Thursday 24 February 2011

Bird A Week 8/52 - Fluffy Chicks


Two birdies this week as I made my first bird earrings!

I cut these little chicks out of Art Clay Silver and textured the front with a brass brush before they were fired. I added a texture on the back as well and my Joy logo. The wire is fine silver fired in place to hang them.


I knew I was going to be a bit pushed for time this week to make my challenge entry so I just kept it nice and simple :-)

Here is the bird blog hop so you can see other entries

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Not Totally Bird Brained!!

If you are a regular follower of my blog you would be forgiven for thinking I have made nothing but birds since the start of the year!!

I have been making some other things as well though - honestly :-)

To prove the point here are a couple of rings. I don't normally make large rings like this so this made a change for me. The one above I have called Regal Ring. I bought this large CZ (plus a few others) at the UK Art Clay conference last year with no idea what to do with them. This is my attempt at setting it. Very OTT isn't it!

I set 2mm lab rubies onto the ring  band and one onto the face of the large CZ. My friend Bev has one of these huge stones as well so I can't wait to see what she makes with it.

Here is the back of the ring...

This next ring has a 2mm white CZ in the centre at the front and 3mm CZs around the band. The turquoises are enamel.


So there you go - a blog post without a bird or a bit of ceramic in sight!!

Don't worry though, the next birdie will be here soon....... ;-)


Monday 21 February 2011

Ceramic Fun latest!


Just a quick update on my ongoing ceramic workshops with Anna Keiller.

This week we arrived to see the large table filled with all our work from the first two workshops which had been bisque fired.

I just loved the look of my fern bowl with the white ashy remains of the fern still in place.
We spent time applying underglaze paints and oxides to our pieces. Some of them will then have a glaze applied and be kiln fired again. Some will be smoke fired on the last session of the workshop.

Needless to say I got so wrapped up in the decorating I forgot to take any photos until I was about to leave so quickly snapped these two shots of my pieces drying.


The two ducks were the bits I didn't showed you before! See - more birds on the brain!!

The little white duck has a white glaze and a yellow underglaze beak. My fishy wall plaque is all painted with underglaze paints. Mostly though I really liked the oxides. Anna uses these a lot in her work and I really like the effects. We were using copper, iron, cobalt and manganese.



My five session workshop has a break next week before we smoke fire on 6th March. Next week Anna is running a longer one day wonder workshop. I am enjoying this so much I have signed up for the extra session so I can make a few more pieces.

I have a couple of things in mind to make, will there be any more birds? ..... you will have to wait and see ;-)

Thursday 17 February 2011

Bird A Week 7/52

This weeks bird is a silver circular domed pendant with Enamelled Accents. It measures approx 36mm in diameter.

The bird is actually indented into the surface and filled with black enamel, and then the flowers and leaves are raised.

I decorated the back with a little flower and a blossom texture from Rolling Mill Resource.


For obvious reasons I called this one Blue Garden! ;-)

Here are some more Bird a Week pieces

Monday 14 February 2011

More Ceramic Fun


Yesterday was the third ceramic workshop with Anna Keiller. It was another very enjoyable session.

First we finished off all the pieces we had made in the previous two weeks so they can be bisque fired before next week. Last week I made pieces to add glass fired in place onto. Above is my fishy wall plaque (yes I know I forgot to add any fins!!).....

...and below is another bowl I have made where I am going to experiment with adding some glass onto the bisque fired piece

and the outside of it.


Then we started making objects using coiling. Anna makes lovely fat birds and owls using this technique so I went for my very own fat baby penguin!


He is about six inches tall. I spent the rest of the workshop making him while I got the hang of this technique (who knew I would be rubbish at making the coils of clay for this when I make LOADS of snakes in silver clay these days :-0).

However after a few goes I got to grips with it.

I think I currently have birds on the brain!

Thursday 10 February 2011

Bird A week 6/52 - Biba Birdie


Just the one photo of my little birdie this week as the back looks a lot like the front :-)

I have been working with coiled snakes of silver clay to create work recently I decided to make a bird the same way. It is just 4 snakes of clay and plus the circle for the jump ring to attach to.

When I finished this I thought it had a real sixties feel hence the name. I hope you agree.

Here are some other Bird a Week Challenge blogs

Saturday 5 February 2011

Bird a Week 5/52

My Bird a Week 5/52 piece is a bit of fun ;-) 

It was my second attempt for this week as the first one did not turn out as planned and now a rescue project for another week! So I had to have a rethink on Thursday and came up with this idea. Just beaks and eyes really.

It is made using Art Clay Silver and then wires were added using my Enamelled Accents technique and finally it was enamelled and patinated. It took me longer than planned as all the wire elements are quite tiny and very fiddley!
I don't make many brooches, not sure why really,  but people are always asking for them so this may be the first of many!


I decorated the back with with a few stars set with 1.5mm CZs.

More Bird A week Blog posts are here
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