Carving in Metal Clay

This week's challenge was to translate a carved design into the top of a ring.  I was inspired by this bright pink 8mm CZ and couldn't resist the temptation to nestle it safely into a lily pad.  The perfect pink floral accent to the top of this piece.  I balled up my clay and squished it into a flat pancake the same height as the CZ.  I poked a hole with a straw and sank the CZ in until the top of the clay surrounded it.  I then cut out my initial shape of the lily pad and let it dry.  Once bone dry, the clay is very easy to carve, especially at this thickness.  I find that small diamond files are the best carving tools in this dry material.  It has a similar feel to plaster carving.  I began with my general design and deeper lines and then carved the more detailed texture, each time lightly scratching or "drawing" in my design before begining to file.  The secret is no pressure.  The tools are sharp and just need to be trusted to do their job.  I added a coil to keep the eye moving around the piece and finished the ring with a liver of sulfur patina to bring out the richness of the texture.

  

On the Road...

Taking the studio on the road this week, I found myself surrounded by some great local artisans at Get Baked Bakery in Windsor Center.  It was a delicious celebration of Art and Spring!  Thanks to all the familiar faces who braved the beautiful weather to stop by and say hi :-)  Looking forward to showing with all these fine artists again!

Tool Tip: Stone Setting Trick

Setting tiny stones can be frustrating at times.  There are great shaped tweezers for picking up pearls or or other larger shaped pieces, but what about a small stone?  I recently saw that companies are now selling "Stone Pickers" to help with this, which is a great solution, but one you really can do for yourself without the extra charge.  Any pointed tool, from a pin tool to a dental tool, with a small ball of wax or even poster putty on the end creates the sticky finger you need to place the stone.  If you are having trouble with it rolling off the tip when you have it in place, a pin tool in the other hand can give it a gentle push into place.

Tool Tip: Taming the Tumbler Shot

Back in December, I posted about using a tumbler to polish up your finished pieces in an article titled:  Tumble & Shine (that post can be read here.)  As the pieces rotate in the tumbler they are surrounded by steel shot and cleaner, this means there is always the chance of that shot getting lodged in open areas, whether it is an enclosed bail or openings in a hollow form.  I'll admit that I'm the first to throw caution to the wind and opt for taking the risk of running an item through the tumbler to see what happens.  I have a series of hollow organic forms that have a lace-like outer-surfaces that always trap the shot.  In these cases I usually end up trying to pick it out with small tools or simply sitting at my bench and shaking and shaking (and sometimes cursing) and then shaking some more until I get them all out.  After seeing my pieces, another jewelry artist asked if I was tumbling them and suggested I try putting pipe cleaners through the openings to block the shot.  Above, you can see they look a little silly, but were well worth the suggestion.  They tumbled for about 3 hours and the pipe cleaners held up fine.  I was suspicious that the one on the right that was full of openings and now surrounded by pipe cleaners might not get much benefit from the tumbler, but I was wrong.  I did intentionally leave the pipe cleaners wide open to allow the shot in and it worked, tumbled up nice and bright.  In the piece on the left the pipe cleaner is run through the bail, twisted to stay in place and then the end was bent in to prevent it from scratching other pieces being tumbled.  In the piece on the right, the ends of the pipe cleaners are forced into the openings and bent into positions to hold themselves in place, I was expecting some to have fallen out by the end of the tumbling, but they were fine.  This was a great tip that should save me a lot of time in the future!

Liver of Sulfur Patina

That great antiqued look that really gives textured metal a sense of depth often comes from a simple (and super quick) patina of Liver of Sulfur.  Liver of Sulfur comes in dry lump form and gel form.  The dry lump form has a shorter shelf life, impacted by light and moisture, though kept in light proof and dry conditions I have had no problem with it working long term.  Below are images of my use of Liver of Sulfur to patina some recent pieces, obviously you should follow the directions that come with the brand you purchase, but you can get an idea of the process and results from the below post.

