Bronze! I. Love. Bronze!

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.

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

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

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!

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!

February 3, 2010 CRAZY WOMAN!

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.

December 20, 2009 Wisdom & Intelligence

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.