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!!! 😊

Set A Cab A Month - February 2020

Shimmering Cloud © Joy Funnell

Fine silver with enamel and an Ethiopian Opal, made using Art Clay Silver. 

Here is my piece for February for the Set A Cab A Month challenge 😊

This was very much a 'designed on the hoof' piece!!! 😂

It started out with a textured bit of clay that I demo-ed in a workshop. Looking at the piece afterwards I decided maybe I could make something more of it 😉

I searched through my stash of cabs and found a lovely oval Ethiopian Opal Cabochon which I've had for several years, and set about thinking what to add next. 

I found a texture with radiating designs that could go behind where I was going to put the stone. 

I thought the easiest thing to do was to make a back plate for the original piece that could be added to it easily once dry. 

The back plate was roughly cut out, then refined after drying....

...and the two pieces of silver clay were joined using just water. 

I used fine silver wire to make the bezel for the opal. This would be added after firing. 

Then I searched through my stash of pre-made bits and found a pair of loops that looked a good fit!! 😁

I joined the loops to the main pendant and set about decorating the back...

...rolling out some tiny snakes to add, plus a little flower motif plus, of course, my Joy logo!! 😉

The it was off to the kiln with it for firing.

After firing I polished the pendant up and then added the bezel for the cab. 

I had originally thought I would solder this on, but I also wanted to enamel the pendant.... so I decided to add the bezel using Art Clay Overlay Silver Paste. This brilliant paste easily joins fired pieces of silver together and was perfect for adding the bail to the surface. It has the added advantage of filling gaps under the edge of the bezel where the texture is, where solder is not so happy to, and doesn't re-flow like solder would each time the piece goes back in the kiln for enamelling 😀

Now I have to say this is not my normal sort of colour palette!!! I went with matching the colours of the super sparkly opal using yellow, green and orange. I was a slightly dubious having not actually tested the combination in advance but it turned out a really lovely combo and matched the opal beautifully (though I say so myself!! lol ) 😃

After enamelling I patinated the pendant, re-polished it, set the opal into the bezel, and thought about what to hang it on. I went with a black satin cord with red transparent glass beads as I thought they set off the bright colours nicely 😀

The opal has a wonderful play of colours in it which is hard to capture in the photos.  

Overall I'm very happy with the piece and I'm enjoying the challenge of actually using some of my cabs!!

Until next time...

...have fun!!

Joy x

Ring a Month 2019 - July

Here's my ring for July.

The theme for the month was Movement.

I started out thinking about some kind of mechanical movement. A spinner ring maybe? Well I make those and teach them anyway so that wasn't going to be much of a challenge. I couldn't think of any other kind of movement that I wanted to try but at the time I was busy making Tiny Critters!! Aha...a ring with some kind of creature that showed movement could be fun to make! 

Then it was a case of what sort of critter. The animal had to be showing movement so I thought of a hare at full stretch with it's ears back. The legs could be attached to the ring shank. 

Now at this point things got a bit more interesting.... as always I started to Google images to give myself ideas for the shape of the creature...and you know what...I couldn't find any hares running full stretch with their ears back! There were loads of statues and paintings in that pose, but in the photos the ears are upright. Now seriously...that was not going to make a very good design for a ring with the ears stuck straight upwards was it!! lol 😂 Can you just imagine!!! 😉

Then I saw a photo of a hare jumping down with it's head raised looking up so that it's ears were more backwards towards the body - perfect. I would apply a little artistic licence as to how far back the ears went (so they touched the body 😉) and I was good to start making😊

In my quest to use up some part made pieces on this challenge I started out with a part made D ring that I'd been making earlier in the month while teaching. 

I got to work with a file adapting the shape and roughing it up a bit.

My little hare needed something to jump off so I made a little log and fixed it to the ring band...

...and then added some grass like texture to the top part of the ring. 

Next I made my little hare. Here he is sort of finished, but I didn't think he was quite right, then I realised I'd made his head a bit too long...

