What a beautiful morning! After weeks and weeks of rain, we are finally having some summer weather. We deserve it! Our Fourth of July here was very quiet, but I think we all needed some time to rest and relax. Twelve hour days at work will take a toll!
I wanted to tell you about what I am working on today - besides the Larimar pendant, of course. I am dabbling in precious metal clays, and at the moment I am making some bronze pendants that I will be adding to handmade bronze chains. I wasn't very interested in alternative metals at first, but I am coming around to bronze and brass and copper. If nothing else, it is an economical alternative to silver and gold. I like the look of it, and it appeals to my nonconformist side. Who says jewelry always has to be silver or gold, anyway?
In any case, I am only just learning to work with the clay, and am finding my own way with a little guidance from some excellent books, and information on the web. The first thing I noticed about the bronze clay is that it is very sticky and messy to work with. Take a look at the photos of my work space - the clay gets on everything, and is a little hard to clean off. It also has a longer firing time than the silver clay, but I am very excited about firing these which I will probably do tomorrow. I used gloves this morning to work with the clay, and that has saved a lot of clean up time, even though it was a little awkward. I am letting the pendants air dry before firing. That is the worst part of metal clay - I have to wait to see how it will come out!
No comments:
Post a Comment