Sacerdotesse

Archive for June, 2009

There are so many beautiful pieces out and around the web today to feast your eyes on.  I’ve decided to keep yet another scrapbook type file of jewelry I , well.. lust after.  I could spend thousands of dollars on jewellery if I had it!  I love seeing what other people have done with PMC.  So.. every Friday I want to put a couple of featured pieces up from around the place. 

And hey.. I might even show this to my husband as a hint-hint-hint when christmas time comes around! 

Beautiful Keum Boo!

Jennifer Kahn - Silver and Gold Earrings

I finally took some photos of my new donut/ring with the “toggles” attached.. they have pre-formed bezels in them so that I can set a 3mm cab stone there.

After polishing and re-doing the liver of sulphur around 20 times, I’m finally satisfied with the finish I got on my first donut!

Well I tried out LOS (Liver Of Sulfur) today for the first time.  Not particularly impressive results, unfortunately.  The piece looks OK.. but not as colourful as I would have liked.  I may polish it back and try again later at some point.

I’ve also put the toggles on my new donut.  It’s looking good!  I’m a bit worried about it not holding together during firing.. hopefully it won’t slump in the middle which is my biggest concern.  I found a tutorial on firing donuts, holefully I can fire it in this position when th time comes to prevent slumping.

This one started life as a wood clay core.

wood clay cores drying

I then covered the two sides with textured clay and applied a rim to the outer edge.

Under Construction

Then I added the inner ring and the “points” were built up with slip.. inspiration courtesy of the Visby lenses.

points and inner rim added

19/06/2009

I’ve got the bezels applied to the edge, on little “platforms”.

bezel setting on donut rim

This is the first piece I ever made.. I made it in the Metal Clay beginners class I took through Macquarie Community College, run by the marvelous Roz Eberhard-Swan.

Pendant 2

Third times the charm..

Info and photos of this piece under construction are here.

Third times the charm..

Well, after my third go at applying Aura to my first ever pendant, I’m finally happy with it! I fired again last night and burnished it hot. I’m getting much better results by firing in the dark, so I think I’ll continue on with that.

I’ve burned through a few polishing pads in the tries I’ve made..  it’s amazing how much stuff you can use up while you are trying to work out how to get a technique exactly right!

I put the aura 22 on a pendant I had made in my first class.. however I had a problem with it de-laminating from one section of the rim.  I have a theory that it delaminates if it hasn’t been heated up enough so…  I put another layer on.. and overheated it so that the gold disappeared into the silver.  Doh.  I remembered what the lovely May Bartrum had told me about burnishing the gold when it was hot, and burnished it hot after my second attempt.  Like keum boo.. apparently this helps the gold to fuse to the silver underneath better.   I’d love to try my hand at Keum boo sometime!

I think one of the hard things about starting off in any new crafting endeavor is getting the tools together.  There is always something more that you need, want, or simply lust after!

Here is my list of things I’d like to have (in no particular order)

• A kiln
• Donut cutter
• Linda Stiles Smith’s delicious clay cutters
• Agate burnisher (or 3)
• Tumbler
• Rio Grande’s Aegean stamps
• Circular clay cutters
• Clay Extruders
• Linda Kaye Moses fantastic looking Doming plates
• Enameling supplies
• Dockyard/wolf carvers

Today, I messed around with Aura 22 and my new blow torch for the first time. My first round was a bit of a disaster.

I torched the ring I’m working on outside, but this meant that I couldn’t get a good look at the color of the piece and I think I over heated it because all of the gold seemed to disappear into the silver!