Hollow forms

Our first project at the Rebel Heartistry Retreat was to make a hollow form.   We could make a ring or a pendant and since I love, love, love rings....... guess what I made?

This was not my first time at making a hollow form but it was my first time making it out of sterling silver with traditional metal smithing tools.  Besides the fact that I don't use a jeweler's saw when working with metal clay (although I have in certain instances) there is one major difference that I noticed.

The fine silver clay is more porous than the sterling sheet.
(I wonder if that is true of sterling silver clay?)  Because it is, the hollow form does not have to have any holes to let the gases and fluids  escape.  We had to drill holes in the inner band for that purpose.


"Aquarius" was made by covering a rock with metal clay, cutting it in half when dry and pasting the halves back together.  Embellishment was added on after the hollow form dried.  As with lots of my jewelry, this piece told me what it wanted to be when I accidentally broke off a corner (which became the spout with a crystal drop.)

I wanted to show the construction method we used in construction of the ring, but for some reason I can't download it.  (Not sure why.)  But this is the basic form of my ring (embellishes will come later.)  We constructed the inner band and soldered it onto sheet metal.  Then the outer band was soldered on and the center and outside were sawed out.  (Sawing really wasn't that bad.)  The last step was to solder on the other side onto the rings and saw that side out too.  I was afraid of getting too close to my bands so I had some major filing to do.  (That is not fun.)






Of course the metal clay piece is constructed with the use of metal clay paste while the sterling silver is constructed with solder.   The finished metal clay piece can also be soldered.  It takes a little more solder since it is a porous material and sucks the solder in.

This metal clay necklace was formed somewhat like the ring but was constructed with paste rather than soldering


Soldering makes me nervous but I can do it.  I need to do it more often so I feel more comfortable with it.  I tend not to do it as the paste works great and is less stressful.  But, it's all relevant.  I will start to solder on my bezels now, rather than using the paste.


The last piece is metal clay and the bezel was added with metal clay paste.  I guess it's good to be able to do both processes, depending on the situation.  Which ever I use, I now have a soldering set up and bought myself some easy, medium and hard solder.

Back in the groove (almost!)

Okay, I've been gone a long, long time.  Gone from this blog and gone from making jewelry, until this past week.

When I get home from spending the winter in Florida, I usually go into a funk.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's the lack of sunshine or having to get back to the real world.   Last year I got into a major funk .  My mother fell and broke her back in two places, which threw me into the roll of caregiver for both my mother and father.  She is doing much better this year but neither one of them drive and since I don't have any siblings I'm it.  I look at this as a chance to spend more time with my parents.  My mother is 86 and my father is 92.  No one knows when God will call them home.  (Although my father says he will not make it to lunch time.......... every single day.)  Nothing has changed this year from last year but this year I'm not in a funk at all.

I got home from Florida on April 18th.   In two days I had everything put away (even my Christmas decorations....... I had a legitimate reason for not having them put away before I left.  Really I did.)

Two weeks later I was flying off to Texas with my daughter Heather for a Jewelry Retreat.  The sweet girl gave me the retreat as a birthday present.  We had a great time.  The retreat was called Rebel Heartistry and was set up by Vivi Magoo.  They set up retreats around the western and southern area.

There were 14 of us who came together at the Round Top Inn (a bed and breakfast in Round Top, Texas.)  The Inn is amazing.  It's made up of various buildings that are all beautifully decorated.  I guess Heather and I were in the main house as that is where the kitchen was located.  Each building was decorated differently and were within walking distance of each other.  We worked in another studio (where we also had "wonderful" breakfasts") and had happy hour in an old tobacco house.  (How can 14 women drink so much wine.)  Our meals were catered for both lunch and dinner.  I'm afraid to get on the scales on Monday but I sure did enjoy the fantastic food we were served everyday.
Somehow, my meals today were very lack luster.  Oh well, it's back to reality.

The house Heather and I stayed in.

Inside our working studio

Our instructor was Jess Cotes from NC.  My daughter has been buying her jewelry for years and met her once while she was still living in NC.  Jess is a very talented young woman who not only teaches her craft but also nurtures the artistic souls of her students.

Jess demonstrating soldering to Heather and Pollyanna.

I didn't take any of my metal clay materials to Florida this year.  (I usually do and it takes up half the truck.)  I did take some stones that I meant to work on and never got to.  I also took watercolors and never got to those either.   What I did get to was quilting.  I belong to the Pine Island Quilts R Us group which is made up of amazing women who are so nice and are willing to share their knowledge.  In January I went on a quilting retreat at Lake Placid.

Okay, I'll wrap it up. (For now.)  I'm back now and I'll be posting on a regular basis.  (Knock on wood.)  Some of the things I plan on talking about is what it's like as a metal clay artist to work with sheet metal, sawing and soldering.  (Although 50 years ago..... Oh god that sounds so old........ I had a class on silversmithing.

Also, I usually print a book from my blog at the end of the year.  For 2015 there were so few posts to my blog that I didn't bother.  I need to  make up for lost time so I may become a blabber mouth.  Who knows.  We will see.