Set A Cab A Month - April 2020

Whoo hoo, I've actually made my challenge piece quite early in the month this time (well for me anyway 😉) !!

Viral Joyfulness © Joy Funnell

I'm sure you can guess my inspiration for this piece!!

This is a happy bug!! 

Here's the creation process...

...this is it in a short video if you don't fancy reading my waffle...

...or for the waffley version read on!! 😂

...I started out making a paper template of a sort of a bug/virus type shape. Then I textured clay on one side only and roughly cut out the shape and dried it.

I wanted each spike (yep, that's technical name - I had to look that one up!!! 😂) to have the same texture as the back but also to be imprinted with a little design that I could enamel into later. I decided the easiest way was to add more clay to each one separately. 

I didn't worry about making it very neat at this stage, I just wanted them all to be on. I did them in batches of three and dried in between each batch so there less chance of the whole piece getting too soggy and breaking as I worked.

I chose a nice amber cab to go in the middle. It's 15mm in diameter and has some interesting little inclusions (maybe they are bugs??? 😏). 

Next I refined up all the spikes and made it all neat and tidy 😉

I made a thin disc of clay with the same texture on. Once it was dry and refined I added it into the centre as a base for the amber to sit on. As the amber is nice and transparent you can see the texture through the cab.

I wanted a surround for the cab, and also to neaten up the area where the spikes join the centre,  so I rolled out a snake of clay and placed it onto the edge of the disc...

...and then did some squidging to make a design I liked 😊 I checked how much space I had around the cab and eyeballed for the shrinkage!! 😃 (Turned out I got it spot on too, I was quite amazed!! 😂)

Once that was all nice and dry I made a little cylinder of teflon sheet to sit in the middle. Then I started to create some little snakey bits to be prongs. My plan had been to add one prong from each spike, so nine in total, but as soon as I added two I realised three pairs would look nicer (less work too!!) so I went with that. 

Then I had to VERY carefully add a couple of loops plus my logo onto the back making sure I didn't break the prongs!!! 😮😂

Ta dah!!! Finished and ready for the kiln. 

After firing I polished it to make it all nice and shiny...

...and then enamelled the designs on the spikes in blue/green. Happy colours! 

After enamelling I fused 24k gold foil on the centre using the keum boo method so it would reflect nicely under the amber and add richness to the colour.

 I patinated using Liver of Sulphur to make it dark in the recesses with the texture well defined 😀 This only affects the silver so the gold stayed nice and bright. 

Then I set the amber cab by placing it into position and carefully pressing each prong inwards to hold the cab firmly in place 😊

Here's little video of the finished piece.... 

I like the simplicity of the back....

...but...as you may of noticed (did you?? 😊) all through blog post I haven't actually said what type of jewellery piece this is!!

Why???

Well I was thinking pendant as I was making it, then when I finished it...

...I thought brooch!!!

So I'm debating putting some sort of pin through the back loops instead of attaching a chain...

...I have a couple of ideas, and when I decide I'll update you 😉😂

Meanwhile...

Have Fun!

Joy x

Set A Cab A Month - March 2020

Oops!! Well this is a bit late!!! 😃

Medieval Mystery © Joy Funnell

I did actually finish this pendant for the Set A Cab A Month challenge in March... but only just!!! 

Life got a bit hectic so I only started making my piece at about 4pm on 31st March!! 😉There was no way I was going to fail at making a piece for a challenge that I started! It HAD to be done! 

This meant that the idea I had for my March piece was put on hold (watch this space in April for that one!!) and I went searching for something I could make in one evening!! lol

I found a blank ready made silver pendant that I had left over from the ones I made for teaching my Embellish! workshop at YCMI. I'd made a few extra so everyone could choose which textures they wanted, so that was lucky!! 

I fished out some fine silver bezels cups and the plan was to solder them onto the pendant. I have to say I had no real clue what I was doing with this piece and where it was going. I hadn't even looked to see what cabochons to use!! I was just going for it.

I put some paste solder under each bezel cup and heated the piece to solder them on. I was fairly sure I'd be quite lucky if I managed to solder all the bezel cups on in one go...

...and indeed whilst they all looked like the might of flowed the moment of truth is always after they have been in the pickle!!! 😂

As expected not all the bezel cups were soldered when I tested each one. Interestingly though I was left with a nice pattern as the larger cups were all firmly attached but only two of the smaller ones were. This immediately made me realise I gone a bit mad with bezel cups anyway to start with, so I just re-soldered one more small one on to even up the design.

Then I made some small spirals of fine silver wire and attached them to the pendant. It made a much nicer design that my original one!! 

So...what to add next...GOLD!

Oh yes, everything is better for a bit of gold!! 😀

By now it was running late into the evening as I'd stopped to cook dinner, eat it and watch a bit of TV with hubby!!! Possibly not the best idea but there you go 😂 

I found a small circle punch to cut out some discs of gold foil...

...which I added by heating the silver and burnishing the gold onto the surface using the Keum Boo method. I like adding gold like this onto spirals. Because the surface of the spiral is very uneven as it won't all fuse on so some bits of gold will come away afterwards. I call this distressed keum boo and I've used it quite a bit in the past!! 😉😁

Next was the fun bit - could I find a nice combination of cabochons. Now I will admit to having a slight panic at this point when I couldn't find any nice 8mm round cabs for the centre stone. However eventually I located a bag with a few in including this nice turquoise. To go with that I choose 3 x 6mm vintage red foil backed Swarovski crystals and 3 x 2mm rose cut (with a faceted top) amethyst cabs. With the gold I thought it made a nice rich colour combination 😃

Then I debated holes!! Well why not 😉 I marked them out with a pencil first to check I liked the idea...

