December Four A Month - New Art Clay Silver!

 

My last Four A Month of the Year!!!

 

This month I was fortunate enough to be asked to test out the new formula of Art Clay Silver so all four of my pieces are made using the new clay.

 

Verdict? - I LOVE it!!

 

It is lovely to use and really does seem to combine the best qualities of all the existing formulas and then some.

 

It works very well with baby wipes (those who know me will know that was always going to be a BIG concern for me - I would be lost without my baby wipes!!) - and of course - my other great concern - it enamels beautifully!!

 

 

 

This pendant above is called Renaissance....

 

... this one is called Tartanicity (for obvious reasons!)...

 

... this one is called Swirling Rainbow Ring (and I will be teaching Enamelled Rings like this very soon!) ...

 

... and finally Oriental Pagoda.

 

I have had a lot of fun playing with the samples of the new Art Clay Silver, it has a much longer working time and will be great for teaching with.

 

Many thanks go to www.metalclay.co.uk and www.GeorgeWeil.com for letting me test out samples of the new formula of Art Clay Silver before the release date on 1st January 2013.

 

I will be doing a round up of all my entries for the Four A Month Challenge early in the new year. It has been a fun year completing my two challenges and I am looking forward to my new Weekly Critter Challenge for 2013 :)

 

Joy x

My Challenge for 2013...

 

It is that time of year again when I am thinking about challenges for the coming year.

 

In 2011 I took part in my first challenge. It was the Bird a Week Challenge and I have to say I really enjoyed it. From having never really made any birds I really got into them by the end of the year. So much so, in fact, that for 2012 I could not quite let them go and continued with a Bird a Month 2012.

 

Having got the hang of making a piece each week (although I would admit at times it was hard), I felt I needed more than one piece a month for 2012 so I also took on the Four a Month Challenge. That meant every month I was making 5 pieces. OK at times I was behind but now I only have my December ones to finish and I will have completed both challenges!!

 

On balance though, I preferred 2011 and the weekly challenge. Making monthly pieces allowed me to procrastinate more, and leave things to the last minute. Of course on the weekly challenge I also got behind at times, but overall, for me, it was much more of a challenge.

 

So... enough of the waffling... I am sure you can see where this is going!

 

For 2013 I am going back to a weekly challenge. I think I am fairly birded out so I have decided on critters!!

 

Now I am already gathering not everyones' definition of a critter is the same as mine, so let me clarify what mine is!! To me a critter is a creature. And any type of creature is fine :)

 

Looking back though my work I actually found very few pieces with any kind of creature other than a bird (what a surprise!). These are five pieces I did find, and possibly they are a taste of what might be in store for the year - or maybe not ;-) 

 

Above is a pair of guinea pig earrings and below is my tree frog... 

 

then of course there was my fluffy sheep...

 

 

and there just HAD to be something rainbow, a seahorse...

 

and finally a pair of piggy earrings.

 

So my challenge for 2013 is the.......

 

WEEKLY CRITTER CHALLENGE

 

other wise know as WCC :)

(no abbreviating please! - we don't want to lose one of those Cs -lol)

 

If anyone wants to join me they are more than welcome, or I shall happily go along on my own if not ;-)

 

Here are the rules I have set :-

 

1. Make one piece every week and post a photo of it here (and everywhere else of course!)
2. The theme is critters - any type of creature or anything relating to one counts
3. Any medium
4. It must be created by you.
5. Join in for as many weeks as you want to, but the real challenge is to see if you can make 52 entries by making one and posting one each week (and no getting ahead!).

 

So watch this blog and my Facebook page for weekly updates and expect an assortment of critters in 2013!!!

 

Joy x

 

 

November Four a Month (again!)

 

At last I can upload photos again!! So here is my Four A Month for November. These are four tiny stone set pendants. The cabochon stone in each one is 8mm in diameter. They are all made in fine silver using Art Clay Silver.

 

The one above has a garnet...

 

 

..this one is a goldstone, and below is a matrix turquoise...

 

 

...then an amethyst below...

 

... and finally all four pendants together.

 

These are now in my Etsy shop although the garnet cross is already sold.

 

Tomorrow I will be at St Barnabas in Bexhill, East Sussex for my last fair of the year.

 

It is a lovely friendly venue :) Maybe I will see you there?

 

Have fun

 

Joy x

October Four A Month - Colourful Rings

 

I've made it (well almost!). This is the last of my late challenge pieces.

 

Colourful Rings! - my Four A Month for October.

 

These four rings are all fine silver made using Art Clay Silver. The first three have the stone fired in place. The one above is called Pink Diamond.

 

Below is Green Sunshine.

 

 

The next one is called Purple Dots. It has a slightly different construction method to the other two, which are made using my Ritzy Rings technique.

 

And finally this one is called Rustic Red Too. This has the same construction technique as the previous ring but the stone is set after firing. This gorgeous red CZ is a stone I brought home from my Japan trip a couple of years ago. You may remember I made me a ring called Rustic Red earlier this year using one of these stone but then sold it straight away :( I blooged about it back in July.

 

This one I really do plan to keep for me! It is on my finger now as I type...

 

 

... and to show it really is mine I put my name on the outside at the back of the band. That could be really handy if I forget who I am... ;-)

 

 

Here are all four ring together.

 

Now I just have to finish this months challenges and I am totally up to date.

