31/52 Joyful Torii - Part 1

OK, this next piece is going to be in split into 2 parts for the challenge! No, I'm not cheating, really! There is quite a lot to it all, and I have used two different things on my challenge list so all is good! :)

Having recently won the Silver Accessories Contest in Japan (yay!) my mind is now turning to all things Japanese. I have booked my flights and will be going to the award ceremony at the end of October! It's all super exciting!!

I decided to make a piece inspired by some of the wonderful images I've been looking at online while trying to organise my trip. I particularly like the shape of all the Torii I keep seeing! (A torii is a traditional Japanese gate which marks the entrance to a sacred space.)

My first challenge was to use a heap of pieces of Art Clay Silver that have been sitting beside my kiln for over 5 years now! You can see them in the top photo. There are a lot of little extruded square profile rods and a little roof shape. The clay has discoloured a lot in places, but dried silver clay seems to keep just fine.

This was a rough idea of what I had in mind. (I keep my designing on the simple side! ;) )

I started out making a square tile of silver clay textured on one side only.

A bit more googling images of Torii and I soon realised the roof need to be much shallower - and the other way up with the wider part at the top! I joined the square rods into pairs to make the various beams and added them to plain side of the flat tile of clay to make a framed area. Then I added the roof at a sloping angle to the top.

Whilst I hadn't done any drawings I knew in my mind that I wanted to extend the beams out each side to give a bit more interest to the piece, so I added the four small pieces onto the edges.

Finally I added a couple of hanging loops and my logo to the back. You can see in the photo below I used up most of the rods. These were the only bits left at the end!

Now the piece was ready for firing. This photo gives you an idea of the scale before firing.

Once it was fired I polished up the silver and added a patina to the piece. Then I photographed it ready to do this blog post...

...and then something interesting happened!

As soon as I uploaded all the photos ready to start blogging and looked at them all I realised that I had gone OTT!!! I looked at the photo higher up this post, the one showing the piece before I added the four small extra bits on the side and thought...actually less is more!!!

So it was off for a quick bit of work in Photoshop to check this out! Here are the three options I have. The piece as it is at the moment on the left, with the bottom two edge pieces removed in the middle and with all four edge pieces removed on the right. Isn't modern technology wonderful!

I can immediately see that it has to be option two or three. In my attempt to add more interest I have lost the look of the gate! The question now is do I go with the middle or right hand side one. I'm quite torn between the two different looks, but I think I will most likely go with the middle one :)

Now you have probably read all this (assuming you have made it this far!) thinking...

 'what about that boring plain bit in the middle?? You've called it a Joyful Torii but there is nothing very Joyful about it!!' 

That will be Part 2 in this saga!!

Next I plan (to try) to add a micro mosaic into the the frame!!! It's on my challenge list! I bought a whole load of smalti filato (now you'll have to google that!! :) ) years ago in Murano, Venice, and have never used them. I have no idea whether I can do this as I haven't tried at all before. I realise already I've made the frame a bit too shallow so that will add extra fun, and I'm not even going to tell you what design I have in mind, it might all change once I get started! lol

So...watch this space for the next instalment - finishing this piece off :)

Meanwhile...

Have fun!

Joy x

10/52 - Mystical Moon Flask

Nearly a fifth of the way through the year already!! Wow the time is going fast.

So this week we are back to the Moon Flasks :) You might recall my very first challenge piece at the start of the year was also a Moon Flask - Chinoiserie Dreaming. Here are the two flasks together. The circular part of each flask is exactly the same size, just two very different looks. It's quite an optical illusion isn't it? :)

For this Moon Flask I've incorporated the stand into the flask, and gone all fancy with the stopper!! :) (I blame Ann Davis for that - I could tell she thought my first stopper was a bit plain, even though she didn't say as much - lol!!)

This flask has a higher neck, and I went really OTT with the stopper! Here is it before firing - tiny!! 

Making it was fun!!

The finished Mystical Moon Flask can be worn either way round as it is enamelled on both sides.

I'm very excited that I will be teaching this as a workshop both in the UK and in the USA this year.

In May I will be at La Ruche Davis, Washington DC, USA and I'll also be teaching a one day Chain Sampler workshop while I'm there. These little flasks make wonderful little perfume bottles, and we will even have a fun extra accessory on that workshop!! ;) 

If you want to know what it is you'd better book and come along!! :D

Have fun!!

