so much has happened since my last post i don't know where to start. the 'really big shooo' of the stutz open house went very well. many earrings and necklaces went to new homes. in the process, i learned that i should read all instructions given to me, and instruct my (voluntary) help with same, as we had some discrepencies with the credit card slips, but all that ended up o.k., too. soooooooo some life experiences and some restful days folowed, and i realized that i need to move on to the next project. which was.... a custom order for a microphone pin, for Randy M's neice, graduating in broadcast journalism. hmmmmmm......where to start? how about studying some microphones? i started looking at microphones present and past, and came up with a retro-design that i liked, using the graduate's initials for the call letters of a radio/tv station in the banner over the top of the design. then i played with the engineering of the piece, and decided i needed something behind the microphone to make everything stable, and pull the design together. ah hah! a spotlight?..i like it! i did this experimenting in polimer clay and when i was finished, baked the clay and sanded it very, very smooth, thinking that the light in back needed to be mirror bright, and that effect is much easier to achieve with good preparation from the start.
i made the mold, put in the wet silver clay, and left it in the dehydrater over night. the next day i realized that i should have supervised the drying of the clay as the whole thing had warped and was unusable. drat! i hate rehydrating metal clay! i spritzed the thing with water to start that process going, and started on my pin again with fresh clay. this time i was succesful in producing a good cast from my mold, sanding and finishing as before. this particular silver clay fires longer and shrinks more than the PMC3 silver that i have been using the most. i chose it for the shrinkage as i could sculpt bigger and still have a pin of a suitable size and weight. you never know how all your best laid plans will work out in a finished piece, but the firing went well and after i had spent quite a bit of time polishing the spotlight to a miror shine, it came to me that if everything was polished to the same degree none of the parts would show off to their best advantage. duh....... so i scratched a crosshatch pattern onto the background and the result was just what i wanted, and barely ready for my deadline by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin! such are the highs and the lows of artistic endeavor. as always.......more later......
leigh