...then drilled them.

After that I patinated the whole piece to turn all the silver a nice dark colour and give a good contrast with the gold. 

Finally I polished up the pendant a bit and then set all the cabochons. 

I took a few quick photos and managed to post it into the Set a Cab A Month Facebook group at 23.20!!! 😅 

Phew!

I love the combination of the cabs with gold and darkened silver 😃 

It's the first time I've used rose cut cabs too and they really catch the light and sparkle. I shall look for more of them  😊

Until next time....

Have fun!!!

Joy x

PS watch out for a new blog post on some exciting textures coming VERY soon!!! 😊

Ring a Month 2019 - November

This is my November ring for the Ring a Month Challenge 2019.

The theme for the month was Gemstones.

This is 

Rainbow Doughnuts 😁

Why Doughnuts I hear you ask??

Well I'd bought some super whizzy new moulds for making tiny embellishments and this particular mould makes little open circles. In talking to someone about them they said I could make lots of baby doughnuts!! lol It seemed like a good name to use!!😉

The moulds are made by Cool Tools in the USA (so they are molds and not moulds - lol) and are available here in the UK from Metal Clay Ltd  (at which point they become moulds!!!). 😂

First of all I made a load of little embellishments using Art Clay Silver 999. The clay is pressed into the mould and left to dry. Then the little shapes can be popped out. 

Then I made a flat ring band. As I hadn't really worked out my design in advance I went with a very wide band...

...then I played around with the doughnuts until I found a design I liked. Of course if I had done this part first I could of made the band the right size to start with, but hey, why make life easy 😉

I carefully measured up and worked out that the design should fit quite nicely around the ring so then I started to add the doughnuts to the flat band. I used water to join them...

...and continued around the ring - and it worked out right!! Phew! 😌

Then I started to remove all the excess silver clay...

...working around both edges of the ring first with a scalpel.

I used files and baby wipes to refine the design close to the edges of the doughnuts and neaten it all up. 

Next was choosing which stone colours to use. I LOVE this bit!!! 😊 Should I go with the small stones in differing colour pairs or..

....the same in each pair. I liked this second option better. The stones are 2mm and 4mm and are a mix of lab grown, nano and CZs. They are all fire-able. 

I drilled out the centre of each doughnut and used stone setting burrs to make the seat for each stone.

Arguably I could of made this ring using my usual method of creating stone settings, but I like that each setting is rounded on the top so this does give a different look. 

I set all the stones into place

Lots of different colour combos

all around the band 😊

I was pleased with the end result. 

Turned out it wasn't the easiest ring to photograph though!! lol

So now we have made 11 of the 12 rings for the year long challenge.

Only 1 ring left to go!!!

Have fun!

Joy x

Ring a Month 2019 - September

This is my ring for September.

The theme was 'Finish It'

This is Rainbow Nova 😊

My first question for this month was what shall I finish??? 

I had a good look around and I did have two rings that were unfinished, but as they were both really close to being done I decided I wanted to do something that was more of a challenge! 

Instead I looked around at the various bits and pieces I had and decided to use up some of these discs to make a stone setting to go onto a ring. 

First I played around trying out different designs to go onto a ring band.... 

...and once I had a bit of an idea I started to refine each disc and turn it into a stone setting using drill bits and stone setting burrs.

This is the design and choice of stones I settled on. 

My original plan was to fix the settings directly onto the ring band so I made a wide plain ring....

...then I added a texture and refined the shape up.

Then I had a change of plan!! 😂

I decided to make the stone settings into a separate piece to sit onto the ring band. This was a first for me, a variation on a theme so to speak!! 😉 

I've made lots of this type of setting before but I've never made a curved one to fit onto a ring band, normally I make them flat. 

I adjusted the ring band so the stone setting would sit with the smaller stones sitting out wider than the band, so my very wide band was now much narrower (and I have a nice heap of ready powdered clay for reconstituting!!😂) .

I was really pleased with the result! 

The setting fitted nice and snugly against the ring band.

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OK, advert over - lol

Then I set the stones into their settings as they would all be fired in place. They range from 2mm to 5mm. The green stones are nano and the blue are lab sapphires, the rest are CZs. 

Super pretty rainbow colours!! 🌈

I've tried various methods of firing rings with stones in and my current favourite method is to sit the ring upright supported loosely by ceramic fibre wool. If you use this method be sure to allow room for the shrinkage so don't pack the centre of the ring with wool. As the ring fires there's a bit of distortion from the weight of the stone setting but it's super easy to correct on a ring mandrel. 

I think this one is a keeper!! 

My Rainbow Nova is on my finger sparkling away as I type 😉😊

I have to admit I did make this one with me in mind so I added a nice spirally texture around the ring band!! 

 If you are interested in having a similar ring made for you just let me know!

So we are now 9 rings out of 12 made!! 

The year is flying along. 

Until next time...

Have Fun!!

Joy x

Pazazzy Rings CraftCast Online Workshop