Heart of the Week 7/24/11

This week I wanted to make a 3 dimensional form. I've never managed to get one to come out without horrible cracks..here's crossing my fingers. I have a big lump of copprclay that has been sitting in a jar for while. I have had problems getting it to fire properly..which is why I bought a different brand of clay. I felt the need to use up the last of the stuff I had laying around. I rolled out and textured my clay, cutting 2 hearts that will make the top and bottom of the heart "box" I plan to make.

I dried the hearts and then rolled out and textured more clay. I then cut out a thin strip of the textured clay and used slip to hold up the wall of my box.

After the walls dried, I attached the top of the "box."

Here is the fully assembled heart box.

After having several pieces of copprclay not come out of the kiln fully sintered, I did some research and found an article that suggested doing a "prefire" to burn off the binder before putting them in the kiln for the full firing schedule. I ran a 500 degree/hour ramp to 540 degrees, and held it for 15 minutes. Afterwords, the piece was black and brittle, and I put it directly into the carbon and fired it for the full schedule.

Here it is, fresh from the kiln, all shiny and fully cooked!!!

Well, there WERE a few cracks on the back of the piece.

So I rolled out some polymer clay and textured it to match what was already on the hearts to cover up the cracks. I plan to keep this as a personal piece, so I don't care if one side is a bit sub-par.

Aspiring Metalsmiths Blog List

Here is a list of other great metalsmithing blogs from my fellow members of the Aspiring Metalsmiths group!

The team blog is here : http://aspiringmetalsmiths.blogspot.com/

And here are the member's blogs, updating us on what they are working on now!

Esmeralda http://jewelry-by-silverblueberry.blogspot.com/

Happy Tortoise Designs http://www.happytortoisedesigns.blogspot.com/

Crow Steals Fire http://crowstealsfire.blogspot.com/

Contemporary Jewelry by Beatriz Fortes http://cjbf.blogspot.com/

steph http://stephstargell.com

Jessica @ Abella Blue http://www.abellablue.com/blog

Pennee- All Wired Up Jewelry Designs http://www.allwiredupjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/

Sylvia Anderson http://www.sylviaanderson.blogspot.com/

Stacy http://www.formandfunktionaccessories.blogspot.com/

Mary Anne Karren http://silverpearlmetalworks.wordpress.com/

Brightstar109 www.brightstar109.blogspot.com

Amy Nicole Artisan Jewelry Http://Rubymtnbeads.blogspot.com

Resurrection Silver http://www.resurrectionsilver.blogspot.com

Kwant Essentials http://kwantessentials.blogspot.com/2011/07/show-and-tell-from-start-to-finish.html

Kit and Caboodle Shop http://thisartistsjourney.blogspot.com

Julie http://jamauerer.blogspot.com

Lilian http://www.girllovesglitter.blogspot.com/

Autumn Bradley Jewelry Design http://www.autumnbradley.blogspot.com

Escape from the Metallurgy Zoo

By this point you may get the impression that all I ever create are hearts. I've been working on some other projects too. My newest series is a collection of sheet metal animals which I have hand-drawn and cut out. I then  add polymer clay accents to create pin and pendants.

Here are a few in the early stages. I sketch the animals onto sticker paper (found at your local office supply store..look in the isle where the photo-paper is). Then I cut out the drawing and stick it to the metal. I used to just draw on regular paper and glue it to the metal, but it would always come off as I was sawing it. The sticker paper works much, much better. I use my jeweler's saw to cut out the outlines.

After I file and sand the cut outs, I texture the sheet metal, add some alcohol ink for color and polymer clay for accents. Viola! These two guys are ready for their finishing touches and to be put into their finished pieces of jewelry. The sloth will be a necklace pendant, and the unicorn I plan to make into a pin.

Heart-a-week for 7/17/11

This week I wanted to try a technique that I saw in my new polymer clay magazine. It involves laying polymer clay with gold or silver foil. You then texture the piece and fill the textured areas with liquid polymer clay tinted with alcohol ink. The liquid clay bakes transparent and the translucent ink over the foil gives the impression of faux enamel. 

I rolled out some translucent polymer clay and dusted it with a little cornstarch..I find the cornstarch helps to keep the polymer clay from sticking to the texture plate..especially in this horrible heat when the clay can be like taffy sometimes.

I cut out and textured the heart.....

and realized that I was completely out of foil. I decided to try using Peal-Ex powder instead. When baked, it is shiny and gold-colored, which I hoped would be good enough. I baked the piece to set the Pearl-ex.

