Set a Cab a Month - January 2020

Eye'll Protect You © Joy Funnell

A new year and a new Challenge!!

Last year I did the Make a Ring a Month challenge and I loved it.

This year I'm doing a Set a Cab a Month challenge. 

I decided to do this as I have loads of cabochons I've accumulated over the years and I seldom make any pieces using them.  😮😉

I posted onto Facebook about it and apparently I was not alone!!! 😂

So I started a Facebook group for the challenge and said did anyone want to join me and amazingly the group is already nearly 350 strong!!!

Yes, there are a lot of hoarders out there just like me!!! Here's just a few of my pretties!!! 

I have to admit this month has been busy and I've very much left making this to the last minute. Today is 31st January and I'm  typing the start of this blog post while the piece is in the kiln firing to save a bit of time later!!! 😁

I did at least have an idea in mind so this today I got cracking. 

I have this beautiful little Ocean Jasper cabochon with a really lovely single orb on it which has been just screaming eyeball at me ever since I got it....which is apparently nearly 5 years ago now I've checked back!! 😆

I made a bezel using wire to go around the stone and then embedded that into some textured clay and cut out an eye shape.

Once it was dry I added a thin snake of wet clay around the bezel ...

...and while it was still wet I textured the clay.

I rolled out two more snakes of clay to go on each side of the eye. 

Here's a little tip for you metal clayers. If you want two snakes to be exactly the same thickness roll them both at the same time 😉

Then I laid the snakes on each side and used a ball headed burnisher to impress some indents. 

I made a little bail to complement the pendant. 

Then I refined everything up and joined the bail, so now it was ready for firing!! :D 

 After firing I polished the piece up. Then I enamelled it, patinated it, re-polished and set the stone!!

PHEW!!

I love the Evil Eye, Lucky Eye, Protective Eye symbolism so I called this piece

Eye'll Protect You 

😉😅

This is the back, with my Joy logo of course!! 😊

All in all I'm happy with it. One of the things I really want to do this year is to combine enamelling with stone setting...

...so that's one down!!!

I'll try not to be so last minute next month!!! 😅

Until then...

Have fun!

Joy x

Craft Fairs 2016

 

This year I have been doing a lot more teaching jewellery making, so a few less fairs!!

 

These are the ones I currently have booked in.

 

On 28th May I will be at the Heathfield Show. This is a wonderful one day event, open from 8am - 5.15pm. I will be in the Craft Marquee.  

 

The other fairs are as follows :-

 

9th July,  10th September, 12th November,  17th December
Saturday Art & Crafts Fair, St Barnabas Church
Sea Road, Bexhill, TN40 1JG

2nd-3rd July
Batemans, Burwash, East Sussex

 

I hope you will come along and say hello - it is always lovely meeting old friends and making new ones :D

 

Have fun!

 

Joy x

10th Anniversary Workshop Offer!!

Whoo hoo!! It's 10 years ago this year that I started up my own business and got totally passionate about all things metal clay!!! 

10 years...and I'm still here!! That has to be worth celebrating - and what the heck - let's spin it out for a whole year :D 

Watch out for fun things to come including GIVEAWAYS, special offers and discounts.

So...to start the ball rolling for January I'm going to offer 10% off workshops. Learning something new is a great way to start the new year!

Of course there has to be some rules* ;)

*Discount applies to 1-2-1 and 2-2-1 workshops at my home base in Hastings, UK only.

*Workshops need to be booked by the end of January 2016 and the actual workshop needs to be completed by the end of March 2016

*LIMITED AVAILABILITY...there are only so many days between now and the end of March!

*Discount is not available on 7 day combined Art Clay L1 and L2 workshop - sorry!
*To take advantage of this offer you have to email me at joy@joyfunnell.co.uk to see if we can find a slot for your workshop. If we can - great - I'll book you in and you get 10% off the price!!