Joy x 

9/52 - Midnight Garden

This week my challenge piece is another wand pendant. This one is blue goldstone. It has lots of lovely sparkly bits in it, especially when the sun hits it. Blue goldstone is in fact a man made material, and this wand is nice and round in shape, and super shiny!! It was a real problem to photograph!! I started off on white in the light tent, but not much sparkle! I normally photograph in a tent to avoid reflections, but as the sparkle didn't come up very well I went for some photos in natural light on a dark background as well. You'll have to put up with the reflections on those!! :)

Goldstone was first made in Murano, Venice in the seventeenth century, if you are interested you can read more about it here. I decided some nice glass beads would be the perfect combination to go into the chain and I knew I had some Murano glass beads that might match in well. I'd seen them only recently, but do you think I could find them!! Of course after a while of searching it becomes a challenge in itself! They had to be somewhere, and I wasn't giving up!! 

When I eventually found them they were somewhere I had already looked, not in the sort of bag I thought I was looking for, oh...and they were totally the wrong blue after all that :) Oh well...

In the process of searching though I found a few lampwork beads by Izzy Anderson of Flame and Glass, and they matched in very well. The chain is a mix of handmade links, commercial chain and the aforesaid beads wire-wrapped.

The top of the wand cap has the same design as around the sides, and it is finished with my Joy logo on one side, and three little faux rivets on the other side.

I was pleased that the shrinkage worked out really well on this. At the moment the wand is firmly in place with just a friction fit, but I will remove it to send the piece for hallmarking. I'll add a touch of glue when I refit it for added security.

It was fun to consolidate two of the techniques from my earlier challenge pieces, the wand setting and the beaded chain. I will be doing more faceted wands in the future - they are harder to do than this round one was!! :)

Have fun!

Joy x

PS have you signed up for my newsletter yet? First issue will be out in a while so don't miss it!

8/52 - April Showers

Yes, I know, I'm late with this challenge piece! This could be a long blog post :)

So are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!!

Last weekend I was teaching a one-to-one Art Clay Level 1 Diploma certification workshop (well done Frann Healey on passing!!). The very first piece made is a fairly straight forward textured pendant with a stone set with syringe. The problem with teaching these workshops all the while is what to do with the pieces I make when I demo. Sometimes I don't fire them and reconstitute them, but on this occasion I made the centre piece of this pendant. During the workshop I also made a top piece with a bail on the back, and some raindrops which were attached with chain. The top piece had a little bit of gold added with the keum boo method after firing.

If you are following my challenge this year you'll know I have a list! Well fairly near the top of that list is making necklaces using beading wire and crimp beads. I've never done this!! I have read up on it often, and really struggle to get my head around those daft little crimp tubes being strong enough to hold a necklace together properly to make the piece saleable!! Whenever I have contemplated going that way, I always end up reverting back to wire or chain for necklaces. (Better the devil you know??!). I know the system must work!! There are many amazing artists out there stringing stuff together. My good friend Lynne Glazzard does it, and boy, if there is anyone who would be sure the system worked securely before using it then I know it would be Lynne. If in doubt on the strength of something she'll hit it with a hammer to check first!! ;) She probably added a one ton weight to the end of her first strung piece to check it!! lol

So there was my nice little pendant waiting for a strung necklace. I debated, looked at it, found a load of other things to do, generally procrastinated, and started another challenge piece!! I even photographed the pendant (above) on a ready made necklace and wondered if I could get away with it as my challenge piece!! It is a fairly simple pendant though, where was the challenge in that? 

During the week Frann and I were in email contact after her workshop. I had told her my plan for the piece she saw me make, and she kept asking how it was going!! Yikes, I felt I had to do it!! So today, with the next challenge piece already in the kiln firing, I decided it was time to stop being a wimp and to get on and make a necklace. 

And guess what... these things are soooo much easier if you just start them!! Why hadn't I done this before? It wasn't a difficult thing to do. And now I think I might do a lot more, because I really enjoyed it!!! Ha, ha, ha...you can see why I started this challenge for the year.

I pulled out a load of beads of suitable colours from my large (but mostly untouched!) bead stash. Of course, having never done this before there was a learning curve.

Firstly, I now know I need one of those plastic bead board things. Beads rolling all over the table is not good. I also know that it is not worth crawling around the floor for each seed bead dropped, the hoover can have them!! :D And I know I seriously need to sort out the bead stash!! Too much rummaging through plastic bags.

