Copper etching

Copper cuff bracelet with laser ink transparency resist.

Copper etching is another one of those things that I've read about, sounds interesting...not gonna try it for reason X,Y,Z...but today I took a copper etching class with Candace White & dang is it fun! The class & the process lol :)

Before: Doodles with Sharpie.
Anything black (resist) will be protected from etching action of ferric chloride & end up raised....gotta fill up the blank spaces!!

After - Etched Sharpie doodles.
Yes, my thought is art clay texture haha...

Left: Laser ink image from a transparency.
Right: Paisley stamp with permanent (solvent based) ink.

The fleur de lis turned out interesting, I dipped the piece in ferric chloride, then changed my mind (oops!). Neutralizing the piece with baking soda, trying to clean the sludge off & NOT the resist, then re-submerging the metal caused a neat honeycomb pattern in the "exposed" areas of the copper.

I find the feathery look in the blank areas of the paisly a nice addition. There didn't seem to be as much on the edges of other students' etched brass pieces. Rather interesting.

Though photopolymer plates have their perks & uses, I think making etched copper plates is more fun, & versitile! Too bad the lil bro is on vacation & wasn't able to come to class today, I think he would like it too!

Pasadena Beads & Bits

This past weekend was the Pasadena Bead & Design show. I was volunteering there Saturday & Sunday for the Art Clay Society of OC. It was fun seeing people from MCWC so soon, & hanging out with Estelle & other OC peeps to spread the love of clay...whoo-hoo! :D

So evidently at the end of the end of bead shows, when bead vendors break down their displays, they don't worry about broken strands of beads & leave behind trails beads & other shiny bits of things...

Found beads & molding compound mischief.

Cloudswing was the piece I made with other artist's things from the January show, we'll see what happens to the stuff from this show!

Dream's Unicycle

Flying high on the trapeze with no net below
Challenging the stars with balls of flame
Knives sharper than claws
Paws that show no mercy
Sometimes dreams turn into nightmares,
What started as Dream now looks like Death.



Comic con was this past weekend, & I think Neil Gaiman's Sandman kind of rubbed off on me! The wires for the juggling stars seems to form the outline of a skull with a bow ...what do you think?

Deconstructing the "magic"

2009 Metal Clay World Conference: Week in Review

Last week was the Metal Clay World Conference in Chicago. Jackie Truty, Tom, & Katie Baum of Art Clay World USA organized an awesome conference experience & I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity to listen to so many artists share their knowledge! Meeting & making friends from all over the country & world in a hotel that was like a huge beehive? Sweeet!!

Monday & Tuesday: Caged glass beads with Cindy Pankopf

First off, helping Cindy with her class & running around after hours was just uber loads of fun!!

Finished projects in all their fired, yet unbrushed glory, success!! No pic of the beads before they went into the kiln as the glass reacts with the silver clay & an etched ivory & copper green bead lost its frosted look & beacame brown & turquoise. Or an ivory bead with red frit turned brown & blue, just awesome!

Of course, a class pic
(Thanks Emma!)
:)

Wednesday: Sears tower & Charm Swap

Ok, the Sears tower is now the Willis tower???! Taking pics on the glass bottomed Skydeck was fun with gals from the Art Clay UK Guild members. :)

Goodness some people made 100+ charms for this swap! Prosmise I'll be more prepared next time!

Thursday - Saturday: Conference speakers
There was not much sleep this week & I wish I could have gone to everyone's presentation, but after hearing each talk, I just wanted to hole up with my clay & play!

Keynote Speaker: Alan Revere http://www.revereacademy.com/

His talk on jewelry & giving to others is pretty much summed up here: www.adornamerica.com

During his talk, he passed out gold & silver colored foil & challenged everyone to create a ring. Then to go with the giving to others starts here & now, he gave a bracelet with the MCWC logo to someone in the audience & we swapped foil rings with our neighbors.


Clasps: Carol Babineau http://www.artclaystudio.com/
So much eye candy, & so playful! Besides seeing the technicalities of how some of the clasps work, the way she designed her clasps to be a focal that doesn't look like a clasp is amazing!

Masks & Faces: Lis-el Crowley http://www.artandsoulct.com/
For me, demos speak a thousand words because sometimes the key is in the details of the way a certain tool angle or the way a small lump of clay becomes the missing detail. I missed the open table session with her, but I totally need to get some polymer clay to experiment with her way of making molds for faces, quite intruiguing!

