Beading Arts

Here are some artists who will make you drool.  No, really!  Put a cover on your keyboard before you start clicking... Lorena Angulo  ( update ) Joan Rhodes   Judy Grun Vie Blakey Linda Kaye-Moses  Andrew Thornton Sherry Eckert JJ Singh  Maureen and Rebecca Worth   ( update ) Melissa Lee  Dale Wayne Avril Scott Delia Marsellos-Traister Jennifer Vestal    ( update ) Cheri Platter Joseph Rissin Shahasp Valentine Michelle Loon  Lis-el Crowley Carol Gregory Kristi Bowman-Gruel Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Metal Clay 101 for Beaders  by Kristal Wick How to make focals and findings that will integrate with your current beading style. Irina's Metal Clay Collection for Beaders  by Irina Miech Irina's favorite projects in metal clay. Metal Clay and Color  compiled by Mary Wohlgemuth The missing element for metal clay...up till now! The Absolute Beginners Guide to Making Metal Clay Jewelry   by Cindy Thomas Pankopf My new favorite beginner's guide.  Love it.   Metal Clay Origami Jewelry: 25 Contemporary Projects   by Sarah Jayne Cole Not for beginners!  The next new big thing? Metal Clay Fusion  by Gordon Uyehara The most gorgeous advanced work you'll ever see. Silver and Bronze Clay   by Hadar Jacobson A wonderfully inspiring book from one of the pioneers of BronzClay work Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry  by Kate McKinnon  An amazing book by a master jeweler Bronze Metal Clay  by Yvonne Padilla A tech...

If you already have a kiln for working with glass, or you have a torch, you might want to add metal clay to your techniques list at some point.  Metal clay is now available in several base metal forms, which are much much more affordable than the original fine silver and gold. Beading Arts tutorials: General instructions for working with CopprClay Forming, firing, and finishing CopprClay How to make silver clay leaves  Some simple CopprClay pendants   Making a CopprClay disc necklace - part one Making a CopprClay disc necklace - part two Making a CopprClay ammonite pendant - part one Making a CopprClay ammonite pendant - part two Simple molded piece from CopprClay Making small cameos with CopprClay CopprClay experiments Firing CopprClay Finishing CopprClay Tutorials by others: Copper Firing Guide  - by the incredible Wanaree 3 easy ways to patina metal  - with easy to find solutions! How to use heat to patina brass  - get a great fire-darkened ...

Kristal Wick has written a new book for Lark Books , called Metal Clay 101 for Beaders .  This is the second book in the "101 for Beaders" series.  The first, you might remember, was Candie Cooper's Metalworking 101 for Beaders   (my review).  I gave that book very high marks, and same goes for this one.  Kristal has a very easy to read and follow style of writing and illustrating her work. If you haven't ever gotten involved in metal clay before, you might just be amazed by the variety of forms that are now available.  Kristal's purpose in writing the book is to show you how to make pieces that will integrate with your current beadwork: focals, beads, bead caps, bead frames, toggles, charms, connectors, links, pendants, bracelet ends, and end cones.  Imagine having a toggle set for your necklace or bracelet, custom made!  Wouldn't that be great?  Well, Kristal will show you how.  There are 30 projects that combine metal clay comp...

Hinged project from Rings & Things Since metal isn't my primary thing, I always feel that I need to supplement what I share with you during Metal Month !  Here are some gorgeous projects that I've been collecting from all over the web, along with great instructions to go with them. Metal clay and seaglass Four free projects from Jewelry Making Daily Making a hinged project  (pictured above) Adding patina and texture Enameled copper tube beads Using an alphabet tool with clay Stamped metal bracelets Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

My friend Christine Ritchey took one look at my miserable pieces from the Tuesday post and promptly sent me some more suggestions for what could have gone wrong.  Aren't friends wonderful?! Hi Cyndi, First, it's refreshing to see someone posting failures! Heaven knows, we all have them. Here're are some thoughts, although you've probably thought of them yourself.   Did you reconstitute with distilled water? Were the pods and twigs really really dry? Could the clay or brush have been contaminated in any way? It does look like the clay might have needed a few more coats, but of course I'm having to look at the pictures on this itty bitty screen! ;-) I wrote back: Chris, you're such a sweetie! Thank you for your ideas. I did NOT use distilled water, but it was highly filtered. Still...hmmm... The twigs and pods were bone dry, but that's a good thing for me to mention to readers anyway, and I forgot. I think the major problem was two-fold: th...

