Draping

      One of the reasons I like metal clay so much is because it incorporates a variety of techniques from other mediums.  I became an art teacher because I like to do it all and metal clay still gives me that chance. 

     The technique I was playing with the other day was draping, which comes from the ceramic world.  I had forgotten all about the technique until I saw it in Hadar Jacobson's book.  I use to teach it to my 3-D students where we would roll out the clay into a thin slab and then drape the clay over a form (usually upended bowl.)

     In metal clay, the clay is rolled thin (I made mine 2 cards thick) and then draped over an object or folded back on itself.   The clay sheet can be manipulated as though it were fabric.  

     The left hand piece was a rather large drape.  It's in the greenware stage and will be worked on some more.  The two round pieces are fired and were supposed to be a matching pair of earrings but my brain could just not get them draped the same way.  Doing the drape in reverse (as is needed) for earrings just befuddled my mind more than it usually is.

     I was a little nervous when I opened the kiln.  I figured that the two round pieces would need to be fired again.  They were all copper and were fired with a couple  pieces of copper and bronze combined.  Copper is to be fired at a higher temperature unless it is fired with bronze.  Obviously, as long as there is bronze in the kiln, it must work because they were sintered just fine.  They were also a very pretty color.