly - I'm programming. No pretty pictures included. SAP variant configuration programming for me is about lanyards, attachments, finishing options, and how to get them all to work together with BOMs and Routes. No pretty pictures.

I still had photography, gardening, and the computer but I was missing something that could really make my creative juices flow.

As a member of the Memphis Botanical Garden (MBG), I noticed a class in June 2009 for making silver leaves using something called precious metal clay. No clue what that ment but the pretty picture of the leaf (Note: easily distracted by bright, shiny objects - maybe I was a crow in a past life?) I decided to take the class. Then as things would have it... I had to travel for work the week of the class.

In August of 2009 MBG offered a class called "Mold Making for Precious Metal Clay" led by Brandy Boyd. Brandy was the same gal who led the first class I missed and I thought - "hmmm maybe she can tell me how to do the other piece!".

Welll - that was the beginning of my addiction.

The following posts will be from my Facebook postings - to show the excitement, the questions and the photos of the journey I started that gorgeous day in August.