21/52 Cornflower Demo-ing

 OK, so these are not the most complicated metal clay pieces in the world!! :)

The challenge here was doing a 30 minute demo from start to finish. I do quite a few talk/demos about silver clay. There is one particular group that I have been back to several times (they seem to like me!!). Recently I was due back for my sixth talk (this is over several years of course). I have done a different demo each time, including making a small cross, an angel, and an enamelled earrings demo. I was struggling to find something new to show them this time in the very short space of time they allot for the talk.

At the time our garden was full of cornflowers (very pretty and shows a lack of weeding on my part!!). I decided on a cornflower pendant.

So in the space of 30 mins I made a mould from a fresh flower, let it set, made a pendant using Art Clay Silver with a 2mm lab sapphire set into it, dried it and torch fired it. It is so much fun to be able to show people just what you can do with silver clay. I nearly came a cropper this time though as I am used to quenching pieces on a demo, and only just remembered not to at the last minute as I had added a stone!!!

Of course my photo at the top of this post is a bit of a cheat as I didn't enamel or patinate the pendants on the demo, that came later :) 

Not too sure which I like best, with or without colour. What do you think?

Why two of them? Well I did a quick test run in the morning before the demo to make sure it was going to work ;)

Now the same group have already asked me back for next year. What I will come up with next time??

Have fun!

Joy

Christmas is coming!

So... what is on your wish list for Christmas?

 

If you are into metal clay and are thinking of buying an online workshop now is the time!

 

CraftArtEdu have a 25% discount on one class of your choice if you buy it by 30th November!!

 

There are lots of great classes on there. You will find two workshops by me, my Ritzy Rings and Retro Circles Chain with variations as well as other metal clay workshops by Gordon Uyehara and Lorena Angulo!! 

 

My Ritzy Rings is a great technique for making lovely strong rings, and I have my very own Retro Circles, an easily mastered chain making technique which can be used for chains, bracelets, earring and pendants.

 

Check out the workshop previews now!!

 

Don't miss out on this great offer :)

Joy x

 



September Four A Month - Colourful Carnival Masks

 

Here are my Four A Month Challenge pieces for September. Four Colourful Carnival Mask pendants. They are all made in fine silver using Art Clay Silver and have Enamelled Accents. I have already posted two of these masks before, but my intention was always to make four new masks for a FAM entry so here they all are.

 

I am really enjoying making these masks now. They have come a long journey since the first one  I made (that I still use on my website, cards etc) back in 2009.

 

The first of the four is my little alien mask. OK, so maybe not so much of a traditional carnival mask but he is fun! I called him VMA - why? Well - because he is a Venetian Mask Alien!! :)

 

This little fella didn't hang around long and zoomed off to a new home on his first outing to a craft fair! I think I shall make more little aliens!

 

The next one I have called Cosmic Rainbow as she also seems to have something a little space age about her to me, but someone else who saw her could see a sort of 1920s flapper style in her. That is what I so love about this type of jewellery - we all see different things in it!

 

 

The next two masks I have blogged about before so I will just remind you of their names and you can look back on the blog if you want to read more about them.

 

This one is Japanese Mystery...

 

 

... and this one is Arcbaleno all Moda.

 

 

I shall be teaching a workshop on making these masks in June next year up in the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors.

 

I have also just taught this for the first time to two wonderful students and I shall be posting photos of the masks they made really soon!!

 

Have fun!

 

Joy x

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 :)

Fusing Fun

Phew, well here are the results of a couple of glass fusing days. The ones above will be made into earrings and pendants and the ones below are going to be brooches. I love dichroic glass. It is soooo colourful but such a pain to photograph. This lot look miles better than in the pictures. They are sparkley gorgeous. I will not even be listing these on my website until after the craft fairs over the next two weekends as they are always so popular and sell really quickly. I am just finishing off some Art Clay silver pieces I made as well so will be posting a picture of those soon. Don't forget to come and say hi if you are near any of the fairs I am at. (see earlier post)