 

I guess I will need a good finale for my December pieces - time to get thinking!!

 

Have fun :)

 

Joy x

July Four A Month - Bronze Rings, but nearly Silver!

My Four A Month Challenge pieces for July are rings!! Bronze rings to be precise - BUT they very nearly were silver rings :)

In my last blog post you will recall I showed you a stack of lovely shiny silver rings all made in fine silver using Art Clay Silver and I had planned to make four of those my FAM. However, I have also been doing a bit more experimenting and testing with the new Goldie Bronze clay and I wanted to see if I could make my usual styles of rings using that. 

DON'T PANIC - Art Clay Silver is, and I suspect always will be my absolute favourite, but with the cost of silver as high as it is, it makes a nice change to have a play with something else and expand the repertoire a little.

So these are the four rings I liked best out of the ones I made.

Stone Set Snake Ring, this has an embedded bronze prong setting to hold the stone in it which worked very well.

Sunburst Ring, a nice solid chunky ring, more suited to a man I think. I have not made many square rings but I really like the style. The design was carved in the clay state.

Spiral Ring, the texture around the band on this one is a texture I created using Scratch Foam. For more information on creating those textures have a look at this tutorial by Wanaree Tanner.

Last of the four is Stoneburst Ring. I really like this design. The textures on this are made using Rolling Mill Resource textures, and again it has an embedded bronze prong setting.

In case you are more of a silver lover here is my photo of the four rings that were going to be the Four a Month.

The ring below is called Rustic Red, and was my most favourite ring I have ever made! I was definitely going to keep it for me. The red stone is one I brought back from my trip to Japan in 2010. Luckily I brought four of these stones back because I wore this ring to the next fair I went to and sold it off my finger!

The raised setting for the stone had a lovely rustic look to it...

...with a finish that looked like it had been hammered, and the pattern around the band was made using a Rolling Mill Resource texture...

...and the stone was the most gorgeous red and sparkled beautifully.

Yep, that really was my all time favourite, but as my husband always say - no problem - just make another.

I think I will do just that ;-)

Phew that was a long post - well done and thank you if you made it this far!

March Challenges - Bird a Month and Four A Month

As I am rather behind on my challenges I have doubled up one piece so this is my Bird A Month and my fourth item for my Four A Month.

The piece above is a fine silver pin made using Art Clay Silver with enamel. It is called Blackbird and Sakura. My inspiration came partly from a song my good friends Lynne Glazzard's father, Jim Glazzard. Not surprisingly the song is called Blackbird :)

You can listen to it here.

The theme for my March For A month was flower pins. They are all fine silver and enamel. I started off with a purple flower ...

then a Blue Flower...

then I made the Mothers Day Flower Pin ....

and finally the Blackbird and Sakura. So here are my Four a Month for March altogether.

I have enjoyed making pins and will do more of them. I think I prefer them to brooches.

If you would like to learn how to enamel check out my workshops. May is Enamel Fusion month and you can read about enamelling workshops being run around the UK on the Guild of Enamellers website.

Getting Back on Track!

I bet you have been wondering if I had fallen off the face of the earth it is so long since I posted! 

Sometimes thing just don't turn out as planned and an unexpected family health problem meant I have been rushing around and not getting my paws on the silver clay stuff :(

Anyway things are starting to settle down now so I shall be on catch up.

First in line is finishing my March Bird a Month and Four a Month. 

Watch this space... ;-)

Four a Month -1- Have a Heart

You may recall at the beginning of the year I said I was going to undertake two particular challenges.

 One was my Bird a Month, and thank you to all those who have posted photos so far. Even if you have not there is no time like the present to start!

The other was the Four A Month Challenge. Here are my first four pieces for that challenge and they are (as I am sure you will notice!) all hearts!

All four pieces are fine silver made using Art Clay Silver. The earrings above have lovely red Enamelled Accents hearts.

I made this one with a fine silver snake shaped into a heart.

These have lab rubies fired in place in the fine silver, and finally..... my favourite of the four. A fine silver heart with an enamelled scroll design below.

I really enjoyed making all of these and in fact they have gone off to a shop in London for sale.

So now it is February and time to start the challenges again :)

2012 Challenges!

It is the last day of 2011 so it is time to tell you about my challenges for 2012.

I know from the emails and comments I get that a lot of people have enjoyed the Bird a Week challenge, me included!,  so I have decided to carry this forward and make it into a......

 Bird a Month Challenge

I would love as many people as possible to join me in this challenge.

It does not matter whether creating is your living or your hobby or even if you have never done anything creative before. It can be in any medium (I may experiment a bit myself!), just create one bird every month and post it into the Bird a Month flickr album I have started. Pop over there now and join the group. I do hope you will join me for the year.

I have also signed up for a second challenge for 2012. Lora Hart has started a Four a Month challenge which I think sounds great fun.

The wonderful thing about challenges is that they are personal to you. There are no prizes, it is just for the pleasure of saying, yes, why not, I can stretch myself a bit and do that. The satisfaction of finishing is immense, believe me. You can combine challenges together, make things that you are going to sell or give away, or just for your own pleasure.  There are no real rules.

So make that decision today and please join me. You never know where it will lead to! ;-)

Happy New Year

Joy xx

PS The two photos are things I made as presents before Christmas, I just thought I would sneak an extra bird into the year and I hope you like the cute guinea pig earrings!