Metal Matters

Hi Everyone
Another mild day for December and not particularly 'winter like' or Christmassy ! I need to find a few Christmas activities to get my mind in the Christmas 'zone' ! Today, I must get to grips with presents and lists, so perhaps by this evening I will be fully 'Christmased' not sure that's a word but it will do for now.

My new seal for the gold beads didn't arrive yesterday - therefore no development on the gold beads. I did (eventually) decide to make a clasp with some fake gold wire (as a practice). If Im certain about the design and my ability to make it well, I may go for real gold. It seemed very expensive for a prototype to buy real gold wire. I'm going on a metal workshop in Jan/Feb and have high hopes for developing new skills and acquiring good advice on metal matters.

On 'metal' ideas, I did manage a little experiment on some clay work. Ive been wanting to make some little bows in clay which are mimicking metal. I'm a huge fan of an artist called Amy Tavern. Amy has an Etsy shop but it's on holiday at the moment (which is why I can't link the shop here at the moment). However, in her shop she sells a range of metal jewellery like these earrings.



I love these and have been trying to work out how I can make something similar in clay or if it's even possible ? The whole idea is to have a similar item and not the same but I do want the idea of metal to be there. I like to wear smallish earrings myself, large dangly earrings don't usually suit me - so the whole earring will need to be small. Ive decided to try and get the basic shape with a bend and will aim to use a slightly different style of ear hook. Ive used a mix of white and sparkly clay - not sure what the sparkly stuff is called but it has some glitter like mix in it. The shapes Ive made are small and Ive got a bend in the shape. They measure approximately 2.5 cm across and 1.5 cm high. I made a paper template to get my shape from an initial very quick sketch. I tend to use paper templates for most shape cutting in clay.


I'm going to bake the shapes over a folded paper and add paint etc later. I will also change the wire attachment somehow ?
So far, Ive got the clay ready for baking.





The clay mix is quite soft (pre baking) and I'm hoping it will keep its shape. The Amy Tavern design has a wire embedded into the shape (bow) - I have this option ie to embed a wire with additional baking and may try a few different ideas. I'm not sure if I have the time to day but will aim to at least bake these samples.

Must get going.

Bye for today.