My Metal Clay Odyssey
My friend Nic asked me what I had been up to with my artclay work. So here ya go....
For those of you who haven't heard.. I don't do the obvious like get a book or read instructions I just google and chat and only recently took a class on this. It's all been trial and error. Alot of error. Alot of breakages from dropping things on the floor.. Sometimes I can reclaim my mistakes and other times it's just too late, it's a dead dog.
After messing around with silver clay I have branched out into copper and bronze clay. I love the rusticness of the metal. It is quite unpredictable and the anomalies and mistakes can be cool. Silver clay is so expensive so practicing with the cheaper metal clay is so much fun. I say fun... it's like a roller coaster!
These pieces were made with my mistakes...
They were made from "slip" my mistakes were reclaimed back into the form of slip which can be painted on things.
The first one was painted on a form made out of cork clay. The middle one was painted on a ribes leaf. And the third one was painted on a sheet of silicone and built up on both sides.
This is a pin that I made for my husband for our silver wedding anniversary.
I coppied the idea from Hercule Poirot. A special lady friend gave it to him and he was never without it.
It was formed around cork clay. It's a lapel pin and you can put flowers in it.
This was an experiment with firing clay with stones. You can tell I like my jewellery to LOOK handmade...
This is the ring I made while I was in Edinburgh. I bought some Silver clay "SLOW" to try out. It is AWFUL! DO NOT BUY. Had to buy some more clay just so I could get something done that day! I made this simple ring. It was great having one to one tuition from Emma Baird but so much time was lost trying to get the slow clay going!!
This is made out of bronze clay slip.
With these I left some of the fire scale on. I just sanded in places. I have come to the conclusion that cork clay doesn't like to be torch fired. You can see where the bronze has bubbled up a bit on the front and has a teeny crack. Good thing I like this look!!
Moving onto copper...
Now here things get interesting....
I decided to make another bead with copper slip. I thought I'd try out Gary's string technique on it.
Here's the bead before firing and with the string just taken off.
Then out came the torch and instantly as it started to burn the bead began to explode.
I was expecting this but not so deep.
Here are some pics of the glowing clay from initial firing back to cold.
I loved the way the firescale and the colours came out here. I wanted to keep it just like that. The crack was cool too. But my anal me just couldn't let it lie.... I just kept thinking that people would just look at this as a firing failure and as the firescale would drop off anyway I decide to fill in the cracks.
Cracks filled in and refired.
Not sure if this was a good idea or not but here's the end result.
THE END :)
Comment
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Comment by Danielle Evans on March 17, 2013 at 9:16pm -
BTW Holly.. If you click on the top photo to enlarge you will see your two of your bits on my work table. There's my torch and fire brick too. That's all you need to make your copper coins.
This is the sort of thing you will need for your molds... http://www.metalclay.co.uk/categories/Shape%7B47%7DTexture%7B47%7DC...
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Comment by Danielle Evans on March 17, 2013 at 9:00pm
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I wasn't sure if I'd shown you this blog before or not Holly. Yes this is your necklace's life story. I suppose I ought to post a photo of the finished product?
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Comment by Holly Miller on March 17, 2013 at 10:11am -
Danielle, I just realized that this last piece is the bead that is on my necklace !!! BTW....I love this necklace and wear it often ! :)
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Comment by 05ue98hr2bmf9 on November 4, 2012 at 4:05pm -
I think you made a great success out of the flopportunity!! Well Done!
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Comment by Danielle Evans on November 4, 2012 at 4:48am
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Update...
I had a go with the brick kiln. No luck I'm afraid. I blame this on my torch. Not powerful enough.
I had another explosion with a bead. (Gary's string technique done with copper slip painted on a form made out of cork clay then fired)
It popped on the top. The back was fine.
The bead turned into a bezel. So I took this "floppertunity" to make some REAL wearable art.
Made a few variations...
The second one is encaustic with copper wire embedded and the third is embossed metal. The others are acrylic paintings. These minis are 2X2.5cm and pop out so you can change them easily.
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Comment by Palma Rea on October 23, 2012 at 7:29am -
Your pieces cam out wonderful. Would love to try this some day
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Comment by Danielle Evans on August 30, 2012 at 8:30pm
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I've learned alot since making that leaf. Yours was one of the first clay pieces I ever did. I have made one other leaf but it didn't turn out as good as yours because I rushed it and ended up with tiny bubbles. To the untrained eye it just looks like added texture! :) ...(the perils of home made slip!)
I wish I could make something bigger than a 50p coin. This is where Brian's kiln idea may come in handy. I may finally be able to make something bigger in a kiln. Gotta get some bricks now.
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Comment by Diana on August 30, 2012 at 6:47am -
how utterly cool danielle!! i LOVE everything that you did, including the "mistakes!" I'm gonna wear my leaf necklace tomorrow!!!!
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Comment by Danielle Evans on August 26, 2012 at 5:44am
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No time flat?? LOL. I mean... LOL!!!
I work in spurts I'm afraid. Already moved back to painting for the moment. It was so funny how no sooner had I re arranged my workshop for jewellery I got sudden cravings to paint. I wish the room was big enought to accommodate all of my creativeness at the same time.
I also started getting itchy, and had wondered if the new metals were reacting with me. So after staying away from the stuff for a while I am pleased(?) to say I am still scratching so I can go back to using the clay and all of it's wonderful patinating chemicals.
I have to make some more beads to test out the kiln. The cracking mainly happens when the cork is involved , so I am interested in seeing what happens with the cork. After I have made some cork forms then I will paint layers and layers of slip on them so it may take a while.
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Comment by Nicole Umina on August 26, 2012 at 4:54am -
Sorry it took so long for me to comment here Dan, i forgot my LMM pasword lol that's how long i've been away. how awesome Brian! You watch Dan will have a kiln built in the lil studio in no time flat lol I'm still getting my kiln though, it's been promised PROMISED - jumps up and down in joy. bouncie bouncie bouncie!
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HERE ARE 2 LINKS to TWO of my youtube videos talking and demonstrating about this amazing product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIc02QBihJQ&feature=share&list=UUM6N5AOYoyg6eAkbcDWpNFg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zAPZn5TEyM&list=UUM6N5AOYoyg6eAkbcDWpNFg&index=41
So once i have my image printed onto transparency film, I take my Ezscreen silk screen which has been coated in light sensitive emulsion (These sheets come pre-coated so they are ready to use). Place it onto a black board, then place the transparency image on top (this part needs to be done in a dark room with no direct sunlight). I take it outside and expose it for 1 minute and 40 seconds (but time varies depending on time of day and strength of sunlight). After i have exposed the image i place it into a tub of water for around 5 - 8 minutes. Then i rinse the screen out under fast running water until the unexposed area (the black) washes away. I then expose the screen to the sun for a further 20mins to completely harden the light sensitive emulsion.
And this is the completed screen ready for printing. I simply use an old credit card to spread the ink over the screen making sure i do one complete full stroke across the screen (holding the credit card at a 45 degree angle). I immediately wash the screen out under fast flowing water and pat dry. I use fabric screen printing ink which washes out in water (which makes the process easy).
I love this product, their website is http://ezscreenprint.com/ (for full instructions and details on how to purchase this awesome product).
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