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Showing posts from August, 2016

Quick video guide to reconstituting silver clay

Motivation Monday - may your new ideas feel like sunrise

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Advice on applying for a winter craft fair

There’s not a cloud in the sky and there is talk of a heatwave coming and here we are trying to get you thinking of christmas! Unfortunately this is the time to apply for the craft fairs and markets to take advantage of our busiest time of year - christmas. I've been doing some research and here is some advice on choosing a winter craft fair and how to write a successful application. It can feel a bit ridiculous to be thinking about christmas in August but it is now that the winter and christmas fairs, that can be so lucrative, are taking applications. But there are so many, from large craft markets to school fairs so how do you choose which to apply for? How do I find a craft fair in my area? Firstly, have a look at stallfinder which allows you to put in your postcode and search for events in your area. Also keep an eye on the local press and check out any markets that run all year round to see if they are having any special events near christmas. If there is a town

Innovations in jewellery making

When I go to museums and see jewellery that has been found on archaeological digs I am always amazed at how current it looks, how it could have been made today. We still use many techniques that would not have been out of place hundreds of years ago and yet technology has moved on to develop methods that would be incredible to those jewellers from yesteryear. Here I look at some of the key innovations that have taken the craft of jewellery making in new directions Roman gold rings with stones, 3-4 Century AD from the collection at the British Museum 3D printing Examples of 3D printed jewellery from Fathom and Form jewelry 3D printing allows us to use a machine to ‘print’ a 3 dimensional object. This innovation is becoming more utilised in jewellery making in many ways including to make samples and test pieces in resin or plastic to print in wax ready for casting in metal for printing directly in plastic or metal Printing in wax for casting

Motivation Monday - the creative person writes down their ideas

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Enamelling Art Clay 950

I am very fortunate to be one of the early testers for Art Clay 950 , a product currently available for pre-sale from Metal Clay Ltd and launching on 1st September. I wrote about my experiences with it in a previous blog post here . In this post I want to focus on the enamelled pendant that I made. Making the pendant I used a Quick Art template and the Quick Art stylus from Metal Clay. I rolled the stencilled section out at 3 cards thick. It was easy to cut out the stencil using the stylus which has a really fine tip. My previous needle tool made that quite difficult because the needle was thick so it was difficult to get a neat line. I dried and filed the stencilled section. I then added it to a 2 card thick layer of wet clay. Once dried I cleaned the edges with baby wipes to ensure no join was visible. Firing I fired the pendant on an open shelf on vermiculite in the following two part firing schedule Once your piece is completely dry put it on a ki

Motivation Monday - you can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club

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Previewing Art Clay 950 - making and firing

I am very fortunate to be one of the early testers for Art Clay 950 , a product currently available for pre-sale from Metal Clay Ltd and launching on 1st September. I have really enjoyed working with it today. It's so similar to original Art Clay in terms of rolling, texturing and cutting. It take a little longer to dry but I found I had a longer working time too. What is it? This is a new product from Art Clay , one of the two main suppliers of silver clay in the world.  Silver clay is made up of fine silver particles, an organic binder and water. Art Clay 950 is 95% silver and 5% copper. The original Art Clay is a purer silver, 99% silver and 1% copper. What are the benefits? Strength You might be thinking, well the original Art Clay is a purer silver so isn’t that better? The answer, of course, is it depends on what you want! Art Clay 950 is 60% stronger than original Art Clay because of the copper content. This means it is more suitable for making rings,

Motivation Monday - wake up and smell the inspiration

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