Winter Hiatus

My winter hiatus has come a bit early this year, as I didn’t book any shows for the late fall/Christmas season.  Ah well, my choice and now it is the time for updating my skills, continued learning, and participating more actively within my field.  Specifically for me, that is metal clay art.  A new group has organized that makes me very excited.  It’s called the IMPACT Artist Project and here’s their mission statement:

“IMPACT Artist Project–The International Metal Clay Project Advancing Creativity & Talent is a non-profit Metal Clay arts community building and outreach program.  The mission of IMPACT and its philosophy stems from a generous attitude of giving and sharing which is overtly present in the Metal Clay arts community.  We have a developed a “team-like” program where IMPACT members, guilds, teachers, teaching facilities, and business work in conjunction to advance and strengthen the creativity, talent of its artists, and support healthy thriving businesses within our international Metal Clay community.”

What a great beginning to a form of organization and purpose.  I have often found that within the world of art, there are very few (beyond guilds)  standards, guidelines and professional guidance as one would see in a business setting.  I think that artists are underrepresented because they have no unifying voice.  I am thankful that the metal clay community is attempting to change that for our form of art.

I will continue to make this blog about my journey with metal clay and as a show circuit artist.  I love to share and teach and I hope that I will be more diligent is this task.  If you are a fellow metal clay artist, check out the website for IMPACT at http://www.impactartistproject.org and see how you can contribute or benefit from.

I am busy keeping my Etsy shop full for any Christmas shoppers and am also working on some custom pieces for Christmas gifts.  I love the challenge of custom work and hope that what I do pleases everyone involved.

Also, a task I don’t look forward to during winter hiatus, is the continued research and learning about upcoming shows and to schedule for 2016.  It starts early (as in right now) for many of the spring shows and even some fall and winter shows for 2016.

 

 

Mistakes, Art and Learning

Inevitably, working with any media in art you will always make mistakes . . for that matter, we make mistakes whenever we are doing things because we are human.  While some mistakes in my field can be costly (silver clay fired incorrectly, copper didn’t melt, shattered glass in the kiln) it can also be a new direction in the process of the creation.  Just this week, I’ve been trying out some new techniques–adding dichroic glass to my silver work, melding white copper with regular copper and working with sheet metal clay.  So, out of the new techniques I was successful with 2 out of 3.  The melding of the two coppers didn’t go as well as planned.

Both copper clays can be combined and fired simultaneously, which opens up lots of creative ideas.  My shaping and sanding when well, however, I made a rookie mistake–one copper cuff I rolled out too thin–when working with metal clay, it is best to keep your bracelets or cuffs between 5-7 cards thick.  Otherwise, you invite cracks and splits when the firing happens–I lost one of the cuffs due to this very reason.  The second cuff was certainly thick enough however, my design was too deep into the clay and allowed natural cracks after the clay dried which I tried to repair.  Most of the time, I have success by shaping the cuffs before firing.  But, you can also shape the cuff after the firing.  This time I shaped the cuff and discovered that the imprint lines of my design caused cracks.

The good news . . I can still salvage parts of this thicker cuff.  Sawing off the cracks and doing some extra sanding with my dremel will create two new pendents that will display the two types of copper.  Due to my other pieces needing my attention these will wait till later.

Here is another failed attempt at blending coppers.  My mistake here was making the base too thin to support the white copper on top.  While this one didn’t turn into anything, it was still a lesson learned!

Paste, and more Paste, please

Spring has sprung again and that means time for my yearly collection of blossoms and leaves.  Still waiting on my dogwoods to bloom, but have started on some leaves for earrings.  When working with metal clay paste, you have to be sure your organic materials are strong and the ideal size for jewelry.  My collection every year begins with this one simple rule–collect multiple branches and blossoms and then find the right ones to work with back in the studio.  Of course, I work in volume during Spring for the whole collection of my organic pieces for my shows, so I have to make sure I have plenty of paste.

While you can always go the easier route and impress your organics into the clay itself, I find that using the actual organic in the process brings a nicer depth to the piece.  It does require patience and diligence to paste the 20+ layers of metal clay paste but the end results are worth it.

Because of the cost of the silver clay, I have learned to reclaim all my shavings, bits of clay that have hardened and pieces that just didn’t work for me before I fired them.  I keep an ongoing collection of my dust and powder from sanding pieces before firing. That’s some valuable silver in all that dust.  Keep it in a dry, air tight container so that you don’t collect dust and junk flying around our air.  When you have enough (I usually use about 6 oz or more of collected material) then you are ready to begin making the paste.  I always buy the ready made paste for each season and then I keep all the jars to use for my reclaimed paste.  Here’s the process:

Gather together the following tools:

Mortar and Pestle (for grinding and mixing), pallet blade, water, PasteMaker by Sherri Haub, Glycerin, by Cool Tools, empty jars for storing paste, mixing bowl with airtight lid (I use the Glad ware bowls) and your reclaimed dust!

Your material will look like this when you start–lumps and broken clay pieces.

Keep grinding to reduce your material to powder or small particles.  Use a razor blade to help break down the small pieces into even finer pieces.

Once you’ve achieved a fine powder, put in mixing bowl and add several drops of the PasteMaker as well as the Glycerin.  You can certainly use water (distilled) as well, but I find the glycerin makes the paste very smooth.

Keep adding the glycerin, the PasteMaker and/or water to keep developing the powder into clay.  Use lots of motion with your mixing and keep cutting into the paste with your blade.

The mixture will eventually look like this–really work this with your blade–then you’ll see the paste getting better and better!  At this point, develop the paste to the consistency you want to work with–thinner or thicker–all based on the organic you are pasting to make this decision.

Once you’ve worked the paste to your chosen consistency–simply place the paste into your empty containers.  I don’t clean them at all–I just scrape out the leftovers to my powder mix and reclaim it all!

As you can see from the pictures below, I had several types of organic to work with. And plenty of paste to go around. Have fun and feel free to experiment as you now have more material to work with that you already purchased!

Back in Business

Last weekend marked my return to the show circuit after missing out this past Fall season.  I appreciate all the warm prayers and comments regarding my health–I’m slowly on the path to full recovery.  Blessed by my CEO (hubby who Carries Everything Out), I am able to get back to my love for creating fabulous and joyful pieces to wear.  Lots of new ideas coming for the late Spring/Summer collection.  Winter in Georgia has been rough and unpredictable so I’m ready for warmth and sunshine!  Please continue to check my evolving show schedule for 2015.

I would also love to start a gallery of my customers who love their piece.  If you are so inclined, please send me your picture! I meet several of my return customers last week and they shared with me their continued joy of having one of my pieces.  Sometimes, though, because every piece is unique, I forget the exact look or what the piece was.  So, help me out and send me a few pictures.

Here are a couple of ladies from last year:

I will also continue to share some of my knowledge with this blog.  I believe that all artists should share their techniques and methods to inspire future artists.  Also, it’s always fun to see how your piece was fabricated and made special!