Tutorial Tuesday - Art Clay Textured Heart bead

One of the things I like best about writing the Spotlight review pages for Beads and Beyond is writing the review of the blog of the month, as it gives me the perfect excuse for spending time finding great new blogs to read! Joy Funnell's blog, Fired with Imagination, is a perfect example, and as she posted a great tutorial on using silver clay paste and cork clay (something I've been intrigued by but never sure how to use) to make the beautiful heart bead shown above I thought I'd make it this week's tutorial. It's a lot easier than I thought it would be, especially with Joy breaking it down into easy to follow steps with photos!

You can find the tutorial here, and if you want to find out more about Joy's work and her teaching go and read her blog, and also buy the August issue of Beads and Beyond in a couple of weeks!

Tutorial Tuesday - Art Clay Silver basics

This week's Tutorial Tuesday is from Nicola at Murano Silver. Nic produces amazing silver art clay and enamelled work, writes magazine articles (see her latest in June's Beads and Beyond!) and also keeps her blog stocked with great hints and tips on using silver art clay.

These are her latest tutorials - three videos on the basics of silver art clay. I've seen so many tutorials and videos that either aren't clear, completely miss out the basics, or both, so watching these was great. Here they are:

How to condition silver art clay

Rolling out silver clay

Texturing silver clay

Oh, and while you're at Nic's flickr page, have a look at the pictures of her gorgeous new kitten!

Time for bed!

Well, the new jewellery is priced up, all my pendants are displayed on boards so that I can hopefully just put the boards up on my stall and save myself some time in the morning, everything I need for tomorrow is (hopefully!) piled up on the dining room table ready to pack in the car...it's definitely time for bed!

B and I did manage to get most of our jobs done yesterday. He's really proud of his new car seat, bless him, and loves the fact that the base of it has two pull-out holders for his drink and snacks! I love the fact that it's not so far off the main car seat so that if he drops something he's more likely to be able to pick it up himself. The only thing on my list that I didn't manage to get done yesterday was soldering, but I've been able to make up for that today as T and B went over to my parents for the afternoon. The soldering jobs I had to do were putting bails on the backs of these pendants. The leaf is sterling silver with autumnal tourmaline beads. The tree is fine silver, made with precious metal clay. I've oxidised both pendants to highlight the texture. I've decided to make the tree a made-to-order item on the website, maybe with the option of different beads - you can just about see these in the picture. What do you think?

Anyway, I'm off to get some sleep before tomorrow! Night night!

My very first cufflinks

These are the very first cufflinks I made - yes, I know I said I would show you these at the weekend, but I had to find where T had hidden them so I could photograph them! They are made from silver art clay and have B's fingerprint in the middle - and that took longer to do than I expected!


I had been told that it was better to make a mould of B's finger print and then use that to make an impression into the art clay as that would give a better impression, so I mixed up some two-part moulding compound. B loves playing with play dough, so you'd think that getting him to press an index finger into the moulding compound before it set would be no trouble at all, but it took a few attempts! I then used fimo to make a 'finger' that I could bake and then press into the art clay. It's not that that clear in the photo, but I also scratched B's name and the date into the back of the dried cufflinks before I fired them. The finished cufflinks were lightly oxidised to make the fingerprints easier to see. Thankfully T did like them alot after all that work!


By the way, the cufflinks that I posted on Friday are finally on the website here!

My cufflinks!

There is a category on the front page of my website labelled 'Bridal and for him', and up until now it's been empty apart from a sign saying 'coming soon'. At last I have something to put in it! I've decided to take out the bridal part, as I realised that alot of the designs I was thinking about putting in there are ones that I'd put in the Limited Edition section anyway, and I don't see the point in having the same items listed twice, it only makes the site more confusing. Anyway, the bridal commissions I've done so far have been either completely new designs or variations of existing designs that brides have seen in the Exclusives or Limited Edition sections.

So, the category has been renamed 'For Him' and these are the first items going in. Each cufflink has been made using silver art clay, so the front design is fine silver while the chain and bar on each is sterling silver. I love the feel of finished silver art clay - it is so tactile. I've lightly oxidised them to give an antique effect and given them a satin finish, but I'm also going to make some that aren't oxidised.

I have a confession to make though - these aren't the first I've made, just the first I've actually photographed and shown you! The first pairs I made were for T and my Dad for Father's Day. I've made some for Spice Art Studios too, and just finished a couple of commission ones, but I can't show you those yet! I'll photograph T's to show you tomorrow as I'm really pleased with them!

P.S. It was my neighbour's funeral today - it went as well as these things ever can. There was a lovely turn out, and I'd say about a third of the households in the street were represented - a lot in this day and age. All this has definitely made me want to get to know my neighbours better. You can't predict what your neighbours are going to be like when you move into a new house, and we have definintely been lucky with ours.

P.P.S. I haven't been able to post since Monday. To cut a long story short I'd tried out a new comments box that blogger had come up with, but I didn't like the look of it in the end. I couldn't upload the backed up original of my template that I had thankfully remembered to save until I remembered older versions of IE sometimes work better with blogger templates than the latest, so uploaded the backed up template through that - and here I am! Maybe now I'll learn not to mess around with my template - maybe!

