Knowing what has to be done

Many of my high school students put so much effort into not doing something.  Often, it would have been easier if they just did it, got it out of the way and moved onto something they did want to do.

That's exactly how I feel with a couple of different necklaces that I'm working on.  I want to be finished with them but I know I need to make a matching clasp.  Instead of just getting down to business I keep looking at some of my ready made clasps, thinking there has to be one that will work.  There isn't.  I know what has to be done and now I just need to do it.

Often, I feel that I need to design a piece of clothing to be worn with some of my pieces.  Like that is going to happen.  

Actually it did once, back in college when I designed a body ornament using silver, ebony and a very large agate.   I did make a floor length velvet dress in a color that picked up one of the colors in the agate.  Didn't have anywhere to wear such an outfit though.  (Still don't.)  

Contemporary color

Tim McCreight's color workshop covered the range of traditional coloring techniques to non-traditional ones.

Experimentation was the word of the class, so experiment we did. Tim brought an assortment of coloring media and so did other class members.

The first piece was colored with Prismacolor pencils. Since the pencils need a "tooth" to hang onto, the metal clay piece was fired but not brushed or polished. Turpentine was used to blend the colors. Polishing was done by hand after adding the color. I've seen beautiful metal pieces done with colored pencil so I was a little disappointed when I tried this technique. But, the area I was coloring was small and I only had a few layers of pencil. Other classmates who had taken the Debra Weld workshop on adding color said they had "hundreds" of layers of pencil. (All said in a manner which indicated lots of hours.)

The second piece was colored with Liquid Sculpey to which liquid color (and sometimes powdered color) had been added. This was a fairly easy process but can be "peeled" right off the piece when dry. I did this in lieu of messing with resin, but I am going to try resin at my studio. (Resin was one of those many things I bought to try but never got around to.)

Big Frog in a little pond

As usual I just start playing with the metal clay and see what comes. Well, it isn't as easy as it would seem. Often, it takes more time than is necessary and there are times when it appears that nothing is going to work. (Although I only have one piece in my scrap jar that I gave up on.)

Big Frog in a Little Pond is one of those pieces. It started out as a circular disk for a demonstration on rolling, texturing and cutting out the clay. Now I don't even remember what my original intent was. The piece sat on my work table for weeks while I waited to hear what it wanted to be. There was a frog that was fired also sitting nearby and I decided to use it with the piece. Originally the frog was going to sit on the rippled water surrounded by a variety of leaves. But, the piece was too small and needed to be enlarged, so another textured piece was made to put on the back to enlarge it. Since this reminded me of water, I used the texture with the Koi fish on the back. (So I guess it could be said that this was also a big fish in a little pond.)

The leaf punches that I had just looked too plain so I used a leaf mold that I got from one of my Tennessee friends. It worked great but was rather large and hung over the edge. So again the design took another direction as I designed a bail on the back to mimic the overhang.

The next step was to move the pendant up a notch by making the clasp, rather than using a ready-made one. The clasp is simple, just a toggle and bar done in the same Koi texture.

The turquoise beads add an earthy feel and the crystals represent water. (For some reason I've been on a water kick lately. Maybe I can sound very artistic and say it's part of my water series.)