Bronze Metal Clay Rose Charms

I'm not sure why, but this little rose charm feels arts and crafts style to me. They're sweet.I made these bronze metal charms in July but was so enamored of the process, I never put them up for sale! Since they're my very first charms, I'm selling them for below cost. I've only got a few so if you like them, scoop them up before they're gone!

Art Nouveau-Art Deco Style flower charms

These are fresh from the kiln. Lovely patina on them isn't it? A bit of charcoal stuck in the crevices here and there. I'll clean that out and throw them into the tumbler. The bronze clay shrinks by approximately 30% so the charms are much smaller than the mold I made and used. They're under .5 inches.

I've been thinking about where they will fit - Art Nouveau or Art Deco? While the flowers have the "whiplash" stem they're also stylized a bit. But I do think they're more Art Nouveau than Art Deco because they're not as modern in overall style.

What do you think? Which are they more like? Art Nouveau or Art Deco?

Colorwash!

Here's the Art Moderne Flower with the colorwash of red-pink on it. It's a nice translucent red-pink color. I love the color and the look! Makes me want to go around and color everything!

Restraint, Cindy, restraint!

This is just enough color without losing the whole point of the bronze.

I'm going to insert a warning here for Angela whose marker addiction I enabled yesterday by including a link to MarkersSupply.com. So if you're reading today, Angela, don't scroll down to see the actual markers!



I've painted the back of the pendant since bronze I've heard that bronze can turn some people's skin green. The Pebeo paint in the pens is actually resin, lead free and food safe. So by painting the back, I've sealed the bronze.



I have to go back and touch up the flower before I put it up on the website. While I do that, I'd like to ask you, what other color would you like to see on the Art Moderne Flower - yellow? blue? green?

The Post about Nothing....

Today's picture is of an original neon in the collection at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery - I feel like today's post has no real content. But then some of the best things are about nothing (like Seinfeld)....

I want to know where the summer went? I was supposed to do alot more than what I've done! I guess many of us feel that way, huh?

Despite that, I've got to get some work done today. I've made a few more molds and have to get several orders out.

Erin is reading my mind. In yesterday's comment, she mentioned using alcohol inks to give the Art Moderne Flower some beautiful color. Erin, I have in my hands right now a set of Peboe Paint Pens which will add some lovely color and protect the back of the pendant. By protecting the back with the layer of protective and colorful finish, the bronze won't discolor the skin if worn against it.

Ok ok, I'll stop here and go get some work done - afterall, I've said it enough times in this post, huh? (wink!)

Are you working today?

Talk Back to Readers, Art Nouveau and Art Moderne

So I'm going to do a little "talk back" to my readers this morning instead of going into the comments and responding there. I've got my cup of coffee and I feel like we're around the kitchen table having a chat!

Thanks to everyone who commented yesterday. Good luck with the first day of school, Erin! That's a crazy day! This year, the first day of school will be bittersweet for me, The Teen is a senior and it will be my last "first day." I'll have to take alot of pictures!

Thanks to Sharon and Lorelei for liking the Through the Looking Glass Nuggets so well they ordered some! I'm always thrilled when someone likes my work and buys it. It's greatly appreciated!

Tish and Katie - it's that time of year when you feel like you've got to re-organize or do something! Sometimes it's because of the day job and sometimes it just because things have just gotten out of hand! A schedule is very helpful and makes us feel like we're in control (even though we may not be! LOL!)

Thanks for the well wishes, Emanda and Summerstudio! :-) I hate the migraines, they're so incapacitating. I'm convinced half the time it's something worse (knock on wood) but it's all that female thing or as The Teen calls it "Puberty 2.0." LOL!

Arlene - thanks for the comment about the long necklaces. If you figure it out, let me know! :-)

Since posting will be every other day, I'll communicate on the off times through my newsletter. Please sign up for my newsletter if you haven't done so already. I'll be putting up more beads on the website too. Speaking of the website, I've put up a new piece this morning.

The style is more Art Deco than Art Nouveau but I loved the look of the single flower spilling over the edges of the medallion. I tried to identify the flower but it's stylized so I've entitled it, "Art Moderne."



The Art Moderne Flower is made of bronze metal clay (because I'm now addicted to it). You can see just the slightest rainbow patina in the center that was made when I fired it in the kiln. I like the look of it - it looks like a stylized poinsettia to me - just the piece to work into a gift for the holidays.

Which flower do you think the Art Moderne Flower looks like?

Art Nouveau: Stile Floreal Sunflower

I so love the Art Nouveau style and have wanted to create beads and pendants in the style - I just haven't quite found the right note until now. Bronze metal clay has been the right medium for this particular song. I've shown you the process of working with bronze metal clay and then the mold making This is the lovely culmination of all of that - new bronze pendants and connectors.



The period between the late 1800's and World War I was a time full of "new art" (Art Nouveau). Characteristic of the style is undulating lines and forms, each named after the objects which inspired them. Here, the organic form which inspired this pendant is an antique French button in the "Stile Floreal" (floral style) of a sunflower. The curves are known as "the whiplash" which describes the sharp turns in the lines.