...so I carved it back a bit and reshaped it, then re-carved the nose onto it. This worked much better to me. So I attached him onto the ring 😊

All in all I was very happy with him, BUT to be fair it was not going to be the most practical ring to wear!!! I liked the idea that he could also be admired as an ornament if he wasn't being worn, so I made a little stand. 

It was very simply made from three pieces. I thought the curved legs would echo the shape of the ring shank and the top texture repeats the grass on the ring. 

The ring just sits nicely into the slot...

...and the ring can sit upright or at a slight angle so you can see the hare better. 

I then fired the ring and the stand and finished them off 😊

Now...what to name the ring. I enjoyed making this one so much I decided on

Jumping for Joy

😂

This wasn't the all that easy to get a good photo of, so I decided to make a little video of the ring too :D 

I've really enjoyed this months challenge and can't wait to see what August will bring us!!

Until then...

Have fun!!

Joy x

Ring a Month 2019 - May

 

This is my May ring for the Ring A Month Challenge 2019. 

For May the theme set was

MIXED, which meant using at least two materials in the ring.

I'd been cogitating on this all month, an assortment of ideas going through my mind, and then when I got as far as making it on 30th May I went back to the very first idea I'd had!!! I should of just gone for it at the start of the month!! lol 😊

This month I tried to get back to using up some ready made pieces that I have laying around as this was my personal challenge to myself for the whole year. 

I found a rather iffy looking plain ring band (it was my ring size though - how convenient!! ;) ) and a tiny little textured disc to start off. My plan was to rivet a bead to a ring. Whilst I do riveting I've never riveted a bead onto a ring before so that was a new challenge for me :D I thought a red bead would work and I found a little one made of dyed marble.

Next I made a little disc shaped piece of clay with a radiating texture on one side that the bead would be set into. I dried it on a small former to make a little cup. 

While the cup was drying I refined the ring band and made it look a big more respectable!! Then I wrapped a layer of texture around the plain band. 

When the little cup was dry I carved the edges. 

I also carved the tiny disc of clay into a flower shape, neatened everything up and drilled some holes for the rivet. 

I wanted something to go between the cup and the ring band and found a nice carved little washer already made - perfect!!! 

It would sit under the cup like this. 

I attached the washer to the ring band first...

....and then added the cup using syringe and dried everything well.

I drilled right through the band so the hole would be ready for the rivet after the ring was fired. 

Then it was off to the kiln for firing :D

After firing I made a wire rivet with a tiny head on one end and fitted it so the head was inside the ring band. At this point I was debating a little spacer between the bead and the cup. I started to have a play with options to see what I liked. 

Of course then I also started to change my mind about the red bead. More on that in a minute!!

First I added a bit of gold using the keum boo method to fuse the gold to the silver. 

Then I patinated the ring leaving the inside of the cup bright shiny silver. 

There was a good reason for this!! 

Earlier when playing around with how the ring would look I picked up a transparent amber bead that was laying around - and immediately I knew it just had to be!!! ;) 

The red looked nice....

.... but WOW - the amber bead just totally popped!!! 

This lovely bead is a handmade glass bead made by the super talented Laura Sparling - Beads by Laura :D

All that was left to do was to rivet the bead and little flower into place. 

I prefer to use a ball headed hammer for riveting and I placed the ring onto a little

anvil to support it while gently tapping the trimmed wire down so it blended into the centre of the flower and held everything firmly together. 

And here is the finished ring...

When the light hits the bead the gold reflects through it and the silver shines amber colours around it making it look like the amber is almost liquid at times. It's not easy to show it in the photos very well!!

I think it's a very happy ring 😊

Here's a little video to try to show the effect better...

I've called the ring

Liquid Amber...

...but my good friend Ann Davis says it looks almost like jelly - and I think she's right!! lol

Until next time...

Have fun!!

Joy x