Wood blanks and toggles
June 18th, 2009 | 
Author: 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.
bezel setting on donut rim
All of my lovely gems turned up from www.gemresources.com.. I don’t know how I’m going to wait for October, which is when I travel down to the city and can get some more pieces fired. Can’t fire these ones with a wood clay core with a hand-torch, unfortunately!
Setting the bezels into smalled raised platforms around the ring of the donut, combined with the little “tongues” has given this piece a cross like feel, without it actually being a cross!
4 bezels attached
I also spent some time working with wood clay yesterday. I’ve made some more wooden “blanks” for more donuts. For some reason, the donut shape really appeals to me. I should probably try something a little different to get some variety in my work, but at the moment, I’m just enjoying working around this central theme and getting to know the medium better.
The last blank I made has warped slighty now it’s dry, so I’m drying this batch under a big heavy book.. hopefully this will solve the problem and will result in some straight pieces! I also misted the warped one and put it in under the book as well.. it may flatten out that way and not be a completely lost cause.
wood clay blanks
My stepdaughter came over on Wednesday and really loved the first piece I made. She was quite interested in the gemstones and how the clay worked. I’m thinking of buying her some clay to work with for her birthday. It’s not cheap stuff though.. although I do have a idea of something that might work well as a 13th birthday present for her. A friend of mine saw people in the shopping centre with a kiln and silver clay. You could get your child’s fingerprint embedded in the clay and they would fire it and send it out to you as a pendant. Maybe my Sd would like her own 13 year old fingerprint as a pendant?
Posted in Blog