Lorena Angulo If you're still looking for inspiration, don't forget about these fabulous artists that have shared their work with us over the years!      Dale Wayne Avril Scott Delia Marsellos-Traister Jennifer Vestal    ( update ) Cheri Platter Joseph Rissin Shahasp Valentine Michelle Loon  Lis-el Crowley Carol Gregory Kristi Bowman-Gruel Vie Blakey Linda Kaye-Moses  Andrew Thornton Sherry Eckert JJ Singh  Maureen and Rebecca Worth   ( update ) Melissa Lee  Lorena Angulo Joan Rhodes   Judy Grun Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

I collected some twigs and pods from around my house to do one of my CopprClay experiments.  If you've been following along with me, you know that I actually had some success at reconstituting some old clay and forming new pieces , firing them , and finishing them with a lovely LOS patina.  Now for the ones that didn't work out so well! I gave each of the twigs and pods coating after coating of copper slurry "paint", allowing each coat to dry.  I propped up and hung them between coats.  Before firing, I baked them at 200 F in my oven just to make extra extra sure that everything was dry. I carefully buried them in the activated charcoal and fired them in my kiln, and this is what happened: Every one of them crumbled, broke, flaked, and crunched away.  The problem is that I can't tell you which of two possible problems was the ultimate cause of the failure.  The clay was old and reconstituted, so as you may have noted on my other pieces...

Ok, so I've made some new pieces , mostly from reconstituted CopprClay, I've fired them, and now I'm ready to give them a nice finish.  All of these pieces are going to be wire brushed and then treated with a simple patina solution.  If I wanted a shiny finish, I would have followed up the brass wire brush with a red rouge polish instead.  You'll find more information on finishing pieces at my prior post, but I'm going to be using the same basic method here. The pieces come out of the kiln with no luster at all.  If they've been fired properly, the metal in the metal clay mixture has sintered and formed a solid metal pieces.  Impurities, moisture, and chemical reactions may get in the way of that.  But if all is well, you can get a wonderful shiny finish, though not mirror bright, with just a simple brass brush.  I use a few drops of dish soap as well, to remove the charcoal residue while I'm brushing.  The shot above shows one piece b...

Copper Clay elements by Kristi Bowman Nothing like some beautiful eye-candy to inspire you to dive into working with metal clay!  These pieces are not part of any tutorials that I know of, so please respect the artists' rights and be inspired by them only. Bronze Clay beauties by Aja Vaz Copper and Silver Clay brooch by Angela Crispin Beautiful patinas by Hattie Sanderson Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

The Art of Metal Clay  by Sherri Haab Artist and instructor Sherri Haab demonstrates metal clay’s remarkable versatility, showing how it can be textured, molded, carved, and sculpted to create gorgeous beads. Metal Clay Magic  by Nana Mizushima Packed with color photos showing each step of working with metal clay. Covers more than just beads, but has lots of techniques that can be used in making beads. Metal Clay Beads  by Barbara Becker Simon A highly rated book by a highly rated author  Pure Silver Metal Clay Beads  by Linda Kaye-Moses Wonderful step-by-step projects Enameling on Metal Clay  by Pam East Learn how to add a whole new dimension of color to your metal clay projects Metal Clay and Mixed Media Jewelry  by Sherri Haab How to combine this magical material with everything from resin and concrete to fibers and polymer clay Picture Yourself Creating Metal Clay Jewelry  by Tammy Powley Disclaimer: one of my projects is in this book, so ...

Yesterday, I showed you my most recent attempts to use reconstituted CopprClay to make some new pieces.  Once they dried out completely, I placed them in a 200 F oven for about 20 minutes just to make sure they were all bone dry.  Then it was into the kiln.  I've got more information on firing copper clay at this link.  It must be buried in a pan of activated charcoal to avoid oxidizing when it's fired.  The picture above shows you only one layer of pieces...all of the pieces I made fit into one firing by layering them with charcoal. I fired them at 1700 F for a little over three hours, and then ramped them back down over another hour, leaving them to finish cooling overnight.  It says a lot for my kiln that in the morning, the pan was still hot!  Not enough to burn, but certainly enough to notice. Here are the pieces that emerged.  You'll see that they are all dirty looking, and have no shine to them at all.  Just wait until the...