I can solder!

 

 

I have had my solder paste now since Christmas and all my other bits and pieces to solder but last night was the first night I gave it a go.  I wanted to solder ear posts to my PMC earrings which I had made earlier so I plucked up the courage, stuck my little goggles on and went for it!

I must have had about 4 goes and couldn't seem to get it right, the solder wouldn't flow and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.  So after much frustration I flickr mailed my buddy,  the lovely David of Revonav who explained it all to me and gave me a great link for making posts too.  I left it and went back to it this morning and fiddled about with positioning of the earring post and the direction of the torch and it worked! The solder flowed and I made my earrings.  I got a bit solder happy and made 4 pairs above is one of them.  I have wanted to make these for a while now as an alternative to my paint palette necklace and I love making and wearing post earring myself.

These earrings will be up in my Etsy shop tomorrow, so here's to more soldering and thanks again to David, go check out his awesome shop here. :)

New Year New Moleskine

I love the Moleskine, I was a bit late getting my diary for this year as it has only just arrived and I love the weekly notebook, plenty of room for writing and it has a nifty yearly planner at the front where I write all of my cake topper orders.  Makes life much easier when I can see what I need to make at a glance! I aso have a sketchbook and I want to get the watercolour book next, well in fact I want to collect them all! The cheapest place to get them I think has got to be Amazon.

Here is a group on flickr dedicated to all things Moleskine.  Some awesome Moleskine art.

More Hearts

I have been making quite a few heart pieces for my shop and the latest addition is a little pink one.  Even though its Valentines day next and they are pretty appropriate for the occasion, I love hearts anyway! :)

Clay withdrawal!

I have been in France for 1 week now and everything seems to be working out so far. We have signed for an apartment which we will move into on Wednesday if all goes well, fingers crossed! Its then off to Ikea to buy me and big new desk to work on and then I can get the silver and polymer clay out. Feels like forever since I made anything new! My Etsy shop is still in vacation mode, I thought I would leave it that way until I know where everything is and its all organised.

Hopefully next week I will finally be ordering the Foredom flex shaft which I cant wait to get. It will open lots more avenues and make drilling, sanding and polishing a breeze, yay!

Before we moved I made my sister a little anklet with some left over charms, definitely something to make for my Etsy shop.

Something New..

This is going to be a really short post as I am just about to head away for the week. I just wanted to share these new earrings I made. You can find them in my shop, I hope you all like them :)

New Work

Hello blog followers!

Well I have had a very productive last couple of days, it feels like I have made lots of new things this week, all of which are up in my Etsy shop now. I also made my first pair of earwires which I am excited about because now I can make more earrings, yay! I also had a sale yesterday which always completely surprises me. It was a brand new item which I only listed in my shop the day before so I was very impressed, heres to lots more!

E=MC

I thought I would write a post just to say I am now part of the Etsy Metal Clay team as of yesterday which I am really excited about. The EMC team is a global team of metal clay artists and there work is amazing!  You can find the teams work on Etsy by searching "EMC Team".

What is PMC?

So I thought I would right a post just to explain what precious metal clay (PMC) is. There are people out there who aren't crafty and haven't a clue what I work with so this is for them! I am pretty new to this medium also but this is what I have learnt.

There are 2 types of silver clay available, 1 brand is called PMC and the other "art clay silver" but for the purpose of this post I will call them both PMC.  Both PMC and art clay silver have different types of clay for example, slow dry clay or low tarnish. PMC once fired turns to pure silver 9.99 which is more pure than sterling silver 9.25 but not as strong as sterling, its is a much softer metal.

PMC comes in quite a few forms, clay, syringe, paper type and paste.  In my work I mainly use clay and paste, I do have some syringes but I am saving those for when I can think of a good use for them. There is also a product called oil paste which is used on already fired silver clay to attach findings or to mend broken pieces.  Oil paste can only be fired in a kiln.

The clay comes in different size packs, 7g, 10g, 25g and 50g and it costs just over a pound per gram so pretty expensive. You can use this medium like any other type of clay with regards to manipulating it. It is best to know what you are going to make before you take out the clay from the packet as it dries really fast. You can also get slow dry clay which gives you up to 4 times longer to work with the clay before it does dry.  The good thing is though that it never goes out of date and if your clay does dry out you can bring it back to consistency.  Small dried out pieces call also be added to your silver paste pot which is just watered down clay which is used to attach findings, stick pieces together and it can also be used to make designs on your work using a paint brush.

There is also PMC paper type, which is silver but you guessed it, like paper! You can cut it with scissors, punch it with paper punches or even fold it and use it for origami.  

PMC can be fired either with a blow torch or in a kiln apart from the paper type and oil paste which is kiln fire only.

There is definitely lots to know about PMC so I have only touched the basics here but I just wanted to share a little bit about the medium I like to use.  Now bronze clay and copper clay are also available so one day I hope to introduce those clays into my designs too.

Guitar plectrum

I seem to have been very productive of late, making lots of things for my Etsy shop.

Here is my latest offering for the music lover or guitar player.  Its a silver plectrum which I have made into a necklace, you can whip this necklace off and play guitar anytime you like now :)

Leaves!

I just love, love, love how these necklaces turned out, if I do say so myself!

They are made from real leaves which have been painted in silver clay paste (the back of the leaf is painted, the veiny bit).  I fire them in my kiln for about 30 minutes at 650℃, the leaf then burns away and the pure silver leaf is left with all the detail, how cool!

