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.

 

 

Springtime Beauty

I often find many of my organic pieces in the spring when they are fresh and new. It is best to work the clay into a paste that matches or is supported by the actual item you want to make. This process takes time, patience and practice! It is almost intuitive when you have to decide just how many layers a piece will take.  Dogwoods are one of my favorite flowers to work with.  This year, instead of picking just one or two larger ones, I went earlier and picked about 9 really strong “baby” ones.  I find that using distilled water and glycerin will thin down the paste really well–but you have to keep it mixed thoroughly.  Also, in these slow economic times, I save all my silver “sawdust” and make paste out it.  This last batch made up about 6 oz which saved me over $180 in supply!  But, it took time and patience to get the consistency right and the paste smooth.  Also, be sure to have the right brushes to really apply the paste in all the nooks and crannies of an organic piece.

This shows you the current collection of dogwoods I am working on.  I paste one to two layers each time I’m in the studio.  You can speed up the drying process by putting on a cup warmer and then paste again.  How many layers?  Well, until you feel that it will be strong enough during firing!  That’s the art part, not the scientific answer.

Here are my lenten roses from our new yard that I thought I would try.  Much larger and the first couple of layers of paste didn’t take well–but I pressed on and kept working it and after you get about 4-5 layers of dried paste, it becomes easier to bulk it up.

I’m still working on these pieces but here is one of the roses that I finished for the last show . . .

I hand torch the organic pieces to control the amount of time and burn and also do some flattening in the process to make sure the finished piece doesn’t have sharp curves or edges–also filing after firing helps in this area.  I don’t drill a hole until it is tumbled after firing to harden the actual metal.  With this rose, I oxidized with coffee and liver of sulfate!  Awesome midnight colors came to surface with a light polish and paired with a black steel hammered chain.

If the organic makes it to the show looking like this . . . well . . springtime beauty is well worth the wait in my opinion!

Welcome to my world of art and jewelry!

I plan to share with those that are interesting about my process and journey as an artist and how I love to design and create interesting and one-of-a-kind pieces.  My goal is to bring joy in all my work and to share what I learn and pass that knowledge on.  I hope you will enjoy being a part of this journey and thanks for being interested!  By the way, this is one of my pieces from last year which proved to me that I simply cannot sketch my designs–my work is very organic and I’ve learned how to keep it that way.  More about my processes in future posts!