Work in progress

It's been another busy Thursday here. I'm doing a craft show with other Wessex Guild of Craftsmen members on Saturday at Chichester, so I've been pricing and organising and making some last minute bits and pieces. I was going to take some photos too but my daylight bulb blew yesterday and it's been horrible weather here (again!), so for now you'll have to make do with a picture of some work in progress I'm afraid!

First thing this morning I used silver art clay to make lots of bits and pieces. By this afternoon (with help from my hairdryer!) they were dry and so I've spent the last hour or so sanding them down. What you can see in the picture will by this time tomorrow be stud earrings, pendants, drop earrings and cufflinks - yes, I'm adding cufflinks to my repertoire at last! There's been a section for men's jewellery on the website for a while now, so I thought it was about time I filled it! I have made some cufflinks before now, but they've ended up the galleries or being given as presents. I've mentioned art clay before, but if you're not familiar with it have a look at this site http://www.silverclay.co.uk/.

Anyway, the show on Saturday is at the Assembly Rooms in North Street in Chichester. It runs from 10am until 4pm, and if you come along and spend £30 or more on my stall and mention my blog I'll give you 10% off. This only applies to my stall though! Other crafts exhibited by the Wessex Guild will include ceramics, fused glass and woodwork.

Happy Mothering Sunday!

I hope that all of you mothers had a lovely day today! I had a lie-in reading my new chick-lit book and then T and B brought me breakfast in bed, a box of malteasers and a card that B had made for me - bliss! While I was having my lie-in T was teaching B to say 'cheese' when he has his photo taken - above is one of the couple of dozen photos he took! We spent the morning at Longdown Activity Farm feeding the animals and stroking the rabbits and chicks. B loves it there and I've bought a season ticket again this year so we can go whenever we like.

B fell asleep in the car when we were about 5 minutes away from home and I managed to move him into his cot without him waking so I managed to get a couple of hours this afternoon to make up some of the ideas I've had floating around and to catch up with some photos. I made quite a few pairs of hoop earrings but I'm not happy with the photos of them yet, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for them!

I did manage to photograph some of the silver art clay work I made before I had that horrible cold, so that's what you can see here. The first pendant is my favourite. I did think about oxidising it at first, but I think that the pearls show up better without it. The second pendant and the earrings use the silver art clay pieces that I made on my course with Hilary Bowen. It took me a while to decide how to use them as the idea I had in mind at the course didn't look right when I got home.

Happy Birthday Mum!

My mum is 30 again today. I'm not sure she'd want me to put her actual age, but just so you know, she doesn't look it. In fact my Grandma (Dad's side) is 90 but looks about 70, so I'm hoping I've inherited the 'looking younger' genes from both sides of the family! And to think that I used to want to look older.....

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! I hope you had a lovely day and that Dad is spoiling you this evening. See you on Sunday!

I've had a lovely surprise... Laura has sent me a 'You make my day' award - thank you! There are rules attached to this award, however, so I've got to get thinking - not what I find easiest on Friday evening, but I'll try my best!
To pass the award on, here are the details :
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make My Day Award” logo
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

I've tried to award blogs that inspire me and/or make me laugh, but not those that Laura has already awarded so that the award gets passed on rather than go round in circles!
So in no particular order I award:
1. Hannah at Kutuu - beautiful silver jewellery
2. Jo at Gemheaven - a gorgeous mix of silver, gemstones, lampwork and seaglass
3. Kerry at Kab's creative concepts - amazingly colourful beads
4. Bakerella - you just have to see these mouthwatering cakes!
5. Project Felt - practical 'green' advice and lovely felted products - I love knitting and felting bags and bowls!

So, I'm off to post on their blogs to let them know! By the way, my silver art clay jewellery is now on my website. I've been playing with the clay again today, so I should have some more to show you in a day or two.

Valentine Hearts

As it's Valentine's Day I had to show you photos of the hearts I've been making over the last couple of days, didn't I? I'm really pleased with the pendant (below). I did a day's workshop with Hilary Bowen (http://www.silverclayjewellery.co.uk/) in December and absolutely loved it. I had been promising myself a place on the course for a couple of years and the friend who wanted to come with me and I finally managed to find a date that we could both do. It was the first jewellery workshop that I had been to where I hadn't been the teacher, and it was very relaxing! I was given a starter kit for Christmas and have since bought some more clay, some of which you can see below! I've added garnet, rose quartz and peridot and hung it on a long chain. I'm making one for myself, but this one will be on the website tomorrow.
I've used silver art clay to make these heart earrings too - one small pair and one larger. I'm going to put these on the site as 'made-to-order' but I'll keep a couple of pairs in stock for those urgent orders!And lastly, another pair of silver heart and garnet earrings. I've used rounded chips of garnet in this ones rather than the drum beads that I used in these as I used the last of the drum beads in my butterfly! I love those beads though, so I'm going to have to visit http://www.b-for-beads.co.uk/ and get some more! As it's been a lovely sunny (but cold!) day here today, I've had a fun day making jewellery and a fun evening teaching a workshop at Spice Art Gallery I'm extending my 10% off offer for a week - spend £50 or more on jewellery via my website before midnight on 21st February to receive 10% your order. Just use the code 'Valentine' at checkout. Happy Valentine's Day!