I tend to use glass bowls when working with different chemicals in order to reduce the potential for reaction and ensure they are able to be cleaned when done.  Remember, once something has been used in the art studio, it should never go back to the kitchen for food use. Liver of Sulfur should be used in a well ventilated area because it stinks (like sulfur).  Either your Liver of Sulfur solution or the metal should be hot in order to improve the reaction.  Depending on how strong you mix the solution, metal in the general area (like rings on the hand mixing the solution) can react to it in the air, so consider removing your own jewelry before you begin.  

I dissolved a small lump (a very small pea-sized piece) of Liver of Sulfur in about a cup of very hot (not boiling) water in a glass dish.  In the dish next to it I had cold water and Baking Soda to serve as a stop-bath.  I ran yarn through the bails to keep my fingers clean, dropped each piece in, it only takes seconds to get a rich black, pulled them out and dropped them in the stop-bath.  Liver of Sulfur has a wonderful range of iridescent blue to deepest black, so if you watch it close you can pull the piece out and stop the reaction at the exact color you are looking for.  After a quick dip in the stop-bath, they are rinsed, dried and ready to be finished.

Above, you can see that the pieces have a rich black patina, so it is time to start bringing back the highlights to show all the depth in the texture.  I prefer to use very fine steel wool to buff the raised areas of the piece.  Below you can see a finished piece with more defined texture and antiqued look.  Remember to follow the recommendations on the package for disposal of Liver of Sulfur solution once you are finished with it.  The best part is that if you are unhappy with it, you can toss the piece back in the tumbler (or go at it with any variety of buffing/sanding tools) and strip the patina off to start again.

                                      

Barrel Bails

I recently spent some time playing with designs for barrel shaped bails that would sit behind and on top of small geometric pendants I had been creating.  They were all part of a small series that I wanted to keep unified, so I needed a versatile design that would fit the varying shapes, while staying visually cohesive.  For these pieces, I began by rolling out a sheet of metal clay 3 cards thick.  I cut it into a long rectangle, wrapped it around a straw I had rubbed with olive oil and sealed it's seam.  I let it stiffen up for just a few minutes before beginning to slice it on the straw.  I held my knife in place and rolled the straw to get an even cut.  I then spaced out each of the pieces and set them to dry in place on the straw.  Once they were bone dry, I gently slid them off and sanded them before attaching them to my dried pendants with slip.  Starting with the longer piece and cutting it apart allowed me to make several pieces at once and vary their sizes to fit the individual pendants they would be attached to.  It was important to cut them on the straw in order for the clay to stay supported and not collapse under the pressure of the knife due to its hollow center.

Whimsical Tree Mural

This week the studio went mobile as I traveled to do a very special mural for a very special little girl.  Working with her parents, we developed a whimsical tree with floating pink leaves to adorn her walls.  This sort of project is not nearly as intimidating as it may seem.  Decal Murals are pretty popular today, but also pricey.  The cost of paint for this project was under $25 and it was completed in one day.  Below you can see the stages of the mural's development.  You can see I started with a simple pencil sketch right on the wall, if you are not comfortable free-handing your image, project it on the wall and trace it.   

Keep the image and the color simple.  The tree trunk is done as a silhouette in brown, this was a huge time saver since I had only one day to complete this piece from start to finish.  I am using latex wall paint for the large brown area and Martha Stewart Pearl Accents Craft Paint for the leaves (the pearl paint has a really lovely shine as it picks up the light).  The larger leaves were done from stencils I cut from manilla folders and dry brushed multiple colors on at the same time.  There was a plan for the larger leaves and then it became more intuitive as I played with where the smaller leaves would float around the closet.  To fill in the rest (and save hours of time), I cut a medium and small leaf out of a sponge (just using scissors) and simply stamped them on the wall.  The finishing touch can be seen in the image on the below right, as that special little girl got put to work and left her own marks among the leaves.