Nervous Adventures in Copper & Lampwork BeadsApril 16, 2010

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)

February 3, 2010Update...

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!

Thinking, Designing & Creating...

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 3, 2010 New Year!

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 20, 2009 Puzzled Titanium

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 11, 2009: Fire in the Hole!

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!

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!

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!

November 21, 2009: Naturals

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

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

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.

September 2009: Art Closet

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!