*Can't see the workshop you want on my website? Just ask and I'll tailor make one for what you want to learn.

2016 is going to be an exciting year!

Why not join me for the fun!

Joy x

47/52 Joyful Torii Part 2

Back in September I made this Torii pendant as part of my challenge. You can read all about how I made it in 31/52 Joyful Torii Part 1. 

This is the back of the pendant.

Now for Joyful Torii Part 2!!!

The plan was to try using some glass Filato that I bought in Murano, Venice years and years ago. I always wanted to try doing a bit of micro mosaic, but of course having bought these, there they sat, unused!!! Filato are made from Smalti glass and are long rods that are only 1-2mm wide.  

I've never tried anything like this before - so I will say straight off that I was winging it as I went along!! :D It largely depended on some internet research and a bit of trial and error ;)

First was cutting up the rods into small bits for the pattern. I wanted to stay with something really simple...so I just went with some coloured stripes. I used some sticky stuff on paper so I could work out the design, you can see the pieces being put together on the left in the above photo. 

 Next job was to start gluing all the pieces into the frame. If you've read Part 1 you'll know I wasn't too sure about the overall shape of the frame. As you can see from the photos I went with taking off the two lower side pieces.I like this shape better.

I had already realised that I should of made the frame deeper before I ever got this far, but what the heck, I was going for it anyway :)  I knew it would mean I couldn't really go for the mosaic surface being flush with the frame, but it was all a learning process!!

My cutting of the pieces was quite an inexact science so the top surface wasn't very even, but at least they all fitted in!!

I let the glue cure and then started to file the surface off to make it more even.

The glass filed down quite easily.

Finally I sealed the top surface. The plan here was to use Lisa Pavela's Magic Gloss to give a nice shiny raised finish...however that idea went out the window when I found the new bottle had gone off and set solid :( Apparently it has a shelf life and I'd had mine for years!! 

So instead I just sealed the surface with more Weldbond. Not ideal and I'll probably redo it in time. Anyway here is the finished piece on a chain with a few complementary beads!

It is far from perfect but I learnt loads doing it. I know I need to cut pieces to a much more even size and shape, I probably need to find a different glue, I need to make frames deeper etc etc...but mainly I learnt...I liked doing it!!!

So this is another technique I'll have another go at in the future to see if I can make something much better :D

Have fun!

Joy x

44/59 A Bag of Bling!

 

I buy quite a few stone from a UK company called Diamond CZ. Recently they had a charity auction on eBay that I was delighted to win. It is a variety of mixed stones, some have minor flaws which I was expecting, a lot are very usable!  There are a lot of larger stones and shapes I haven't used before - exciting!!! I was quite surprised when the package arrived as from the photo I had not appreciated the size of the stones - lovely big bling!!!

First thing to do was to test the coloured ones to see if they would fire. I knew the tanzanite blues and greens would mostly likely discolour in an open shelf firing - but I tried a few anyway! Of course they did!! They went brown, but actually at least one of them went a very beautiful pale cognac colour that I shall use :D

My second test was to fire a few in carbon in an oxygen free atmosphere. They held their colour beautifully - yay!! :) I refired the discoloured ones in the carbon too. The tanzanite ones stayed brown but the green did revert back - good to know!!

So I set about trying out a couple of the rectangular stones.

First I made this ring - I've called it Gothic Green.

 

To contrast with the lovely deep green stone I set a couple of lab grown rubies, one on each side...

 

  

...and I added some lovely little sunburst designs all around the band.

 

 I was pleased with the result - and as this one fitted me I've given it a test run for a couple of days! It's nice and comfortable to wear!! ;)

For my second try with the stones I made a little pendant with an attached bail. This one has a nice antique look to it. I've called it Clear Sparkle because...well I'm sure you can work that one out!

 

It's really quite small - and a little different to my usual style I think!

 

I have lots and lots of stones left to use - so I'll be having fun with these in the future!!!

Joy x