Happy Saturday!

Thursday was my first day attending Hadar's metal clay workshop. I'm loving it so far! I tried another one of her Collage of Texture pendants and this time got to use both bronze and copper. Here's a picture of the finished result:

The bail had been longer than is is now, but the right side of it had a huge dip in the side that needed to be taken out, which also meant shortening the other side...so it's got a smaller bail than intended.

I'm working on some heart earrings that will be movable, and a pendant made from bronze and filled with a copper design next.

I got to talk to Hadar about my previous firing issues, and she thinks that it's complications with heat circulation (I have a larger pan), and that the carbon may be bad. So some time in the future I'm going to try replacing these and re-running test pieces to see if there's a difference.

This was my first time ever going to Berkeley. It's a neat little town. Oh and sorry to my friends who expected silly hippy pictures, there were none along the way...but LovEvolution (seriously, when are they gonna find a name that works?) will more than likely have it's share of them!

Excited!

Just a short post today. I signed up for classes with Hadar Jacobson, and tomorrow is my first day! I'll post an update tomorrow on what we're learning, and maybe some early pictures!

All I can say is I'm really excited!

No Luck Yet

Hmm, well on Saturday I gave the other firing time a try. I knew as soon as I pulled the pieces out and held them that they were not sintered; they were so weightless. I did some dissecting on them anyways, and I do have a few theories. My first possible theory is that they were not dry enough before I fired them. I usually use a hot plate or a hair dryer to dry my metal clay pieces, but I did not use any heat source and I just let them dry over time. Even though they seemed dry.

I feel like I'm back in grade school, doing science labs with this stuff, lol! 'Measure, record, record, record....'








Although they did not turn out right, I wanted to show you guys the colors that did appear! You can see some of the problems with the pendants in the pictures...look at how much the floral one in the middle of the top picture had warped in shape. Oh and hey in the corner of the last photo you can see some of the unsintered 'dust' that fell out of some of the pieces. Oh well, back to the firing board! :P

Today I am cleaning my desk area, it's such a wreck. I know there's a desk under it somewhere!

More Copper!

I've been busy making more copper pieces to fire. My poor leaf ring has had way too much damage to salvage. I'm glad the little wyvern coins turned out at least!

So here's a picture of my next round of greenware, which I will fire tomorrow. I think I am going to give Hadar's firing time a try this round. The last time I fired the copper I had used the time recommended from the pamphlet that comes with the clay.


About the pieces:
The top two were created from using Dynasty Stamps. The cross was originally flat. The design itself had been completely dried, and I had added another layer to the bottom of it to make it thicker. I went out to a quick lunch and came home to a cross that had curled upwards! I loved the way it warped though, it gives it more depth. The rest of my pendants after that though were weighed down with my thickness plates to keep them from warping as they dried.

The second row has another ring to try firing without leaves. The third pendant in the row is one of those sandwich pendants (is there a name for them? My hubby called it a 'sandwich' so sammich it is!). I used a leaf I picked as the imprint.

I am not fond of the first pendant in the third row...it's a hideous mess! I wanted to try out my new pillow and bail templates, and I just threw together something I could try them with while being able to test the clay. I made a mold from a sliced shell a while back, and that's what that 'peace sign' looking thing is in the corner. We'll see how it looks fired...lol...

The last two are favorites. I recently got Hadar's clay books, and I wanted to give one of the project a try, so the patchwork one is my attempt. The last pendant in the third row is from a floral texture sheet.

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I didn't want to go overboard with how long it took to make things this time in case I had another fail. The surprise for me is that I actually found that by doing that, I challenged myself more...I tried things I normally wouldn't (and probably shouldn't again! lol).