Riveting - after workshops in Warsaw :)

 The workshops in Wytwórnia Antidotum jewellery making school were really great :). Quite surprisingly, the most interesting thing I learned there was riveting. Well, I generally knew how does it work, but I've never tried it before and it's always about details, not "general knowledge" ;). Here is what I did - pure work of art, isn't it? ;)))))))))). Thanks to this utterly ugly piece I practiced two types of rivets - "normal" ones and stilt rivets.

I also saw a lot of scary, huge machines ;). I mean professional jewellery making equipment :). I was really startled by the fact that these things are usually so specialized... I saw special tool for cutting pieces of tubing (!!!), special tool for making dome shaped pieces of metal sheet, special tool for cutting circles (seriously? :))))... If I wanted to have fully equipped, traditional workshop I would need another apartment to put all these things there. Yes. I know. It usually works exactly this way. I'm simply quite an anti-tool person. I usually have as few things as possible. Generally my hands are my best tool. I guess it only shows how unprofessional I am ;).

But of course I'm really happy I was there, learned a lot of new things and met great people (huge thanks to the teacher of our group - Remigiusz Grodzicki). It was a wonderful experience and I wanted to try my newly acquired skills as soon as I came back to Cracow. And here is what came out of it. It's a ring with hidden rivets.

This enamelled "bowl" part with sculpted flowers is made of silver clay, and band plus stone setting is made of regular silver sheet.
Below you can see how I made it.

First of all I made this element out of Art Clay Silver. This was also the first time I worked with "the new formula" which recently hit the market. I got a package from my wonderful supplier - Planetart. Honestly I'm a bit dissapointed. Yes - this new formula is softer, has great workability, longer working time, is a bit more like polymer clay or a bubble gum ;) etc. etc., but for me Art Clay Silver became second PMC. And I don't like this. I really liked to be able to choose. Art Clay was better for filing, but worse for carving and PMC quite the opposite. Now there are two brands of silver clay that are great for carving, but non of them is good for filing. The silver lining is that I recently really like to work with PMC3 (which isn't available in Poland) and now I won't have to buy it abroad. Art Clay will do just fine. But enough about the clay.

As you can see, the piece in the photo is already fired. I made two holes for future rivets before firing and used wet packing technique to put white enamel on its surface.

And here is the piece after firing enamel and oxidizing. I also tried another new thing here. I found on Vickie Hallmark's blog an information that it is possible to use a pencil to create sketches on enamelled surface. It really works and I love it! It was the first time I tried it, so it isn't exactly what I intended, but I will definitely practice this technique.

Then I made an irregular band out of silver sheet and drilled two matching holes in it. Why two and not just one? I wasn't so sure about my riveting skills, and I was afraid my ring would spin. So I decided to make two rivets instead of one, to constrain potential movement.
Then, also using silver sheet, I made a bezel cup with corresponding holes in its base...

...and riveted the hole thing :). Fortunately it turned out nothing was moving and my rivets were very tight.

Finally I set a stone (it's a citrine - with faceted front and flat back), made some finishing and the ring was ready :).
I'm totally in love with white enamel. There is something so pure and magical about it. It is simply inviting to "spoil" it ;). With a sketch, with a drop of colour... Just like a blank piece o paper :).

Ok, enough for today. Ah, and one more thing. If you want to read some more of my blabbing ;) check the latest newsletter of Metal Clay Academy. I was honoured to be chosen as a Featured Artist there. I'm really happy about this :).

First trial with glass enamel

A few weeks ago I finished my first enamelled piece ever - "Vintage garden" pendant :).

Well, maybe not really the first one, but two pieces with enamel I made before were super simple - just a tiny pendant and earrings with a bit of enamel in recessed area. I torch fired them and even in case of so simple projects I had problems with enamelled surface cracking. So generally I was a bit psyched out by enamelling ;) and I worked only with uv resin and epoxy enamel since then.
But then Metal Clay Today announced theme of their Summer 2012 challenge - "Enamored" - enamelling on metal clay. Well, I thought that it would be great pretext to finally try enamelling again, and this time make something more complex. I had only a few colours of enamel, so I decided to go "black & white" with 22 K gold accents. I drew a rough sketch:

 

I wanted a domed black & white enamelled silver cabochon with gold accents in oval, concave, gilded frame. Fristly I formed oval cab out of cork clay:

Then I formed a silver clay cabochon on it and drew sketch of my flowers:

By placing thin coils on lines of my drawing I formed cells for enamel and a few elevated flowers. I filed coils down a bit to make them flat:

Then I formed around it a thick coil out of Fimo to make a support for  my concave frame: 

 

I formed a frame on it, let it dry, and then I took it off Fimo coil. I filed my frame a bit ( a few "chips") to add vintage touch to its shape:

 

Then I added a background to the frame - to make a support for my  future cabochon, and fired it in my kiln to turn ACS into pure silver.

After firing I checked if the cab still fits the frame :).

 

And then I begun enamelling... I really know nothing about it, but thanks to wonderful Joy Funnell I read some basics and knew more or less how to begin. So I begun with counter enamel. I chose opaque black. I only left a little leaf motif at the back to be filled later with white enamel. I used so called wet packing technique - I just "packed" wet enamel on silver surface using a tiny brush. Actually I was really surprised that enamel powder stuck somehow to this curved surface and didn't slip down. I fired this in my kiln in 800 °C. It came out not too smooth, with no enamel in a few places, so I had to add more enamel and fire it again. There is a big difference (for me) between firing enamel and firing metal clays - you have to put a piece into the kiln which is already SO very hot. I did it for the first time in my life - I've never opened orange glowing kiln before - it was really scary ;).

 Then I begun working on a front of my cab. I was gilding and adding enamel at the same time - temperature in which enamel is fired is sufficient for gold to fuse on silver surface.

 

After adding black enamel I covered rest of silver surface with white enamel. I was afraid that during firing counter enamel may stick to my firing pad, so I put a few scalpels under it ;). I have no enamel firing trivet or tray, so I had to improvise.

It took a few firings to fill all cells well with enamel, but finally it looked like this:

Nothing cracked! Of course it isn't perfect (there are a few places I should put more enamel on, and there are a few tiny "stains" which could be covered - but I didn't want to fire the cab once again - white enamel was becoming a bit yellowish in a few places). I decided that this piece should have a vintage feeling, so some "irregularities" are quite welcome :). Then I prepared a frame - I gilded the inside of the frame and asymmetrically soldered a few prongs with tiny balls and a jump ring. I oxidized and partially polished both parts of the piece, I set the cab and the pendant was ready :). I know, I know it's not perfect, but I'm really happy with it. It's always so great to try something new. I already have tons of ideas for enamelled jewellery :).