I'm much more organized with this new series than before because I have them up on my website already! YAY for organization!! Usually, I blog about them and then put them up but I've made up my mind that from now on, every new bead and pendant will be up on my website by the time I blog about them.

Rawhide!

Now that I'm addicted to bronze metal clay, I've noticed it can warp while drying. I tried turning it while it's drying but it can still warp. So what's a bronze metal clay addict to do? The best remedy for warping is to hammer your bronze metal pieces on a steel bench block after you take it out of the kiln. But which hammer to use?

dun-da-la-dum-da-la-dum ---- RAWHIDE!

No, I don't remember watching the t.v. show, I remember the SNL skit where John Belushi sang the theme song to Rawhide.

Digression aside, I always wondered when you'd use a rawhide mallet. Now I know. You use a rawhide mallet on metal you don't want to mar. You can use a wood mallet but a rawhide mallet is heavier than wood. I pound the bronze pieces with the rawhide mallet to flatten the bronze metal clay pieces to smooth out any warping. Bronze isn't as soft as copper or brass so I have to pound a few extra times.


So now if you're thinking, "That's just the tool I need!" - here are a few sources for Rawhide mallets:

The rawhide mallets shown above are from the Contenti Company;

Rawhide and plastic mallets at the Hammer Source;

Rio Grande Jewelry Supply.

Coffee with Russ and bronze metal clay

It was quiet yesterday around these parts. I was busy working most of the day in the studio. When it's quiet, I start to think and realized I hadn't had a conversation with Russ lately and I hadn't updated you on the money pit...errr...house.

This morning, I made a cup of coffee and Russ and I went out onto the back patio just outside my studio to check out the new grass.

Ok, so watching grass grow isn't very exciting but after the mud and sink holes, I DO find it exciting.

I know, I need to get a life!

So, with all that excitement, what's a girl and Russ to do? Get back into the studio and be creative!

Yesterday, I worked with the bronze metal clay while Russ watched, cheering me on in his laid-back-ponytail-way.



So, I've finished off the coffee, time to get back to the bronze metal pieces. What are you up to in your studio? Have you seen Russ lately?

Bronze Metal Clay Journey: Patina, Polish, Black Fingernails and Bronze Charm Giveaway!

I've finally gotten to the patina stage and used the awesome new Patina Gel from Cool Tools. Before using any chemical, I always check to see how to dispose of it. These days, I'm concerned about the impact on the environment. The Patina Gel is "eco-friendly" that is, easy to dispose of. If you leave it on your bench until it become white, it becomes a commonly used fertilizer for your garden! Love it when the chemicals you use in your studio are not harmful to the environment.




Back to the process of patina-ing. Before I could dip the bronze charms into the patina solution, I had to rid them of any oils and fingerprints. So, the biggest pain was cleaning each small piece with a toothbrush. Remember I said these were charms and every piece is pretty small, about 12mm. A baby sized toothbrush is about 25mm so you can get the piece lost in the brush making it difficult to clean. I needed a smaller brush but didn't have one.

After I scrubbed each piece, I strung it on a piece of wire so I could lay the pieces all at once in the patina solution. I followed the directions on how to use the Patina Gel on the Cool Tools website and made just enough solution to cover the charms.

I left them in just long enough to get a chocolate brown patina. Polished each one with a micro mesh sanding pad. I picked up wth micro mesh locally at a woodworkers store. It was the same place I picked up Renaissance Wax. I used Renaissance Wax as a final polish to seal the patina.

I love the way the pendant below came out. The patina on it is really nice - just what I was looking for. This pendant is a "salvaged" piece. When it was in the leather hard stage, the corner broke while sanding. I thought it looked like an old artifact one would find on an archeological dig so I sanded the edges to make it look more worn and went with it. I like how it turned out. Pretty good for a first go.


Here are a couple of the small (12mm) charms. I like this little rose, I think it will make a nice little addition to a bracelet or a pair of earrings or even hanging from the end of a pendant.


I wanted to show you how I worked with the bronze metal clay from beginning to end. The very end - to the final polish. I have to work on improving parts of the process but I'm satisfied how this first complete run went.

Here's an important tip I learned the hard way - Remember to coat your hands with olive oil or Gloves in a Bottle before you start to sand off the patina to highlight the relief in your piece. I have black fingernails and cuticles from forgetting to do it!

So, I'm going to take my black fingernails off the keyboard and go to my studio but before I go for today, tell me how you liked the series on bronze clay and or how you think the pieces turned out.

I'll select a random comment from today's comments to receive one (1) of the bronze rose flower charms. I'll announce the winner tomorrow.

Look forward to your comments. I'm off to try to clean my black fingernails now!

Bronze Metal Clay - The Journey continues - Clean and Tumble

The bronze metal clay journey continues. Today I'm posting a picture of the bronze charms after they've been tumble polished.





