Third time is NOT a charm!

Slip trailing is a ceramic technique that can be applied to metal clay.  It involves creating a background piece, thinning clay down and dripping it over the backing in a random fashion.

I've only done this a couple of times before.   The first time I  had great success.  The second time was not quite as successful; but acceptable.  Well today, I tried it again for the third time and the third time was NOT a charm.

A friend of mine, Deb Crisman, who had admired the first set of earrings emailed me the other night and wanted to come in to make a pair of slip trailed earrings.  There have been several times I could have sold that first pair if I had wanted to.  (But, I like them too and wear them often.)

We decided to try the technique with copper.   Why not?  It should work and it did.   The slip is poured into an empty syringe, which is passed over the backing in a random fashion.  The backing is made thinner since the slip will add more weight to the finished piece.

First, my slip shot out in a big blob.  (Wiped that off.)  Then I used a tip on the syringe with too big of a hole....... more blobs.  I ended up taking a spoon and dripping the slip on that way.  By this time, there wasn't much texture or design on my pieces and the back (which had texture at one point) was covered with slip that ran under the back.  Do you notice that there isn't a picture of my pieces here?  (Good reason for that!)

Deb on the other hand, handled it like a pro.  She's worked with syringes (her daughter is a veterinarian) and it shows.  Zip, zip, zip and Deb had a gorgeous design on her backings.  So....... I share her beauties with you.  I'll show them again after they are fired.  

"A New Addition"

For some reason I'm fascinated with the ginkgo leaf; ever since I discovered a tree down by the river.

This week I added a new bronze addition to my ginkgo leaf jewelry.  I already had a silver gingko pendant and a copper gingko pendant.  All the leaves came from the same tree.

The silver pendant was made from a leaf when the tree was in full bloom.  The copper pendant was made from a leaf that was finding it's way out from a limb that was cut off and the latest addition was made from a leaf that was lying on the ground this fall.  (Interesting that the last leaf was yellow like the bronze clay.)

Tis the Season

About this time each year I host an Open House for people to see what I've been working on the past year and to help them kick off their Christmas shopping.  (Or, shopping for themselves which most of them did.)

The very first year I held it at my house, but since I acquired the studio I've had the last two there.  This year I decided to take it back to my house for several reasons.  First, the elevator at the Transit Building is down and it's quite a little hike up to the second floor (which really seems like the third floor, especially if you have a bum knee like I do right now.)  And secondly I began to think that maybe it would be cozier and more comfortable for people to sit around and visit (which they did.)

Hauling everything home (especially since the elevator isn't working) was a lot of work but I really do like it better at the house.  People stayed longer, ate more of the snacks and visited with other guests.  I was also able to spread my jewelry out over a bigger area so people could see everything better.

Economically, this year was decent (measured by being able to pay my rent and other bills for the next month.)  Times are tough and compared to the first year sales things were definitely down.  (But, compared to the two Open Houses held at the studio, sales were up.)

So, for one day my family room became a jewelry showcase.  It's all down now, packed and ready to head back to the studio for the Christmas Season.  (Actually this worked out well, as I now will be able to decorate with everything off the tables.)

In a couple of weeks, I pack it all up again and head off to Erie for a show on Dec. 10 at the Montessori Regional Charter School at 2910 Sterrettania Road.  I'll be displaying my work on one table, so it will take some creative display work to keep it from looking cluttered.  If you are in the area that day, stop in and say hi.

An Alien in my kiln

Well, I did fire the bronze bangle bracelet.  I thought I might have to flip the bracelet and re-fire it to get it fully sintered throughout.   I tested the side of the bracelet that was closest to the door (where it can be cooler and cause a piece to not fully sinter) and luckily it too was completely fired.  But...... I had added some small bronze balls at various points around the bangle and three of those fell off during firing.   (I had all three errant balls in my possession until I dropped one of them on the brown carpet in the hallway.  Ugh!)   And,  a small crack showed up in the main body of the bracelet.   So, I do have to fire the whole thing again after all.  What works out in one area, screws up in another.

I'm going to blame it on the alien who was peeking out from inside my firing pan!

Big Bauble necklace

Painting layer upon layer of metal clay paste onto Kix cereal to make beads puts me to sleep.  (Although I did try it once...... ended up firing them before they were done and adding them to my scrap jar.)   I also like the look of natural leaves in silver, but again find it boring to paint them with paste.  (Got to find some other outlets for using my paste up.)

Using a core that will burn away in the kiln leaves a hollow bead, but there are also armatures available that don't burn out.  They're called bisque beads and they come in all shapes and sizes.  For the longest time I've had a few of those (and like lots of my tools) never got around to trying them.  I did do a small bead once though, covered it with paste and embellished it with paper clay.

There was about a handful of very large (honker size) barrel beads in my collection so I bit the bullet and began to paint.  Not sure how many layers of paste got painted on (I keep losing my way after the first layer.)  Then I added textured shapes of rolled out lump clay, syringe lines (which I usually sand down to square them up) and more punched out paper embellishments.  After firing the first couple and brushing them (this was when I was still using my brass brush) I noticed some paste wore off, so they got repaired and put back in the kiln.

Here is the result of that endeavor.  It's much bigger and chunkier than I usually wear (although I wore it for a couple of days and liked it.)  I keep trying to make my jewelry smaller and daintier but somehow I seem to be going the other way.  (At least my weight is going down, whew!)

Tiny Dancer

I bet you looked at that top piece in the last post and thought "What the heck?"

This piece was made by draping and folding a thin sheet of copper clay as if it were a piece of fabric.  There was no idea in mind when I started (so what else is new) but as I looked at the piece it had a fluid feel to it which reminded me of a dancer.  I added a head at the top, carved into the leg area to add to the movement and finished it off with a pink sapphire.

Working with the clays is like opening a present at Christmas.  The piece changes so much from it's dry leather hard stage to the finished metal piece when it comes out of the kiln.  (Once in a long while, it's a big letdown.  Things happen in the kiln that are not pretty.  That's when I have flashbacks to the robotic sweeper my husband got me one year for Christmas.  Those who know me, know that story.)   Then, it's Christmas again when I take the flex-shaft to it to polish it up.  What a difference!

I hear music when I look at this piece.

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.