Art Clay Copper Now For Sale

Good News!
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I now have Art Clay Copper for sale in my ebay shop ArtClayUK. Unlike previous Copper clays this does not need a stainless steel pan and charcoal to fire it. It fires at 970c on the open shelf in a kiln. Once fired you quench it in cold water straight from the kiln. This removes most of the black firescale. Use jewellers pickle to remove any black remaining.
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You can make items just in copper like the mask above or combine them with Art Clay Silver like the pendant below.
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To combine them you make your copper pieces first and fire them. Copper and Silver will not fuse together so you need to capture the copper with the silver. In the little pendant pictured below the silver goes through the centre of the copper and captures the copper petals in place. I have set a little cz into the silver as well. Which brings me to another point. If you are going to use any heat sensitive parts in your piece (like the ruby cz) DON'T quench in cold water after adding the silver or you will shatter your stone. Remove the fired piece from the kiln and just cover with a piece of ceramic fibre and leave to cool. You will find quite a lot of the firescale will ping off as it cools (hence covering the piece!) and you can pickle it once cool to remove any that remains.
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The packs of Copper Clay come with an information sheet in English. The cost is £15.25 for 50g so if you have a large project in mind which was going to cost too much in silver why not give it a go in copper and have a play :)

Snow and Teaching don't mix!

I started teaching a Level One Art Clay workshop on Sunday which was supposed to finish today but the weather just did not want to play ball. We worked late to complete the projects yesterday and just as well because today we have a very pretty covering of snow everywhere! Lovely but not very travel friendly!!

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Well done Paula. I am afraid I made her work really hard to get finished but we got there! :)

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Sorry about the picture here but I forgot to take any until the light was a bit dull!! :)

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If you would like to take a one to one workshop just email me for details or see my website.

Guild of Enamellers Conference

If you are into enamelling and you are a member of the Guild of Enamellers then you should of received your latest journal with all the info about the annual conference. This year it is in Nottingham from April 9th-11th. The conference always books up fast so don't forget to send your booking back ASAP! This year it is going to be a great conference with a terrific line up of workshops and even includes an Art Clay Master who is flying in from Japan for the conference. He will be running a workshop on enamelling with Art Clay silver as well as giving the Masterclass. How exciting is that!

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If you don't already belong join quick on the website and then contact the conference secretary!

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The photo above? If you have not seen it before that is my infamous mask which was one of my pieces I entered at last years conference for selection when I became a Craftsman of the Guild of Enamellers :) Any excuse eh :))))

A Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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I hope you all had a good Christmas. I have to admit our family Christmas ended as a bit of a disaster what with my husband, my Mum and myself all getting a dreadful cold/chest infection thing which knocked us all out at various times over the festivities so most of it just got abandoned. Anyway we are all on the road to recovery now.

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So did you make any New Year Resolutions? I have sort of promised myself to blog more often but also to spend less time on the computer if I can. I realise those two do not go together too well but we will see how it goes :0

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One thing I never got as far as posting in December was that I won a blog competition!! How great is that. The wonderful Nicola Callow ran it on her blog PMC Tips and it was for the fab book pictured above. It has so many interesting ideas in it and is even autographed by Robert Dancik himself. Wonderful. I have put a link to the book on Amazon on the right hand side of my blog if you want to see some more info about it.

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If you do not currently follow Nicola's two excellent blogs you really should head over and have a look at them. The second blog is Murano Silver. Her work is great and she is always blogging good tips as well.

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Oh one last thing, in case you were wondering where that photo of my favourite set I made before Christmas is. With being ill I never got a chance to photograph it but I will be able to soon as it was a set my Dad asked me to make that he gave to my Mum, so watch this space :)

Seasons Greetings to you All

I was trying to find an appropriate picture to put up with my Seasonal Greetings so here is a photo of the Angel pendant I made for my Mum last Christmas. I have been busy making some commissions in the run up to Christmas and will post my favourite set on here next week.

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Happy Christmas to you all, may be it a peaceful and joyful time.

Joy x

Last Craft Fair Today

You have probably been wondering where I have been. Can't believe it is so long since I last posted. Things have been really busy. It is great how many people are making their own Christmas presents this year and the Art Clay has been flying out of my ebay shop ArtClayUK. I've been busy packing parcels and getting them posted out to you as quick as I can!!

Today is my last craft fair for this year. I am in the historic and pretty Battle in East Sussex for the Gala Night. Wealden Craftworkers are in the Memorial Hall from 4pm until 8.30pm. It is a lovely evening with all the shops taking part and people dressing up and offering goodies so if you are still in need of a few Christmas presents why not pop along.

Calling all Metal Clay Enthusiasts....

The Metal Clay Academy is conducting a survey all about Metal Clay. If you are using any type of metal clay then please click on the link on the right hand side (directly under my hamster!) to read all about the survey and to take part. The survey is completely anonymous but your answers really will count!!! The survey is open for all of December.

Thanks