Book Review: Pure Silver Metal Clay Beads

by Linda Kaye-Moses. This book is just out, and I received my copy today. Although I was offered a discount from some of the metal clay organizations, I found the best price at Amazon (surprise, surpise). First impression: nice color photos of the beads and projects, some cool looking beads along with some unique (perhaps odd, but that's not a bad thing!) ones. Stay tuned for a more complete opinion when I've had a chance to read it over.

That's enough to inspire me!

It's pretty cool that I was featured in Lynn's Artist Motivation blog! You can visit the entry and Lynn's blog at the link here. Lynn does some nice work helping to give artists ideas for inspiration. Just having my work featured in her blog is inspiring to me! She featured a couple of my bracelets, one of which was a work in progress when I emailed her, and has since been finished. The finished photo is pictured here.

This was fun!

I started with texturing sheets of bronze and copper clays, then just treating them like any sheet metal to put them together into this necklace, which also uses found objects .... some rubber and metal washers, etc. The spiral bead at the top is of silver metal clay, and the cord is brown leather, finished with a hand-done bronze wire S clasp.

PMC Pendant - Silver Metal Clay - Two Classes Scheduled

Class 1: Tuesdays September 29 and October 6, 2009, 6:30-9:30 at Amery School, Amery, WI
&
Class 2: Tuesdays October 27 and November 3, 2009, 6:30 - 9:30 pm at Unity School, Balsam Lake, WI

Description: A great idea for gift-giving! Learn how to create a pendant of fine silver (.999 silver) using precious metal clay which can be molded and shaped almost like regular clay and is kiln-fired to become hardened fine silver. On night one, you will learn how to texture and shape your pendant, create a roll-over bail and set a stone into the clay. I will fire your pendant between classes. On night two, you will learn to sand, burnish and polish the silver, add a patina, and make a cord with a sterling silver hook and eye clasp.

This class is being offered through the Unity and Amery Schools' Community Education programs. For the class at Amery, contact Tracy Hendrickson at 715-268-9771 ext. 220 or email at hendricksont@amerysd.k12.wi.us. For the class at Unity, call or email Tanna Worrell at 715-825-2101, ext 1560 or tworrell@unity.k12.wi.us for further information or to reserve your spot!

(Note: the classes are the same class being offered twice. You could take both classes and make different pendants.....)

Carribean Blues! New Bracelet

I often get inspiration from photos I've taken where I've been privileged to witness nature's truly wonderful gifts. This photo taken on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. John, and the blues of the water inspire this beach-themed summer charm bracelet. The shell and starfish charms were hand-made by me of fine silver - using a mold I made of a real clam shell for the shell charm, and sculpting the starfish freehand. The other charms were constructed of a beautiful blue faceted Amazonite gem stone, small white freshwater coin pearls, beach glass, swarovski crystals and sterling silver. I am pleased with the look of this bracelet, and as is so often the case, it is hard to capture it's essence in a photo. I've tried under several light conditions and with a few different backgrounds. The picture above was taken outside in natural light and seemed to be about the best I could do. The blues are not showing up as beautiful as they really are, the silver not as shiny and the pearls have a opalescent luster in real life. Trust me on this one!

Nice Message

We rest here while we can, but we hear the ocean calling in our dreams,
And we know by the morning, the wind will fill our sails to test the seams.
The calm is on the water and part of us would linger by the shore.
For ships are safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.

— Song "Ships" by Tom Kimmel & Michael Lille

Summer Beauty inspires Big Time!

Wow. Maybe summer should be slow in coming - it helps you appreciate the fine weather when you FINALLY get it. Yesterday was a warm day, after many days of cold, drizzle, rain and clouds. And if it seems I am going on and on about a trivial topic, the point is .... I loved the warmth and

sun and lo and behold, look what showed up bathed in the sun's spotlight! See photos. The Iris is a wild iris that grows along the wet shorelines of Wisconsin Lakes, and the other plant I had to look up. It is called a Pitcher Plant, grows in boggy soil (true - it was very spongy where I disembarked my kayak to take the photos!) and it's carnivorous. It seems I may have saved the lives of the bugs I moved to get buggy-free photos!

The Moo Crew

The Moo Crew is the blog of the WistEtsy group - a group of Wisconsin Artists who sell on Etsy. I am the volunteer editor of one of the blog features called Tutorial Tuesdays, which runs every other Tuesday. For the first tutorials, I wrote a two part entry on using Color as a design too. Part I ran on May 26, and can be found here. Part II ran on June 9, and can be found here. Color - it can make all the difference!

The blog also features show information, give-aways, interviews with the artists and more.... visit The Moo Crew at http://wist-etsy.blogspot.com/

BACK - Inspired and Tired!

The Bead and Button Show was an awesome experience! Talk about inspiration, ideas, and BEADS!! Wow. I was busy almost every second for four days - took four workshops and absorbed new ideas and techniques. I am so happy it is summer vacation now so I will actually have time to try some things out.

The brief version - I took classes on soldering metal, copper electroforming, bronzclay and wirewrapping. I will get back to these as I try out some of the new ideas over the next few weeks.

I fired a new batch of bronzclay yesterday, and I am continually amazed at how it looks after firing. In the same firing, there are several variations and colors. I did notice that placement in the container did seem to have an effect. I fired two layers in the pan. The bottom layer had more orange tones, and the top layer was browner. You can see this by looking at the pieces. See photo - the top pieces were actually the bottom layer, and those on the bottom were the top layer.
I used the bottom pieces to make my newest bracelet (pictured at left.) I attached the links with bronze wire links, which I soldered, and used a toggle clasp, which I also constructed from the clay.