Once I had brushed them I oxidized them and then burnished the edges to really make them sparkle and twinkle in the light. I hope you like them and you can now find them in my Etsy shop :)

Work in Progress & sale!

First of all I made a sale today, yay! it was my falling star necklace that sold so that has made my day.

Secondly I have been making some silver leaves, the reason being is that I ran out of silver clay but have loads of paste so I thought I would utilize it and make some leaves.  Im not sure what the outcome of them will be yet but I am pretty sure they will be oxidized and turned into necklaces, maybe combining them with polymer clay.

Building Bricks

I made this necklace a couple of days ago and have just got round to listing it.  Again made from art clay silver strung on antique silver chain with a lobster claw clasp.  You can find it here :)

My thoughts on art clay silver (PMC)

So this post is mainly for Holly, I hope you are reading! :)

I haven't been working with silver clay for very long.  I remember I kept seeing "art clay silver" for sale on the website where I used to buy my polymer clay but I never really took any notice of it.  I just clicked on it one day and read about this clay that once it had been fired would turn to pure silver, a higher silver content than sterling, I thought wow!

I booked myself on a intro to silver clay course and loved it, I then saved up went and completed my level 1 in art clay.  Believe it or not I never touched silver again at home until February this year one I bought my kiln.  I saved up for my kiln as I didn't want to torch fire.  You can get the same results with torch firing but you can melt the clay if you get the torch flame too hot, or you could not fire it long enough and it could become brittle.  Silver clay is expensive and I didnt want to mess it up.  

So you could say I have only really been working with it now for about 4 months and I love it! It is totally different from working with polymer clay for a start I have found that I need to think in advance what I am going to make as the silver clay just dries to quickly so there is no time for messing about!  With polymer I used to just sit there and fiddle about until I came up with something that I like, I cant do that with silver clay.  There is also silver paste also know as "slip" this stuff is the best thing, you can buy the paste but there really is no need as all it is is watered down silver clay.  Or I would just buy the one pot then you can just keep topping it up with bits of clay that have become hard or the sanded off bits from when you have been sanding in the dry state.  The best thing about silver clay is that you can fine tune your piece once it has dried before firings,  sanding with either a file or fine sand paper.

I could go on and on about silver clay as there is lots to find out and learn so if you are curious, definately give it a go.

Tomorrow

My thoughts on PMC coming tomorrow, watch this space :)

I was going to write this post tonight but its late and Im feeling the tiredness so I shall leave it for the morning.  Meanwhile here is some serious eye candy from the very talented Mango Tango, enjoy! 

About to Move

So I have been busy packing these last couple of days as we are moving house on Tuesday.  I say house I mean pubs.  We move quite a lot as my other half is a pub manager and this time we are back up to Northampton.  I havent had much time lately to make anything new but I have been finishing off some old pendants, putting them on chains and oxidizing them.  I think they look much better oxidized as it brings out so much of the detail.  The necklaces are now in my Etsy shop.  I see art clay silver has now gone up in price so I might purchase some of the bronze clay and give that a go, you get more for you're money, plus I have been meaning to try it so this gives me an excuse!

Art clay post earrings

Art clay post earrings
Originally uploaded by ✭Lou✭

Some new earrings which I made the other day. These ones I am going to keep myself as they need refining a little but I am going to make some more for my shops so look out for those. I have also been oxidising some older pieces, you can check them out in my flickr stream.

Some more pendants & other news

Here is another of my new Art Clay pendants which I really love.  The is made by backfilling the silver with polymer clay, it works really well I think.

I have listed this in my Etsy shop along with some others too.  I have also opened a shop over at Folksy.com I have listed the same 3 silver pendants that are in my Etsy store as the design I have used can be easily replicated.  Folksy is another Etsy type site for all handmade products and it is U.K based, yay so prices are in Sterling for all the U.K buyers out there.

I hope to have some new earrings in the shop over the weekend as I am experimenting with paper clay at the moment so watch this space!

New Work

Art Clay Silver & Black Polymer
Originally uploaded by ✭Lou✭

I have finally got round to making some silver clay pieces and got the chance to use the kiln.  I have made 3 things so far and I think they have turned out really well.  I have a few more ideas using the same style as above which I am going to try out this afternoon.  When I have made a few more pieces I will get some in my Etsy store.

The above piece combines Art Clay Silver and Polymer clay and I love this combination especially with the black clay, it really stands out.

I had a little trouble photographing the pieces due to the reflections so that is something I need more practice on I think.

O.K back to the clay room! 

Awesome Art

Naupaka Brooch/Pendant
Originally uploaded by GordiSilver

I have been searching around on flickr for Art Clay Silver and PMC pieces and came across this pendant.  This is by the talented Gordi Silver (at least I think thats his name) he is an art clay instructor and his work is amazing.  I hope my pieces are as beautiful as his, go check out his flickr page or website.

Soon....

My new kiln will be here.  Im just waiting for the shipment to get delivered, its due at the end of this month but Im on holiday from 26/2- 12/3 so hopefully I will have it in time for when I return.  I cant wait to get it as I have been longing for a kiln for some time now to take my work in a new direction!  I was lucky enough to do my art clay silver first certificate last year which means I can teach Introductory courses If I like, I think I have already mentioned this in a previous post around about the time I did the course.  I also get a 20% discount on art clay which is worth doing the course in itself I think.  Eventually I will do my second certificate but I need to do a bit more silver clay work first to get back into the swing of things.

I also want to try the new bronze clay as you can get a lot more clay for your money too, so heres hoping my kiln arrives soon!