Bronze Bangle Bracelet

Remember those 4 pieces from my last post? Well I riveted them together with spacers and wire wrapped some pearl and crystal dangles and voila! a bangle bracelet. Glad I have a small hand. But this was a good experiement. Definitely see some possibilities.

Bronze Clay Bangle revisited

The Repair - so I rolled and cut a shape of bronze clay 6 cards thick again to fit into the gap created from the first firing. Not so easy to get the fresh clay to adhere to the fired clay. Used a little spit (wash your hands first) and it stuck. (thank you Hadar) Dried it, sanded it , carved it.

Also made 4 other pieces... will talk about those in a later post.

Put all 5 pieces in the carbon for firing. The bracelet went in the bottom layer and the 4 pieces in a second layer on top. Used the same firing schedule.

Interesting to note that the patina on the refired piece deepened and there is lots of purple on the back. (no picture, sorry). The other 4 pieces have a patina similar to the bangle after the first firing. ?/? wonder if more firings will increase the patina??

The repair is not quite successful. There was some pulling away at one of the attached seams. Maybe I should have filed it more. Anyway the plan is to add more clay and fill in the little gaps and fire it again.... Stay tuned.

Bronze Clay

I took a bronze clay class with Celie Fago last September. Vermont was great, even though I was hoping for more color change in the trees, and the class was superb. I had great expectations to rush home and make many bronze pieces. But, that never happened.

Saturday I finally got the urge to experiment and dug out the left over bronze clay from the refrigerator. I was happy to see that the clay looked and felt good. It hadn't oxidized and was well hydrated. I decided I wanted to make something that I would carve. I remembered seeing a bangle bracelet made by Barbara Simon so I set out to make one of my own. I made the bracelet 6 cards thick and left it to dry overnight. Sunday morning I carved petroglyphs and squiggles into the bracelet. I really got into the carving. It was fun. I decided to fire the piece during the day as this was my first bronze clay firing and I wanted to monitor it. The big decision was should I follow the firing routine given to me by Celie; or should I use the new firing schedule that I have read about on Hadar's website. I decided to go with the schedule from Celie for thick pieces that I got when I took her class. I ramped the kiln at 250 degrees per hour to a temp of 1531. I chose this slightly lower temp (instead of 1550) because I am pretty sure my kiln is firing a little hot. I used the coal based activated carbon and fired just the one piece in the large stainless steel container with the lid on. The container was placed on kiln posts. The schedule took just over 9 hours so I waited until this morning to pluck out the piece.

Bummer, it split right at one of the deeper carving lines. Today I am going to try to repair it. And I am going to follow the same firing schedule. The bracelet has fully scintered though, so I am happy with that. So stay tuned. I'll post the repair when it's done. Oh yeah, some cool colors too... nothing too vibrant though.

I just tube set a stone

I have been wanting to teach myself to tube set a stone for a long time now. Never seem to have the right tubing to go with the stone or visa versa. During the Tucson shows a year ago I actually took a Rio Grande class on stone setting. A great class by the way. It was a 3 day class, and by the time we got to tube setting, I was so sick with the flu I don't remember anything.

Today I was going through some old issues of Art Jewelry Magazine .... I'm cleaning my studio and putting away the hundreds of magazines on the floor is a high priority. Of course it's nice to take a break and thumb through them too so I am guessing that is why my studio never gets clean. Anyway, in the July 2008 issue, Noel Yovovich, who made the awesome bracelet on the cover, has a one page article on a super quick way to tube set a stone. This time I actually had the correct size tubing for my 3mm amethyst and literaly in 10 minutes my stone was set. I didn't kill my hand pushing the metal over the stone either. And it looks good - not perfect - but good. I have learned that you should file the cut edge of the tube before setting the stone. Next time I will wear my magnifiers so I can actually see those tiny imperfections.

I was anxious to try this new technique to set the stone so now I have this piece of tubing with a stone set in it, and I am wondering what to do with it. I'll figure that out later; right now I am just rejoicing that I can do it!

Fabulous textile woodcuts

These were one of my first finds in Tucson - fabric wood cuts. In Asia these woodcuts are used for printing on fabrics and paper, but as soon as I saw them I thought what great texture they would be for PMC. Can't wait to try them. I'll post pictures as soon as I make something

Tucson Gem and Jewelry Shows 2009

I wanted to post every day while I was at the gem and jewelry shows, but there was never enough time in the day. This is a sunset photo from my front porch. My husband and I own a home in Tucson where we plan to retire one day. I gather all of my bead inspiration when I visit there.

The shows this year were down both in attendance and vendors. I shared a booth at the Whole Bead Show and even though my sales were down slightly I was happy. I would have gone out there to shop anyway. The best part of the trip is to share some time and inspiration with some very dear "beady" friends. We met years ago at one conference or another, and we try to get together once or twice a year. Mickey named us the "Bodacious Bead Buddies". Well, we had a blast.

I'm sorting out all of my purchases. Stayed tuned for some pictures of great finds

Happy Valentine

My husband never forgets Valentine's Day. I even got the flowers a few days early as I was heading out to the Philadelphia buyer's Market Show and wasn't due home until late afternoon on Valentine's Day. But as you can see they still look great - and so does my hubby of 34 years. And I am mighty pleased with them. The color - lilac - is awesome. Never saw roses quite this color before. It's really MY color!

On the other hand the Buyer's Market needs a new name this year as I'm not sure a lot of buying was happening. The registered atendees were way down. But to be fair there was some buying going on and I'm sure there are many happy vendors.

I was juried into the ISGB - International Society of Glass Beadmakers - booth. There were 12 of us exhibiting. The work looked awesome. The booth was great. But the traffic was way down according to one artist who was there last year too; and sales suffered. It's sometimes hard for new artists to weather times like this. You always wonder "was it just my stuff they didn't like?" But a friend and I were talking this morning and we decided this is the year to build up your inventory, try new techniques, and hang in there.

When I was in Philadelphia I stayed at the Marriott as it was close to the convention center. This sign in one of their jewelry stores sums it up.... I was tempted to buy something at those prices, but they were closed...............