Day two, Intermediate Metal Clay course

Carved earrings, leaf charm and ring from day one

Today we made a bezel for a stone set pendant. It's not my kind of thing really! It hasn't gone well. We made our own texture from an eraser (the type that you stick on the end of a pencil), that was easy to do and effective. The bezel part was just annoying! And ended up going through the clay so I had to make another piece to stick the bezel in. Hopefully it will fire OK.
We also chose a glittery glass cabochon to make into a pendant. I always pick blue! I can't help it. We made the pendant and I learnt how to catch the glass with clay so that it will stay on and also how to fire silver and glass. That was something new and I was glad to get a chance to try that out.
We also learnt how to weave PMC paper clay. I was looking forward to learning this and then made a very basic error, cutting my paper clay the wrong way. This meant that I had loads less than everyone else. Undeterred I went for a complicated twill weaving pattern! I think it looks good. We have to make them into earrings but I can see them making great pendants. I'll have to order some of that to have a go at home.
I am not happy with my carved earrings. I'm definitely going to have to do them again unfortunately. Luckily my friend Ali, who is also on the course, has brought her kiln with her! So hopefully I can get her to fire them for me.

Bezel set pendant before kiln firing

Resin and silver charm

Comments

Making a hollow form silver clay ring

One of the benefits of starting the Make A Ring A Month movement is that I get to choose the theme each month! I had already settled on t exture as the theme for January and had a good idea of what I wanted my ring to look like. And weirdly it has ended up as I imagined it would (that doesn't often happen!). I decided to create a hollow form ring because I am a bit obsessed with making box forms at the moment. If you'd like to learn how to do that I suggest taking a look at this online course with Tracey Spurgin. I then carved into the silver clay to make the texture. I use the dockyard micro carving tools . I kiln fired the ring (I always recommend kiln firing rings as they need the strength of a long hot firing). I fired at 880 centigrade for 1.5 hours. Although I'll add here that I'm pretty sure my kiln is underfiring at them moment meaning that it is heating up to lower than the temperature it states. I need to do a proper kiln test f...

Silver clay on the BBC

If you are reading this blog then you probably already know that I make jewellery with a material called metal clay. It's not a well known material so I was really pleased to see it featuring on a programme on BBC1. The programme is called Countryfile and a metal clay artist called Emma Mitchell was featured, interviewed by Anita Rani. Emma talked about the mental health benefits of getting out into the countryside and getting inspiration from nature and natural surroundings. They picked leaves and other natural materials and used them to make moulds and silver jewellery. It's fantastic that silver clay was featured on TV as it raises awareness of the material. The metal clay world is quite small but I haven't met Emma yet although she is also teaching at the Y ou Can Make It metal clay conference in March so I am looking forward to meeting her there. You can watch the programme here on the BBC iplayer until 6th March 2018 (but only if you're in the UK unfortun...

Ring a month theme for February 2019

I've been overwhelmed by the number of people being inspired by the Ring A Month challenge. At the time of writing, we have 351 members in the Facebook group and 300 followers on Instagram. If you'd like to join in there's still time! Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/makearingamonth/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ringamonth/ I have decided to announce the theme for the coming month a week before the start of the month. This is to give people time to think about their designs, particularly those that are busy and have a lot to fit in. The theme for February 2019 is .... music and lyrics Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how to interpret the theme Be inspired by A song/piece of music you love A specific lyric from a song A style of music e.g. classical, metal, rap, funk etc A musical An instrument/s Music artwork (CD/LP sleeve or music video) A concert you went to (or wish you went to!) A music festival Choose ...

Edinburgh jeweller

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