What's New

It's been awhile since I've written, have been sick...and absorbed with some new stuff I'm working on.   Thanks to Jenni of Foreverbeading I was inspired to make my Cheshire Cats into beads.  I'm pretty excited about them so far.

I've also been working on some more designs where I incise an image into the moist clay. It gives a stamped appearance but it's an original each time.

 

I started to make another raven today, but it ended up being a dragon.  I try not to fight the process to much because if it didn't want to be a raven, it wasn't going to happen. 

 I think I'll try to do something where I give it a light coating of glaze and stuff most of it in the pressed design. Can't wait until it's dry and bisque fired!

Finished Jewelry, Dove update

I finally got some of my jewelry projects finished, photographed, and listed on Etsy.  I've been working on this since about 8 am, but I'm finally done.  My favorite new pieces are :

 

I'm excited about the raven because it's all free hand.  I just used a bamboo skewer to press the image into the soft clay.  It's a technique that I'm going to work on some more.  If anyone remembers, ravens and crows were some of my favorite subjects with lampworking.  I absolutely love them.  

The dove didn't exactly go as planned, but I still love him. I sculpted him using my male dove, Zeus as a model.  I wanted to raku fire him, so all bets were off when it came to color. The only disappointment with the color was the coral rings around his eyes became a silver too...and I really like the color contrast on the real doves.

The poppy earrings have been laying around for awhile, waiting for me to put them together. I must say what I like best about this listing is the picture I took.  I love the colors in the picture.  It's given me further inspiration for some more beads to make using my aqua raku glaze and my red.  

So far I don't think Zeus and Hera have laid any eggs but I'm keeping their cage in a more secluded part of the house.  They have been working diligently on their nest..it seems their favorite material is strips of index cards. 

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

THE GOOD -So I've been experimenting in the wild world of firing and glazing ceramics.  I've mostly had experience in the sculpting phase so this is uncharted territory.  I've had a few pieces so far that I'm quite pleased with, and I've come up with some techniques that I like.  Most of the pieces in the above pic are pretty much exactly what I was going for...color wise and also the finish is pretty. 

THE BAD-This is what happened when I tried my hand at raku firing.  I'm still in the trouble shooting phase obviously.  I was kind of heartbroken over this because a few of them looked very nice....until their heads cracked off.  I'm beginning to wish I had bought the raku clay after all but at the time I wasn't planning larger sculptures.  I was reading on a raku site where it recommended underfired stoneware clay...which I have about 80 lbs of..so I might see how it holds up to the thermal shock.  I also learned that mostly I'm not painting on my glaze nearly thick enough.  The thicker ones came out better.  Also so far spanish moss produces a nicer effect than pine hamster bedding.  I think I'll try newspaper next time though. 

THE UGLY--Structurally they are sound, yet the colors are pretty ghastly.  Some are from my first raku firing attempt  where I did not use a thick enough application of glaze.  I don't like the color of green on this bird and the other bird is not THAT bad, just rather dark so it's hard to see the detail.  These are the "what not to do beads". 

I've actually managed to have some jewelry quality beads though so that's not bad for just starting out.  My first lampworked beads were very grim so I need to remember that when I'm feeling disheartened.

Bounty of Buttons, Molds in the Making

            I love looking at buttons anyway but it sure is nice when I have a planned use for them.  They really make fantastic molds for clay bead making.  I use buttons pressed into polymer clay to make molds of different sizes.  Now, what's really great is that Joann's (my local craft store), had buttons AND polymer clay 50% off when I went in yesterday.  When I'm choosing buttons for molds I usually have a certain theme in mind, always Celtic at the forefront but also nature, sea life, and I like patterns that have a Moroccan look to them. I was able to find heart shaped Celtic knots, spirals, Claddaugh , sea shells and an adorable pine cone. Most of the designs can be used as a mold....OR I can fashion a polymer clay handle and I have a very nice stamp. I actually prefer the spirals stamped as opposed to molded.  I try to make two of each mold so I can press a ball of clay between the two to make a double sized button.  I also rolled some larger sheets of polymer clay to make a texture pattern.
          So far, my clay beads and pendants made from the molds look very promising. I'm waiting for them to finish drying and also waiting to get my new kiln. At least I know they'll be very dry by the time I fire them, haha.

My Book Wish List and some of my Favorites

These are two books at the very top of my list.  I haven't really done much with metal aside from wire wrapping and I'm always intrigued with beautifully hammered silver jewelry. I adore the earrings on the cover.  Now that I'm getting into ceramic bead making the second book seems like a no-brainer.  I've looked at some of the projects in the book and they involve many techniques I'm anxious to try, especially RAKU!



Now for my faves....I taught myself lampworking from Cindy Jenkins' books. They are very informative and enough to get ANYONE started with this beautiful art form. 





Another favorite book of mine is this informative book by Sherri Haab.  It is full of beautiful (and classy) metal clay projects.  I really love the bracelet made from a tree branch and her artichoke beads.

This Chain Mail Jewelry book is full of beautiful projects and many of the projects are so versatile because they would work well for a man or a woman.  I find the Japanese 4-1 Chain mail bracelet to be absolutely stunning.

Woven Wire Jewelry has projects that look really hard but many are deceptively easy.  Actually my most favorite project in the book "the woven bracelet" is one of the easier ones.  It looks very Celtic and has a lot of ways to customize it.

I'm always on the look out for well written craft books with clear explanations and lots of colorful pictures.  These are all books that I'm very happy to have in my home library.

Mold Making and Hedgehogs

I've been working on making some more molds to use for my raised relief type beads. I've been using polymer clay to take impressions from all kinds of things such as leaves, twigs, and sea urchins. Now I'm working on ideas for frogs and hedgehogs. I love both, especially hedgehogs. I've also made some ceramic clay hedgehogs. Really excited with how they've come out. Should be getting a new kiln in a few weeks so this gives them lots of time to dry out before firing. I just love the color this clay is supposed to fire to...a nice speckled brown. I used to make glass frog beads--so fun to make and each had a different character. I'm really hoping my idea works for making these molds. I could always get a little plastic frog and press it into the polymer clay, but I'm hoping by sculpting the original it will give them more character.

Links

I'm adding some helpful tutorial links that have been inspirational and informative. I'll be adding more as I find them. Every time I pick up a new art form I seem to get the most pleasure learning it through my own research, trial and of course error. I found these most excellent videos on www.Youtube.com by an artist under the name BHClaysmith. They are so well done that you can really see what's going on.

Pics

So I haven't really played with regular clay since about middle school age, which is quite awhile ago! I'm really excited with how these are turning out. I'm using high temp wire for the whiskers but I'll probably either loop the ends or epoxy tiny beads over the ends to make them a little less likely to catch on stuff.