good golly, it's the lovely queen molly!

you know, some people you meet are special, and you know it the minute you meet them. such is queen molly, who asked for her tiara months ago, and only got it last tuesday.  patience and modesty are great  qualities for a queen, and i understand she rules her queendom, with a gentle, but, steely hand.

she wanted her tiara in copper, because of her hair color, and she wanted to wear it or her 35th wedding anniversary. as  'jewelrymaker to the queen,('that would be me) i scurried around, perfecting my skills with copper firing times....and indeed my first set of leaves were a total loss!  i lengthened the firing time and tried again. i used fresh charcoal (coconut) and fresh clay, and included a few pieces of the old clay for test strips.  the new leaves came out fine, and the test strips did not.  my conclusion was that the first clay i used had been stored too long and oxidization had prevented proper sintering.  i will take better care when storing base metal clay, not only keeping it moist, but keeping in the fridge or freezer, to prevent, or slow down the oxidization.

i did some heat patina-ing on this piece...pretty fun, and got some lovely colors!  thanks molly for the opportunity!  how was the anniversary celebration?

candace's creations

i have spent three enjoyable days giving private lessons to a very talented student who wanted to embark on a creative journey using metal clay in her jewelry designs.  we started out with an ambitious project around an existing piece of jewelry, that she brought in because it had weight and interesting textures.  i'm afraid i let us get carried away with the idea it presented even though i didn't know exactly where it would lead us, and i didn't know at the time exactly how flexible was my student.  she was very much up to the task, however, and, although we changed direction many times, due partly to my oversight and partly to some simply failed experiments, we completed some lovely pieces and both learned alot about our creative processes.

we covered a great deal of territory in our three days.....mold-making, casting in a mold, torch firing silver clay, how to use syringe clay in a design, how to make and use oil paste, sanding, finishing, polishing to a miror shine, copper clay, adding silver to copper, soldering and assembly, wirework additions, and earwires.  i'm proud to post candace's creations and her first metal pieces!  you go girl!

dear diary........i've been neglecting you

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

 

my fortieth pair of earrings!!!

hooooooraaaaaay!  forty new pair!  now i can move on to the necklaces and bracelets!  i have about 20 or more pair to upload to the website, and i'll put out an announcement that they are there.  i've moved some things around at the website, and earrings will have their own gallery.  o.k. it's 4:45 AND I'M GOING TO DRINK NOW!  thanks all.

leigh



p.s.  couldn't help it.....here's a couple more!

update on queen kathleen!

kathleen wanted tiny silver oak leaves in her crown.  this looks so lovely in her beautiful red curls!

new stuff

new earrings!  i'm finally getting the pieces and parts put together.  i'm really pleased with the results.  i wish i'd made two of everything, but i didn't.  most are unique. here are a couple of my faves.




these are the first earrings in copper. i love the sheen of this metal. i've finished them not quite flat as they come out of the kiln, just a little bit polished. the triangles are bronze.

these were fun, but i didn't anticipate having to solder the circles together.  i couldn't let them float, though, and i didn't forsee that i would need texture on both sides!


silly me.  love the results, however.  the blue, pink and gold show well.

the silver and gold and red-gold in these look really rich to me.  i am enamored with leaves, if you couldn't tell!

more on the website!

queen kathleen is a five star queen, but i've only given her three....

.....can't have her getting a big head!  five stars is a weighty responsibility.  this tiara was custom made for kathleen and is actually glued instead of soldered.  i've used e 6000 which holds anything to anything.  the silicone is more flexible than solder. but, the big advantage is that i don't have to reheat my beautiful leaves.   they have such lovely patinas, that i hate to change by applying heat.  of course if this solution doesn't work as well as i think it will, all my pieces are lifetime guaanteed!