Mixing Up Hadars Bronze, Steel and Copper Clays

This is how Hadars new steel clay looks out of the container...I thought (as Hadar was good enough to demonstrate mixing) that I'd take some pictures of how it's done. The steel clay is very exciting and I'm very much looking forward to capitalising on it's magnetic properties!
Safety Instructions:
You are working with powdered metal - I personally use a dust mask AND barrier cream such as gloves in a bottle. (You normally only get one set of lungs and metal sensitivity rashes suck!)

Mixing Instructions:1) SHAKE the container well ~ this re-disperses the binder & metal particles
2) Pour into a mixing container (this ones a little large the smaller ones are easier)

3) Using pure water (the de-ionised stuff that you put into car batteries and fancy irons)

Spray the powder and start stirring.
4) The mixture will begin to clump (looks like crumble topping at this stage, especially the Bronze....YUM)
5) Go easier with the water once you get to this stage ~ it's not long after that it really starts binding together.
6) Once it's reached the above stage then you can smoosh it all together put it between two plastic folder sheets and start rolling it out. (you can add a little more water to the sheet and fold/roll it in to make the clay extra pliable)

For firing instructions see Hadar Jacobsons Art In Silver Blog, she also has a video on mixing the clay & lots of gorgeous eye candy. :)

Nic xx

Anubis - Masters Registry

Whilst there's still more work to do, I couldn't resist giving you a peek at how my Anubis figure is progressing.... a far cry from his early days ;)

Or even earlier.....

I 've put more pictures in my "Works in Progress" album on my Flickr photo stream.
Third fill and fire to go then I can start working on the base! need to be careful with the height now, at 11.8cms tall Anubis (+base) still need to fit in my kiln!
He currently weighs in a 151 grammes :)
Nic x

Hadar Jacobson Class

Hadar Jacobson teaches fabulous workshops and you'll learn LOADS about mixed metal clays.

Silver Clay has always been my preference as the warm metals don't suit my skin tone but after a class with Hadar my love of Bronze, Copper and Steel (yes you heard right ~ STEEL!) has been unleashed too :)

Our first project was to inlay bronze and copper together as these two metals scinter well together. The orange red colour below is the copper the brown is the bronze. We were shown how to make deep indentations in the background clay, dry it, then overfill with the contrasting clay.
Then you sand back to the layer that shows the two contrasting patterns. You'll find Hadars firing shedules on her Art in Silver site.

Below is a picture of Hadars Steel clay in it's powder form. I thought it was going to be a real pain to mix but it was actually very easy and the benefit is that it removes the problems of shelf life and waste clay. It does require a good shaking to make sure the powders haven't settled and evenly distribute them.

After mixing it produces the smoothest loveliest clay that is really flexible and a pleasure to work with (this is the same for all of Hadars clays).

I can see great potential in the steel as you can attach things with magnets....so magnetic clasps and swappable elements will definitely be explored further!
There's so much more to say about Hadars class (I got so much out of it) so I'll post again soon with some more things that you might like to try :)
Nicola xx