As I had no sensible way of laying the beads out I just went for it on a design. I did have sufficient forethought to put a matching bead into a dish for every bead I used though. This meant once I added the pendant in the centre the second side was much easier to make replicating the first one. I wouldn't claim it is the most wonderful necklace, but I learnt a lot and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The necklace is really quite sparkly, but I just couldn't manage to capture that in the photos.

I was especially pleased to include the four large flat freshwater pearls. They came from a bag of pearls I bought when we were on holiday in China in 2003!! I've never used any of them before! The mix included real pearls, Swarovski pearls, Swarovski crystals, seed beads and handmade lampwork beads by Laura Sparling.

On the plus side while I was messing around and not getting on with this I started my next challenge piece. It is already fired and now needs finishing, so yay, I'm back up to date again! Next challenge post will be Sunday/Monday time :)

I mentioned earlier that I made this pendant while teaching. I love teaching one-to-one workshops, and Frann did so well on her Level 1 Diploma. She even had time to made a more elaborate brooch based on my mask pendants. We adapted the making techniques to fit the Diploma criteria and I think she made a great job of it!! Here are all the pieces that she made. 

If you are interested in doing a workshop with me do get in touch!! :D

Meanwhile...

...have fun!

Joy x

6/52 Chain Sampler

I had fun making this! It's a conglomeration of various different links I've been working on. I've made it into a sampler as I will be to teaching this as a one day workshop :) Some links are made with just silver wire, some just silver clay and some are a combination of the two. Some are based on links I've used in challenge pieces already this year (can you see there was a cunning plan there???). Here is a photo of some of those chains. I really love the 'coral' beads here (well really it is the more environmentally friendly dyed sea bamboo).

I think I'll be adding to the Sampler Chain as I go along. I already have ideas for more varieties of chain links!

Making chains has really taken me back to revisit my past though. Many moons ago, before I ever encountered metal clay, I used to make enamelled jewellery and handmade chains as a hobby. Chain making can be a repetitive task and does require patience, but I always found it really therapeutic. Soldering lots of silver rings, forming the links, assembling the whole chain - I loved the whole process. The thrill of holding a finished handmade chain is still there!! ;)

I went searching back and found these photos from about 12 years ago of some of the silver chains I used to make.

The challenge now for me is to incorporate metal clay more and more into my chain making, and I'm liking the mix of traditional and modern techniques!

Have fun!

Joy x

5/52 - Esotericness

This week's challenge piece is a rock crystal wand set into a fine silver mount. It has three 2mm lab rubies around the top of the mount and a 3mm lab ruby cabochon in the front.

I bought this crystal wand about 3 years ago and there are some really attractive inclusions in it. As ever I had great plans for it and started to make a mount for it using Art Clay Silver. I soon realised my idea would not work so gave up, and there it sat.

So, of course, the wand went onto my challenge list for this year!! In my mind I decided I was going to use snakes of silver, but would make a plain base first to add them onto. As you can see that all changed once I started creating!! This piece was very much designed on the hoof! :)

In this photo you can see the inclusions quite well. 

I find it all rather fascinating. To my eyes the inclusions appear as a flat pattern, but as you turn it they always look more or less the same. 

Part of the challenge of this was that whilst the wand looks like quite an even cut in the photos it is in fact quite skew-whiff so I had to take care to get the decoration on the mount in the right places. The mount is not a symmetrical shape at all!

I fired the mount and set the wand into it after it was polished and patinated. 

All the while I was making this I felt it had a regal look to it. I really love the medieval period and I think a bit of the essence of that has gotten into this piece. When I posted this onto Facebook a couple of people mentioned the Knights of the Round Table as well :) I'm delighted it has that kind of look to it.

One thing I did learn was that photographing rock crystal is not easy!! I think I took about 80 shots to find the ones that worked. Thank goodness for digital cameras!! :)

The back of the mount has my little Joy logo on it. 

Finally I made a beaten silver ring to hang it from...

...and after taking all the photos and sorting out the ones to use I realised I had forgotten to patinate the ring!!! So there it is, the ring and chain still need a patina to make them look a bit more antique and match the rest of the piece!! 

I will do that before it goes to a new home!!!

Now to think about my next challenge piece. Normally I am already thinking one week ahead, but this week I have not decided, so I'm off to consult that list again!

Have fun!

Joy x

4/52 - Amorness

This week's challenge piece is mainly about technique. I have been playing with trying to set lots of small stones quickly and easily. So far it is working quite well, but I still need to do a bit more testing and refining. The surface of this piece is a mottled texture.