I just put them into a Lortone tumbler with some plastic pony beads (to bring the container up to at least a 1/4 full), stainless steel shot, a 1/2 cap of Woolite and water. The liquid should just be touching the bottom of the contents of the container - if it goes over, the contents won't polish.

If I want to finish the bronze now, it's alot harder than before it's been fired (sintered). So it's really really really important to take the time to clean and smooth your pieces before you fire them. I took alot of time smoothing these with a nail file. They're ready for a patina to highlight the stamp.

A few comments have said the readers might be trying out the bronze metal clay. Here are a few of the resources I read/watched before I put my hands in the mud so to speak:

I read Laura Bracken's exploits on bronze and copper metal clay. Go to her archives and read May's postings. I found her comments honest and open. Many of the blogs only show pieces after the blogger has perfected the techniques and say how much fun they've had. Bronze clay wasn't fun at first, it was frustrating and Laura's blog is a nice journey from frustration to success.

Laura took classes from Hadar. Although I had the already mixed bronze metal clay, I ended up kneading and wedging my clay wrapped in plastic wrap similiar to how she shows to mix her dry clay. After I use up the supply I have, I think I'm going to try Hadar's clay.

One thing I wanted but didn't find was a video I could play and follow along while I was first preparing the clay and working with it. There are videos but there is so much talking (sorry, no insult intended to anyone) and pausing that you can't work along with any of them.

So, I'm off to work on patina today and a few other things. Leave me a comment about the tips and/or your own experience with the bronze metal clay.

Bronze Metal Clay: Frustration, Design and Success!

I'm going to be honest - working with the bronze metal clay was frustrating! Right out of the packaging, you have to work and "wedge it" to get it to a consistency where you can make something from it. If you've worked with poly clay or with pmc, and/or ceramic clay, you'll be more familiar with this than I am.

Remember I told you I wasn't good at clay.

I tried to work it in my hands like in the videos available on YouTube. It was an absolute mess! I needed more moisture and adding distilled water and lavendar oil created mud in my hands. It was frustrating. But I stuck with it and eventually worked out a solution for me.

I put it between plastic wrap. Yup, that's it. I could feel it and keep the muddy mess in check. I did the final "wedging" in my palm. Once that trauma was over, I rolled it out and cut out some very basic shapes. I didn't want the first try to be anything too complicated.


So here are some of the basic shapes I rolled out and stamped. I mentioned my favorite tool yesterday when working with the bronze metal clay. In the picture above, the clay is at the "leather hard" stage and I'm learning how important this stage really is. The pieces above are pretty rough, unclean edges, backs - they need to be smoothed out. More about that later. Right now, I want to talk about the designs.

A couple of years ago, I went to a flea market where a vendor was selling vintage metal stamps used in newspaper ads. Many of them were very large and had "sale!" on them. I managed to find a couple small graphics without any type and bought them.

I knew they would be perfect to use with the metal clay. So away I went, stamping out a couple of pendant sized pieces. Not too many since this was a test run. The little nails holding the metal stamp to the wood block create small circles I didn't really pay attention to until after the pieces were fired. More about those later too.

Below is a leather hard (pre-fired) piece on the right and on the left is the fired pendant right from the kiln without any finishing or polishing. Bronze clay is supposed to shrink approximately 20%, so this gives you a good idea of what that looks like.


Here is the entire run right out of the kiln....


All of the pieces are pretty small and not over 5mm thick. I ran the basic recommended firing schedule and buried the pieces in the charcoal. I've got three glass kilns and I just put the stainless container on kiln posts. I wasn't really fazed by the firing schedule - it felt like glass fusing with the ramp and hold and slow cool down.

So everything came out intact. I expected failure after reading how so many other people would get broken pieces. Beginner's luck? Or is it because the pieces are very small?

I'm glad nothing fell apart and the metal sintered together fully. Will I continue working with the bronze metal clay?

Yes.

If you're thinking about working with bronze metal clay, here are tips that worked for me:

1. Knead the clay in plastic wrap

2. Use up the entire lump of metal clay, don't store it.

3. Cut up an old shower curtain to use as the surface for rolling and working with the clay. You can write on it, oil it, whatever and you've recycled and re-used!

Stay tuned tomorrow - the bronze clay adventure isn't over yet! :-)

Trying out new things....

Several months back, I ordered some Bronze metal clay - BronzClay. I love the look of bronze metal and I was in the middle of trying out the metalworking techniques of Susan Lenart-Kazmer. The BronzClay was brand new and I wanted to try it out.


I finally got around to working with it. I've got a bunch of used clay tools - but this one is my favorite. I'm sure there's a technical name for it, but I've got no idea since I rescued the tools from the trash.

I don't consider myself to be very good at working with clay. I've tried making some ceramic beads (a disaster) and some polyclay handles for crochet hooks (ugly) and I just can't seem to get the hang of it. But I really want to make some charms to go with the wire and glass I'm making soooo I wanted to have a go with the bronze metal clay.

Have you tried something new lately? What prompted you to try it out?