PMC Pro

PMC Pro has just recently been launched onto the market, the fourth generation of Precious Metal Clay™ made by Mitsubishi.
PMC Pro silver clay is significantly stronger than the other Silver Metal Clays making it the ideal choice for rings and functional components such as clasps, hinges and prongs.
PMC Pro is made of 90%silver, 10% copper alloy, water and organic binder. It has to be fired in a kiln at 760°C for 1 hour embedded in coconut shell–based activated carbon. This is because of the copper content having to be fired in an oxygen free environment. I purchased some from http://www.metalclay.com.au/ and made a simple flat band adjustable ring to try it out.

This is the fired ring. The left hand side has been burnished with a soft brass brush. The right side appears grey just as it came out of the kiln.

This is the ring formed on a mandrel. It is strong despite being fairly thin (3 cards thick). I’m giving PMC Pro a thumbs up and will experiment more after the holidays.

R & R on Rottnest Island

Just back from a couple of days on Rottnest. It’s one of my favourite WA destinations. I love the relaxed atmosphere, the scenery and the snorkelling.

This is Little Salmon Bay. Here you can step off the beach into pristine waters and see dozens of fish and colourful coral.
        
This is an Osprey on her nest.

I saw a Dugite which is a very venomous snake. It was over a metre long. It was just lying in the sun under a cliff. You have to be wary of these snakes, looking out for them while walking along the footpaths. Generally they will disappear if they hear you coming.
  
Quokkas are in abundance, you see these little marsupials everywhere.

Bathurst Lighthouse

Yummy lunch at Aristos before catching the ferry back to the mainland.

Electroforming 4

These are the results of my play with the faux jade polymer.
I am pleased with the results and am planning to do more with the polymer clay beads and copper.

Open House–Sales

A couple of weekends ago I was invited to give a display and sell my jewellery at a friend’s house. There were about eight of us who were allocated a space throughout the house. I had the dinning room table and set up my silver and polymer jewellery on it. We all had invited friends and family to call in during the day to shop for Christmas presents. We had a steady stream of people popping in and everyone had good sales.

Someone looking at my polymer pendants

My display

Textile Items for sale

Electroforming 3

More experimenting with my electro former. I am trying to build a texture onto a bead. I sanded and buffed some of the faux jade pieces I made as examples in the recent Polymer Clay workshop this week.
Here a couple waiting to go into the bath.
  

Polymer Clay Faux Jade Workshop

These are items made in the recent workshop. We experimented with translucent clays, alcohol inks, embossing powders to name a few. Our aim was to imitate Jade.
I think the students did really well.



        

                 Davinia

                    Merryl

Electroforming 2

I’ve had another play with my electro former.
I have a bead with some leaf canes applique. I painted conductive paint around the edges of the leaf canes. The copper is very bright so I’ll play with some patina soon.
      
This experiment is conductive paint around the rim of a polymer bowl shape and then stripes down toward the centre.
I quite like this one, if I add a bead in the centre it would make a nice ring.
     

Electroforming

I’ve been experimenting with a new piece of equipment that I have just purchased from Roz at the Eclectic Studio. Its a Sherri Haab Dual Etch and Electro former. With this unit I can etch my own designs into copper or fine silver and with the electro former I can encase beads with copper.
This is my first experiment. I dug out some old polymer beads, these are Premo pearl clay with a smidgen of silver foils,  alcohol inked and have a coating of Kato liquid clay over them.

Next, following some of the swirls on the beads I painted on some graphite paint.
         
I threaded the beads on thin copper wire and suspended them over the plastic container and made sure they didn’t touch the sides. Then they went into the electroforming solution.
         
I connected up the terminals to the control unit and turned on the current.

After 3 hours the copper had been deposited where I had painted the graphite. I have yet to take the beads off the wires. I might patina the copper.
On the whole I am pleased with the result for a first try. I‘ll have another play tomorrow.

Yanchep/Two Rocks Art Exhibition

Today I went to see an exhibition by Angie Beck. I got to the venue at opening time only to find Angie outside waiting for a dance class to end so that she could set up her exhibition. Of course I helped hang the prints and got to know Angie a little. It’s good to meet a fellow artist in the area.
Yanchep/Two Rocks hasn’t got a community gallery so artists like Angie juggle an exhibition between immunisation clinics, play group and dance classes.
Angie’s work involves photographs and scans of everyday objects which she manipulates in Adobe Photoshop. The exhibition was inspired by the beautiful beaches and surrounds of Yanchep.

Bridgetown Blues Festival

Good Music, Good Friends!

Bridgetown Street

Max Curry

Indian Ocean Road

Here are some of the sights to see along the Indian Ocean Road. I had a good weekend at the cervantes Arts Festival. A friend and I put a tent up and camped in Cervantes on the Friday which was the opening night.

We spent alot of time visiting the hamlets of Grey and Wedge, which brought back many memories as I have spent alot of time in the region especially at Wedge Island.

Grey



The Pinnacles





Ocean View





New Road.... Lancelin to Cervantes



Feature Artist Invitation

I have been invited to be a  'feature artist' at the Cervantes Arts Festival this weekend so I have been busy collating some jewellery items for display and to sell. I'm display a mixture of silver, bronze and polymer earrings and pendants.

The Cervantes Art Festival is an annual event incorporating Art, Craft, Photography and bush poetry competitions & exhibitions. Fiona Kalaf, chairwoman of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, officially opening the four-day festival on Friday evening.
I'll be driving up on the newly completed Indian Ocean Drive which officially opened in September. This road links Perth’s Northern suburbs with WA’s coastal towns. Maybe I'll take my camera with me as there is a competition for photgraphs taken along the new road to encourage tourism.

Sunset At Two Rocks

This was the sunset on Friday evening. I was have a drink overlooking the marina. The sky was just magic a blaze of colour. What a great place to live!

Glass Clay

Before firing

Merryl's glass after firing

My friend Merryl Snowden bought some Glass Clay and kindly let me try it with her. Its basically powdered  glass mixed with a binder, when fired in a kiln the binder burns away (similar to the metal clay) and the glass is fused together.

I wasn't that impressed with the clay, the colours changed dramatically when fired and the glass looked lumpy like sugar.

Another busy week!

The time just flies by and I've been busy with two classes this week, one on Monday with Metalclay and Tuesday with Polymer clay. The Monday class in metal clay was with Lauren, her partner Mark and  Lauren's sister Amy. They all did so well, none had had experience with silver clay before. Lauren was interested in making some fingerprint jewellery. Mark made a pair of earings for Lauren and Amy made a very nice textured pendant.

Tuesday class with polymer clay we did some basic cane work. I putn together a necklace of beads using basic canes.



Concert @ Fremantle Arts Centre

Ruth and I went to see Angus and Julia Stone at Fremantle. It was an open air concert in the grounds of Fremantle Arts Centre. It was great evening. I really love their music.