Tuesday Tangle: Mokume-Gane Metal Clay Class

 Tuesday Tangle is a weekly feature about all things wire (and sometimes not).

Burnishing a Metal Clay Mokume-Gane Pendant

I'm taking today's Tuesday Tangle to finish catching you up on my class with Hadar Jacobson. I wanted to show you where I am with the mokume-gane projects I made in Hadar's class but wasn't able to fire and finish.  The pendant above has three different kinds of metal clay, copper, bronze and steel. It's primarily copper because copper shrinks less than the bronze so I avoid the potential warping.  I'm burnishing it to see if there are any flaws in it. It's easier to catch at this phase than try to fix it after its fired. I can't let my tendency towards skipping steps to come into play. I'll be very sorry later if I do.

I had to test my brick kiln first by making a full load of copper and bronze test circles. Fortunately, the first load came out perfectly so I didn't have to do any adjustments from the recommended firing temperature.  I love the quick fire clay and shortened firing time. It's closer to instant gratification for those of us who are impatient.

Fired to perfect blackness in my own brick kiln!

Here's what they look like in all their polished goodness....

I'm happy with how these turned out especially the teardrop in the front.  I wanted it to look like a table cut bead so I polished it flat rather than keeping the rounded shape. I really like how it looks.

Which one is your favorite?