Yikes! Its amazing how easily a week away can turn into 2 months. Its been incredibly busy around here - I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to blogging! I've been learning new techniques and trying to improve others - working with fine silver clay, soldering, using gilder's paste, and more.
Here's some pics of a pair of earrings I made using a mold of an antique button, fine silver clay (PMC3) and a handheld torch:
I fired my silver pieces with a handheld torch since I do not have a kiln. I do all of my torch work out on my back porch so I don't get fumes in the house. You can see from the pictures that it was a nice sunny day. I now do my firing later in the day so that it is easier to see the color of the clay as it heats up. For those of you who haven't worked with fine silver clay before, you have to keep the piece at a certain color (this indicates the temperature) for a certain amount of time.
The top two pictures show the finished pair of earrings. After firing, I oxidized the silver and then added dark blue Gilder's Paste to the recessed areas. I also soldered on the sterling silver ear posts. It has been a few years since I soldered and it took a few times to get it right.
I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out. I've got a couple more projects planned with the fine silver clay. I can't wait to get started!
0 comments:
Post a Comment