And then filled the recesses with liquid  polymer clay and Adirondack brand alcohol ink.

I was very, very disappointed with how it came out. It didn't look like it was supposed to at all. First the orange and pink colors both baked down to a melon-ish color. And the pearl-ex didn't seem to be shiny enough to provide the gloss to pull off the faux-enamel look. Or perhaps my texture was not wide enough to get deep well for the ink. I plan to try some more experiments with this technique once I can get to Micheal's and get some foil.

Finished piece...at least my daughter Sara loves my discards!

Heart-A-Week 7/10/11

This week I decided to do a bracelet. I have this crackle finish that I've been wanting to try on a polymer clay piece for awhile now and I thought I'd see what I could do.

I started out with a cardstock heart.

I chose a nice bright color scheme for the hearts, thinking once the paint crackled, the bright colors would show through nicely.

I mixed up a nice blend and cut out 4 hearts, putting in holes for the bracelet chain.

I painted the hearts a nice ivory white with acrylic paint (which is what the crackle treatment jar says to use).

After I let the paint dry I applied the crackle stuff. I waited, but other than a few tiny cracks, nothing seemed to happen. I tried two more layers of crackle goo, but no luck. So I hand-distressed the hearts using sandpaper, my files, and an X-acto knife.

Here is the completed bracelet. I like the way it came out, even if it wasn't exactly what I was aiming for.

Finished pieces

Here are two finished pieces from my "All Bronze Must Go" weekend.

The tree in the owl piece was supposed to be etched into the background of the pendant. When the clay was still wet I used a needle tool to draw the tree and leaves. The plan was to patina the piece when it came out of the kiln so the lines in the tree would stand out. But they were too shallow and when the pendant shrunk in the kiln, they became too shallow to really differentiate well from the background. Next time I will make a thicker piece and use my linoleum carving set to carve the lines nice and deep. So, instead I covered over the lines with a polymer clay tree. Not the exact effect I was going for, but it came out well enough.

Heart of the Week for 7/3/11

I absolutely love, love, love, love, love the pieces made by Liz Hall of Lizard's Jewelry. Her stuff is some of the most phenomenal combinations of color and shape! This week's heart is inspired by Liz's use of color and clay.

First, I drew and cut out my heart form on cardstock.

Here is a thin cutout of clay using the template.

I made a thicker cutout also using the template and then cut some geometric forms out of it.

I bonded the two layers together using slip, let it dry- then sanded it and put it in the kiln.

Here is the pendant after coming out of the kiln and being burnished clean.

I mixed up several blends of polymer clay and filled in the cut-outs in the pendant. After coming out of the kiln, here is the finished piece!

Using up the Clay

I bought several packages of CopprClay and BronzClay back in the beginning of this year. I had just received my new Paragon Kiln and was SOO excited to try the new medium of metal clay. Copprclay was a complete wreck. I could NOT get my pieces to sinter properly in the kiln and 90% of them just crumbled or broke when I took them out of the kiln. I tried a bunch of things, tweaking my firing schedule, pre-cooking them in my bead kiln to burn off the binder, drying them for days before kilning them...nothing worked. So when it came time to order more clay this week, I'm trying Art Clay copper this time. I hear good things about it, and I don't have to kiln it in a container of carbon like CopprClay, so it should be a lot less messy! While I was shopping, I found new BronzClay quick-fire..which has a shorter kiln time than the BronzClay I'm using now, and supposedly has a richer color. So this weekend is my "use up all the clay you have in stock" weekend so I don't have 2 brands of clay laying around to get mixed up. Here are pics of the first round of creations straight out of the kiln.

I got some really nice colors on this face pendant. They're kinda hard to pick up on my camera...lots of subtle blues and greens.

Hope to get at least one or two more kiln firings in this weekend which should use up the last of my BronzClay.

Heart of the Week- Week of 6/26/2011

This week I decided to do a metalworked pendant. I started with a sheet of 24 gauge copper.

Then I traced out my pattern in black permanent marker.

I cut out the pattern with my jewler's saw.....and viola! The beginning of my pendant.

I cut and shaped a length of 12 gauge copper wire to form the other half of the heart. I hammered it to flatten and texture the wire.

Here it is after I soldered the wire onto the sheet and cleaned in in the pickle pot.

I added some polymer clay and textured it.

Here it is after coming out of the kiln...I had added a swarovski crystal last minute on the small clay circle.

And, finally after adding a chain wrapped around the wire part of the heart and a clasp we have a finished necklace.