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

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