Some finished bronze pieces

Got a couple of them shined up, relatively and ready to move on. It's interesting stuff - not as easy as the silver clay, but a lot cheaper. Has quite a bit of character. I like it.

Some finished bronze pieces

I forgot to take a photo of the pieces right out of the kiln - next time. The same pieces that were shown ready to fire in my previous entry are shown below - shined up a bit, and with some embellishment added to one of the pendants. They are almost the same color as the rock surrounding the crystal at the top of the photo!

Bronzclay dried and kiln ready

I realized I know nothing about Bronze - except that it is a metal and it often looks old. In deciding to learn a little more, so I looked on the History for Kids website. I learned that it is actually a combination of two metals - copper and tin. Copper must lend to it's beautiful color and the tin adds strength. Copper by itself is very soft, and tin by itself is brittle.

It's very cool that it is so easy to make bronze look old because it actually dates back to 4000 bc and actually has an 'age' named after it. With age, it attains the lovely 'green' patina. I love looking at the bronze artifacts in museums. I read somewhere, too, that it comes out of the kiln with some unusual colors as well, and that remains to be seen!

The first photo shows what the bronzclay looks like after it is dried, but not yet fired. The second show it ready for the kiln. It is being fired in a stainless container, covered with coconut shell media.

I took my bronzclay out to play!

Bronze Clay! Cool! I opened my 100 gram package of bronzclay tonight. I was tired after work and I plan to do more tomorrow and I I didn't do anything specific with it tonight - just took it out and kneaded it, rolled it, and played with it a little bit. It has a different feel to it than the silver clay - it feels softer and more delicate. I did try rolling it around a cork form I'd previously dried - a round shape - and it folded around it well. When I tried to seal the seams with a wet brush, everything kind of started tearing and ripping and I tore it all off. Tomorrow.....!!!

Just finished

this bracelet using one of my favorite techniques - free form peyote. Free form is all about the journey, as the beads ebb and flow onto the thread. There is no plan or design. I think the most important consideration is the colors used and that a variety of sizes of beads make up the piece. Here's the latest, called Spring Flowers Pizazz!

Good Luck!

Amulet

There seems to be some dispute about the Western origin of the word. It is most oftenly attributed to the Latin amuletum. Most definitions attribute powers to the amulet, such as ability to ward off evil, protection and good luck.

I think amulets bring good omens. I feel a special attachment to each amulet I've created and I hope the good vibes continue on with each to wherever it ends up as home.

13, 13, 13

Three Fridays this year have the distinction of being the 13th day of the month. There was Friday, February 13th, today and there will be Friday, November 13th. This happens every 11 years. Maybe I should wear my St. Paddy's Day earrings early - for good luck!

No work today - that's lucky! I plan to work on the pasta beads and a few other projects I have going.

Spinning off to the Netherlands

The small world the internet has helped us create still amazes me. I can create a custom order for a person in the Netherlands, and off it goes - and I've never left my little mid-western town. I can't take that for granted!

The spinning pendant came out great. There was an issue with the stone - it discolored when fired. It was supposed to be blue - tanzanite cubic zirconia - but it turned more of a yellowy amber. I found that the blue is the least heat tolerant of the czs, but had used blue successfully before, so that was a bit disappointing. The customer was great, saying , "The color chose me," which is a nice way to look at it!

PMC Pasta experiment #2

Part defeat, part success.

The defeat: I think I know what is happening. The clay needs to shrink, and there is no where for it to go, so it bursts. This must happend before the pasta burns out of the core. So .... I could coat the pasta with a cushion. I have heard that people do this with a coat of white glue. But, then I have less to work with as far as the crispness of the pasta design on the clay. A number of coats starts blurring the unique impression of the noodle.

The success: I tried another where I impressed the pasta, then rolled the shape over a dowel, then fired it. That one looks good. This limits the options for the the shapes, though.

I hate defeat! If anyone out there has any ideas, I'm listening.

I am going to try one b y making a simple mold. I will try one more with a coat of glue and see how the impression holds up. And another more 'free hand' shape. After that I will have to call it quits or go with what we get.

um

Not so pretty. The beads collapsed. Brainstorming for possible reasons ....

• need a support under the pasta
• fired for too long or at too high temp
• ramped the kiln too quickly
• too much or too little clay on the form
• the pasta burst and wrecked the form as it heated
  

Things to try:

• stuff the pasta with cork clay for support
  
• use PMC3 and fire lower
• let the kiln ramp at a lower rate

Poetry in the ordinary

Usually pasta in progress involves a pot of boiling water.

I've got seven coats of the silver clay brushed onto these. A couple of more should do it. I should be able to fire them tomorrow night and then we'll see if this is gonna work.

I did some research on patina today. The gold color is the first stage when developing patina with liver of supher. Tips included using with cool water instead of warm or hot (which hastens the darkening process) and to be ready to scoop them right out and rinse before they get too dark.

Hopefully the next pictures I post will be a bit more attractive!

Options for a Noodle Necklace

Here is the cheapest .... it's virtual. And makes a stupid noise when you add the pasta to the cord.

Then you could go the traditional route and have your kid make you one at camp or day care. You could even make a colored one. Warning: the end result may have future sentimental value.

My new custom order is actually from a woman who, inspired by a crumbling necklace her son made several years ago, would like to have an upgrade - something attractive and indestructible. She saw one where the noodles are cast in gold and it is beautiful ... and high end. Yeah, the price you see - that's for one piece of golden pasta.

So, my challenge. Make a silver noodle necklace, preferably that sorta looks like gold (chance to experiment with patina) and make it affordable.

Stay tuned!