Snake Charming & Coils: Cindy Pankopf www.cindypankopf.com
Making coils & snakes is probably considered a basic technique for clay people, though the way Cindy incorporates them into almost everything, is fascinating. Her tips/tricks & sound effect loaded explainations really do de-mystify coil making lol. (yeah, I was scared of making them until recently!)

Tomozuke technique: Ryota Mitsuhashi
As the "Rebel without a kiln," I appreciate the offers from others to fire my pieces (& yes, I'll be taking you up on that!) but anything I can do without a kiln intrigues me!

So "tomo" is to pair & "zuke" is to attach. Fusing brass & copper to fired silver clay pieces, yess...my Rio order can't arrive soon enough!

Teaching: Maria Martinez
People tell me I should teach..but I'm scared! Maria broke the orgainization & process down into manageable bites & I found her anecdotes inspiring :)

Negative caning: Holly Gage http://hollygage.com/
Ok, I REALLY REALLY want to try adapting her caning technique with torch friendly combustibles! Like I bought tortillas this week to try this out! :P

& there's the baby titanium pieces..

Photographing your Art: Jen Lowe
http://jen-lowe-designs.blogspot.com/
I enjoy checking out the crafty stuff on Jen's blog, & wondered about how she got such nice looking pics! 2 thumbs up for the tip of steadying your camera hand by wrapping a string around the camera & holding the other end with your foot to steady & pulling the camera away from the ground for a steadier shot.

Silver screw: Ryota Mitsuhashi
OMG, the tool answer I've been looking for is "screw tap" to make threads for screws!

Water Etching: Lyle Rayfield
I keep reading about the technique & am curious to check it out. Wonder if wax resist would work as a patina mask too...

Complex Hollow Forms: Gwen Bernecker http://www.twoolivesstudio.com/
I found Gwen's process for making hollow forms interesting as I haven't made many. Demystified the way to make a template for walls when you already have the floor & ceiling of a piece.

Bench Tricks for MC: Lorrene Davis http://www.lorrenedavisdesigns.com/
I'm so glad I went to this talk! This maybe an utter "Duh!" thing, but making the tools work for you & not the other way around...well, duh! & the blade bending technique she was showing at her open table session? I am SO going to play with that!

There's all the new "toys" I've come home with...yay!

With love to all my new muses & old, thanks for the inspiration!
~ Michelle

Torching where no torch has gone before!

Ok, maybe not really but seeing how complex of a piece I can torch fire is an interesting challenge & I'm totally tickled (chuffed?) that this piece held together!

It was fired before MCWC & I took it with me, but since then it has had a bit of a face lift with some polishing "wheelie bobbers" to give the flower a satin finish to contrast the band & decorative spikes.


The flower was made & fired as 1 piece with cz already set in place; the shank as 1 piece, the flower & shank joined, then a couple more times to patch some small cracks .


As the ring wraps around 2 fingers & is on the poky side if you're on the receiving end, it's girly brass knuckles!

Midnight musing

Ok, took a bit of a break from the flower ring & tried putting together this little unicycle dude that's been bouncing around my desk. Well, mostly figuring out the cycle part, as the unicyclist has been chilling on my desk for a while.

One side of the wheel says "dream" & is decorated with silver flakes.

The other side has a pattern with the silver flakes.

The unicyclist is a paste person with a fine silver skeleton (armature) & he's still nekked, but I haven't quite figured out how I want to dress him.

Fire = Gratification & Focus

Today I'm going to go with 1 small win. Very small.

The flower focal for the ring is fired.

Yeah, that's it.

At least the flower won't have any accidents sitting on my desk! ><

The coiled swirls for the shanks has proven to be a bit more challenging than expected. Or at gravity's effect on them, as they tend to slide of the mandrel. Between the open design of swirls for the shank & the rather top heavy focal, I guess it was a good thing that they broke before the flower could be attached. Assembling the whole piece then firing would be ideal, though this ring is larger than the neuron ring & making sure the piece is heated evenly for full scintering would be a challenge with a torch.

Could this have been finished hours ago? Yeah, most likely. Thinking about this project over & over is causing more second guessing about the design, which at the moment is a frustrating challenge, but not impossible!

There's always tomorrow to try again.