Sterling Silver Metal Clay

The latest issue of Metal Clay Artist Magazine is just out. In this issue Lisa Cain from MCSJ has given her method of making sterling silver clay. Lisa and her staff have developed methods, recipes and firing schedules for com­bining existing commercial silver and copper clay formulas into hallmark-quality sterling silver clay. A fired sample of the clay was first hallmarked by the London Assay Office on January 25, 2011.
Staff at MCSJ developed two successful recipes, one using Art Clay™ brand metal clays and another using PMC® clays. The clays were tested and the process refined to ensure that it could be reproduced easily and reliably in a home studio. It’s most generous of Lisa and her staff and promotes the evolution of metal clay.
Even though Mitsubishi have marketed PMC Pro being 90% pure silver and 10% alloy the public in general have been confused when it comes to jewellers marking and selling their work.

Copper, Foldforming

This week in the studio hammers were tapping and texturing as we played with copper sheet. The copper was cut into shapes, annealed then folded and textured.
These are some of the copper pieces ready to be made into pieces of jewellery.
    

                                Merryl’s work

Sunset at Two Rocks

I don’t know why I am drawn to taking photos of the sunsets here at Two rocks. The sun doesn’t set directly opposite my balcony now due to the change in the season. Last evening on the way out to diner with some friends I stopped by Leeman’s Landing to view the sunset.
    

Combining Pmc Pro & Pmc3

I am making a series of rings that will hold Polymer clay in a bezel. I am going to be writing a tutorial for a magazine. The shaft is PMC Pro and the bezel is PMC3. I made the shaft and and the bezel and joined them together. I fired them on an open shelf for 30mins and then put them into activated carbon and fired  for an hour.

This ring is straight out of the kiln and you can see the PMC Pro is oxidised and the PMC3 is white as usual.

These are the rings cleaned up. The shafts still have to be formed around a mandrel, and I still have to decide what polymer is going in the bezel area.

Fingerprint Jewellery

There is a great deal of interest in Fingerprint/Keepsake Jewellery around at the moment. People are investing thousands of dollars into franchise businesses here in Australia, UK and in the US. It amazes me that people would spend all that money on a franchise. The process is very easy and it’s one that I teach in a class in a day.
These are some photos from a Fingerprint workshop. The students made some different types of jewellery.
         
          
My colleague, Maggie Bergman has produced an e-book on making fingerprint jewellery. The book covers different methods of capturing images of children’s drawings for jewellery, taking clear fingerprints, taking Children's hand & footprints

Mango Harvest

A bought a bucket load of mangoes from the local farm this week. Apart from eating them with yoghurt I dried some in the dehydrator to eat later.
         
The Eucalyptus trees are in bloom in my neighbour’s garden and in the park next door. While I love the flowers and have portrayed them in my textile work, they are a real nuisance at the moment. The stamens are falling in the pool and patio.
    
    

Capricorn Festival

This week Ruth, my daughter & I have been preparing for the Capricorn Festival where we have a stall selling our jewellery.
Apart from making the jewellery we made a banner to display on the stall.

  

Ruth has created her own jewellery line for sale and it attracted a lot of interest, more later.

  

 

Busy time in the studio

This week the studio has been a hive of activity with myself making more polymer pendants and my daughter, Ruth making fine silver pendants and earrings.
Ruth and I are having a stand at a local festival at the weekend.
   

Electroforming Cuff

This weekend I have a stand at a festival and have been making a series of cuffs in polymer and decided to electroform one of them with some copper. This one turned out well so I’ll make some more.

These are the other polymer clay cuffs.

Combined Effort In Cooking

Ruth & I made pastry for a quiche. It was a joint effort, a bit of fun and went well with a glass of wine!
    
 

Mind Your Arts Series

On Saturday I was booked to teach at the Henderson Environmental Centre. It was a really hot day 38 degrees and no air con, not the best conditions for Silver clay as it dries out very quickly. The students all managed very well and produced some interesting work.
   

Students Work

  
   
    
 

Polymer Clay Buttons

The photos are of Phil in my Polymer Clay workshop on Friday. Phil had fun making polymer clay buttons. His partner makes jewellery using all sorts of buttons and Phil’s will certainly be an asset.
  

             Button Samples