So here is the piece ready to go into the kiln to be fired. It is made using Art Clay Silver and as you can see it is quite small. After firing the heart shape measures about 23mm x 23mm, and overall including the bail piece is about 32mm high.

I polished it up to make it nice and shiny, and then added an enamelled heart the centre using my Enamelled Accents technique. I had debated putting a black heart into the centre, but bright and happy colours won out!!

Finally I added a chain. This chain is made up of sections of commercial sterling silver chain. Another thing on my challenge list* for the year is using up some of the hundreds of beads I have!! Oh yes, in the past I have been an avid collector of beads, but seldom used them!! I do have rather a large stash :) These little transparent beads are made by the wonderful Laura Sparling. I have LOTS of Laura's beads!!! So I worked out how to put them in place onto the chain without using crimp beads to hold them in place. OK...so this is not rocket science, but it is something I haven't been doing before, and I like the result so I plan to do more in the future!! :)

Here is a photo of the back of the piece. I kept it simple with a nice texture, and I didn't really see any place for my JOY logo so I decided not to add it. 

*I don't think I have yet mentioned my challenge list! At the beginning of the year when I decided to undertake this challenge I started writing down techniques and ideas for pieces. The more drawers I looked in the more things I found that I'd bought in the past - always with wonderful intentions for making things!!! - and never used! Don't we all do that??? The list has already grown to over 30 things. Some ideas will be combined and some reused in several pieces over the year - but I really hope to try to get through most of them by December! I'll keep you posted with the progress ;)

Have fun!

Joy x

3/52- Moon Gazer

This weeks challenge piece is a fine silver locket, made using Art Clay Silver. It is enamelled and set with 2mm stones, and also has 24k gold keum boo details. I've called this Moon Gazer.

This is a piece that has been in my mind for a while. On Facebook we have a group called Metal Clay Europe, and we run challenges. The theme of the current challenge is The Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Being one of the admins of the group I am not allowed to enter, but if I was this would be my entry!! :) (BTW if you want to enter the current challenge you have until 31st Jan '15!!!)

The front panel of the locket swings to open...

...and inside are a few hidden gems ;)

It is deep enough to hide something special. At one of the shows I did last year someone suggested my lockets were perfect for keeping a TicTac or two close to hand!! I guess you can keep anything secret in a locket! :)

It is quite small, measuring just 24mm wide by 30 mm high plus the bail.

Finally I added a handmade silver chain. I used to make lots of chains but always left them bright shiny silver. These days I patinate almost everything I make to bring up the textures and make them more pronounced. (Patination is a process of making the piece dark all over, and then polishing back up for the desired effect.) 

It was a logical step to start patinating my chains as well and I am loving the results!

While making this locket I was also working on a new stone setting technique which lets me set stones quickly and easily. I shall be doing more experimenting with that!! 

I realised this week that everything I've made so far this year has been very restrained on the colour palette. When I mentioned that on Facebook several people commented that they liked the results! So you never know, maybe 2015 will be a more colour limited year for me (but I'm sure a few  rainbows will appear sooner or later!!).

Have fun!

Joy x

Happy New Year!

2015 already!!! 

2014 certainly seemed to go by quickly didn't it.

So...a new year, a new challenge.

I've decided to set myself lots of aims for 2015, and this is one of them!

Each week I'll make a new piece and post all about it here on my blog. 

As I wasn't a very good blogger in 2014 I will also be adding blog posts about some things I made last year, and what I am up to.

So... course laid in...ENGAGE!!! ;)

Watch this space!!!

Joy x

Blackbird Locket

 I have often been asked if I make lockets, and while I have made a couple in the past, more recently I haven't.

So I had a good think about what sort of lockets I wanted to make and this is the end result! 

This Blackbird Locket is quite small, the heart shape measure approx 26mm x 20mm. It is made in fine silver and the bird is enamelled (black obviously :) ). The stones are lab garnets and are 2mm in diameter, and then there is a little 24k gold decoration just to finish it all off.

I was quite chuffed with this when I finished it yesterday! :D

 

The back has a sunburst design and my little Joy logo.

 

The front swings open and is held closed by a little magnetic clasp. Inside are a few more 'hidden' garnets.

I'll be making some more little lockets very soon, so watch this space! 

I'll also be teaching this project in the future.

Have fun!

Joy x