Silver Clay Etsy Treasury & Inspiration

I love being in Etsy Treasuries - it's such an honour when someone chooses my work :)
My creation is the Wave Pendant in the bottom right hand corner. The treasury is live until Tuesday June 2nd and you can see some of the other wonderful artisans work by visiting it HERE .

This one has been put together by Destiny's Creations a talented Artisan who specialises in Metal Clay work. Here are her "Love Letter" Earrings, which are stylish, simple and very, very eye catching!

Currently working from Windsor, Connecticut us UK folks will have to buy her lovely creations via her Etsy shop (which you can get to by clicking this Destinys Creations link!

Happy shopping
Nicola x

Fingerprint Cufflinks - perfect for Fathers Day

These fingerprint cuff links are the perfect gift for the man who has everything....including two gorgeous children and a brilliant wife (who plans ahead!). They're still to be burnished and oxidised but for those of you with a packet of Silver Clay, kids and some soldering skills (for the cuff link back) what are you waiting for??
Nic xx

Creating Bronze Jewellery - Firing Times

I made whole heap of Bronze jewellery recently and after the last firing (when the bronze wasn't fully sintered) I decided to fire them really, really slowly. It worked!
The bangle, which is the thickest piece, was even formed into shape post firing. It stood up to whacking it with a mallet on a bangle mandrel... Hoorah! Success :)

This is how I prepared it:
1) 1 inch of charcoal firing medium in my steel firing pan
2) Bronze bangle and another piece with 1 inch between them
3) Another inch charcoal
4) Some more bronze pieces
5) Another Layer
6) More pieces
7 ) Top up with charcoal, leaving 2/3 inch gap to lid
8) Put lid on & programme Kiln

My Firing Temps & Times:
I used a UK Paragon SC2 Kiln, with a viewing window. The firing pan was slightly raised off the bottom by putting it on my smallest kiln posts. Be careful not to let it touch the Pyrometer at the back of the kiln. I fired it overnight as this is a very, very long firing schedule.
1) Programme 1 - Ramp speed 80 Centigrade per hour
2) Until it reaches 850 Centigrade
3) Hold for 2 hours
4) Remove when cold & sieve out your pieces!

Hope that helps anyone with their own experiments, there are some more close up pictures on my shop blog :)

Nicola xx

Silver Clay Course - Student Pieces!

I'm so proud of these fabulous pendants my students made today.

One had tried silver-clay and been disappointed with the results, while the other two had never had a go at all...... So these stunning pieces are their first pendants, their first time soldering, first stone setting, first use of LOS patina and first time using UV resins!! They worked really hard and learnt lots very quickly.

I'm already looking forward to the 28th June, when I'll be introducing a new course which will concentrate on setting glass into silver clay & adding colour.
Nicola xx

Etsy Treasury & a Blog Award :)

There's loads happening with my Silver Clay work at the moment, including my recent membership of a very talented bunch of Artisans called the "Etsy Metal Clay Team" as a new member I even got a mention on their blog - how welcoming is that *kisses to the EMC'ers

I've been promoting their works in my recent treasuries and a few of the EMC follks have included me in theirs. The most recent is the one above by CleverEndevour. She chose to feature my "Wheel of Life" pendant, a multi layer silver clay creation. Can you see the works of the other talented folks too?

My mum is visiting this weekend and (bless her) she's been scouring her vintage button collections to bring me new patterns to take moulds of. There's a fabulous floral design and even an Egyptian style profile...can't wait to see how they come out! I'll be taking some mould tomorrow so will try to take a few pictures of the process for you & blog it into the techniques section :)

Another wonderful thing that has happened this week is the wonderfully talented Gail Burton has given me this Blog Award.
Gail is best known for her English Bull Terrier paintings on canvas, but she does do other animals and magnificent mixed media work.

I own one of her pieces, a blue cat watching a fish in a pond. It's in the form of a sign which says "My Cat is purrfection" it sits on the wall above where skittles (our cat) likes to sleep.
Gails vibrant art really cheers the soul and she raises tons of money for rescue charities too!

Gail sells her work on various sites though Ebay seems to be favourite. If you follow her blog she'll often give a heads up on what she's about to list :)
Here are two of her latest creations...aren't they fabulous!









Oooh one last thing I have to choose 8 more people who's blogs I deem worthy of this beautiful award (actually, I could choose easily choose more but that's not in the rules)
Here is my list of bloggers who I give this award to:
Daily Be An inspirational blog full of uplifting faith :)
Birdland Creations Very talented Metal Clay Artisan
Lazy Daisy Glass Very Talented Glassworker!
Two Left Hands She makes the cutest little Mossie People & Dolls
Lisas Lovlies Silver Jewellery and ring creator!
Junk Mamas One mans Trash turns to Junkmammas Treasure!
Simple Subtleties - Stacey is an animal carer and Jewellery Artisan :)
Such & Such Lora Hart is a talented Metal Clay Artist and Author
PHEW! That was hard, but each one of these blogs is very different from the other and give me hours of browsing pleasure between them.
Nicola xx

Silver Clay - Level 2 Course

Hooray!! I've finished the first part of gaining my Level II ACS Certificate. This was a four day class, hours of work, and many, many grams of clay. God Bless Larissa Johnson for teaching me Keum Bo and how to set glass cabochons safely!

The next part of the Level II training is the design & fabrication of another three pieces (to very strict guidelines and specifications).

These have to be completed within 60 days and juried by other certified instructors. I'm told the criteria is very strict so the aim is perfection....As my style is normally organic it'll be an interesting challenge! Lucky for me if one of my pieces doesn't make it through I can re-submit.

Once passed I'll be certified to teach Certification Courses myself, the highest level of training available in Art Clay Silver. Not sure whether I'll offer these courses but my intro courses are sure going to be of even higher quality!

Here's a group shot of all my first pieces - the first pic was my Glass Harmony and the Stick Brooch which are my two favourites.
My father in law has his eye on the tie tack, lol

Nicola xx