metal clay adventures

Hullo!

 Just wanted to share some WIP shots of the metal clay pieces I've done over the last few weeks :) This first one was done with the syringe + paste type clay.. Honestly, I hate the syringe. Up til now I can't help but feel that anything that can be done with the syringe can be done more easily  using other types of clay.. I'm still working on finding something that doesn't end up as an exercise in frustration (and futility). On the bright side, I have gotten a lot of practise at reconstituting dried-up broken rejects back into usable clay.

Pendant - Fine silver and Cubic Zirconia (L-before firing, R-just after firing)

It's really, really bright straight out of the kiln, and in any case I've never really liked the shiny look of silver, I think it obscures a lot of the detail - much prefer the matte/brushed and oxidised finish. So that's how I'll finish this..

The next set are pictures I took while making a hinged box, which I've always wanted to do :) I love anything that can move, so hinges, lockets, and kinetic jewelry are the kinds of things I want to try making.

Hinged castle box - unfired metal clay

I didn't really plan this one out, actually. It started out as a hollow formed castle turret meant to be a pendant, but I wasn't happy with how it was turning out so I chopped the bottom half of it off, and decided to save the top to use on a box lid. And when I started cutting out the box pieces, I intended for it to be a two-piece box, not a hinged one... The hinge was a huge pain to make, and I broke the whole thing so many times (the entire piece fell off my table once) it's quite a miracle it's still intact and functioning :D Very pleased with how it's turning out though, I spent several minutes opening and closing it and grinning to myself once the hinge was complete. I'm not sure if I should keep working on this and add a catch, or just fire it already.

So having made a working hinge, I started thinking about other types of movable parts, and came up with my next project. Based on the idea of a spinner ring, and incorporating some of my more science-geek sort of interests :D Really excited to make it but I don't think I'll be able to for quite some time yet (not least because preliminary trials on how to make a spinner ring with metal clay have ended in spectacular failure, probably because I was stupid enough to try it with a syringe.) 

Anyhow. I'll try to get some work done on that, although I really should be focusing on my midterms D:

♥ Jasmyn