Art Clay Silver - Pendants and Earrings

Here are the pendants after firing and burnishing. Picture 1 is the hammered heart and picture 4 is the second heart I made with the circles texture. As I said before, I am pleased with the result of the first one - it's funny how an accident can turn out in the end - maybe it was fate?!

I will incorporate these pendants into some necklace designs but at the moment am pondering about gemstone colours and also whether to go simple or more detailed. Also, I haven't drilled a hole in the leaf pendant until I am sure how I am going to use it.




I had a right argument with my husband whether to drill the holes before or after firing. I said 'after' and he said 'before'. I was worried I might crack the pieces if I drilled them before. So, ever trying to compromise, we tried both (the second heart I drilled before firing). I have to admit, I think he was right as, when using my little hand-held drill, it was really hard on the fired pieces and my wrists started aching immediately.


The sun discs turned out quite well and I have put them onto some of my 'loopy hoop' earwires. They remind me of Aztec suns. When I showed them to my seven year old son he said he thought I should put some gemstones on the earrings. Mmm... I think he might be right, maybe carnelian for the fire of the sun. Although I have some great natural turquoise beads that might look quite good. I think I will have a play around with these earrings before I put them up for sale.




The other earrings I made have a circles texture. I love the way burnishing highlights the raised parts and the indented areas stay with the satin finish from the brushing. I'm happy with these earrings as they are and will be listing them on Etsy, eBay and Artfire later today.

More haste, less speed

I've been busy today with my silver clay and am certainly learning the lesson of 'more haste, less speed'.

I wanted to try out my new mould making stuff called 'Oyumaru'. It's amazing - little strips of neon coloured plastic-like material that softens in hot water. I made a few moulds from some rubber stamps I had from a while back and was really pleased with the detail. Below are the pieces I made after drying and filing.

After taking this photo, I went on to fire them on my gas hob and when I did my heart went 'pop' (quite literally!). Obviously I hadn't left it to air dry completely. Well, in fact I had tried to speed up the process by putting them in my oven at a low temperature but foolishly hadn't thought that the heart would need more time to dry. The result was the heart had a little volcano shape popping out of it near the bottom. I tried to file it out but it changed the texture pattern. All was not lost, however, as I ended up filing and hammering out all the texture and then re-texturing it with my little pointed hammer. I'm actually quite pleased with the result. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

p.s. I've now made 'heart #2' from the same mould and have sensibily left it to air dry overnight!