Friday, April 9, 2010

Flexibility

I'm very flexible, though not in my joints. I'm flexible when it comes to changing direction, going with the flow, rolling with the punches so to speak.

This post is about the flexibility of Standard PMC. It's been awhile since I've worked with the standard version so I'd forgotten how different it is.

CeCe Wire's newest book has a forged link necklace. She made the links out of PMC Standard and hammered them with a chasing hammer before they were fired. The necklace must be pretty long as it's made of fourteen links. The directions included a pattern for the link.

The basic premise of the necklace looked like it would make a good chain for my glass piece that turned cloudy. But, I didn't want that length so I only made six. I also wanted to match the texture on the piece itself so I rolled the clay on the same texture plate. CeCe said to roll the clay to the thickness of craft sticks. That thickness seemed to be needed since she hammered the dried clay. I made my links four cards thick. I think that was a mistake as the long links seem to bend very easily. They are also very long, even with the 30% shrinkage of standard clay. When sanding the clay I could feel the give of the clay, which I don't notice with the newer versions. I like standard clay for it's shrinkage, but for my links it wasn't the right choice.

Tomorrow I'm going to remake the links in PMC3. I only need two as I've decided to add some agate beads (which match the hazy color of the glass) and I'm going to make them shorter (and thicker.) I'll share pictures as soon as it's done (in the next few days.)

Now, I have to decide what to do with six, long, flexible links. Guess I'll get out my jewelry saw and files. Time to make some more earrings.

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