October 2010 – Ornamento

Painterly Polymer Necklace

I had a lot of color swatches and scraps after I completed the pattern and color sample exercises from Polymer Clay Color Inspirations.

Pattern Samples Bracelet

I layered them onto a 1/8″ sheet of clay and rolled them through the pasta machine to see how they would look as I rolled them thinner and thinner. The well-leached clay crumbled in interesting patterns. The fresher clay spread in a manner similar to what you see in Maggie Maggio’s Watercolor Technique. I continued laminating clay (see the transparent layers), noted where the most interesting patterns were and cut out pods. After baking, I put the pods in polymer clay bezels, baked again, drilled and strung on buna cord with o rings and polymer tube beads. It’s difficult to see in the photographs, but I put a layer of Envirotex Lite on top of the colored part of the pods. The necklace has a matte finish and a bunch of tiny dings that, in this case at least, I think adds to its appearance.

I plan to play around with this technique and will post any interesting results.

New Lampwork from an Unlikely Souce

My friend Sandeye gave me these glass chunks. They were left over from a glass installation she and Phil Jurus assisted with in New York City some years ago.

Sandeye wondered how the glass would looked made into beads fumed with fine silver, I said I would give it a go and see what turned out.

First, I pulled the chunks into rods and stringers. Slowly, I might add.

Then I started making beads.

I couldn’t mix the glass since I didn’t know the COE of any of it, so I experimented with silver fuming.

Then I got bolder.

I added copper metal leaf

I added baking soda

I added pixie dust

I mixed them all up and fumed again

I put raised stringer designs on them

I melted the stringers in

I made hollow beads

I tried reduction flames

I even thinned aluminum foil in my rolling mill to see how that would work. Not too well.

I made spacers

I made tubes

I made round beads

I made tablets

I even cut up copper pot scrubbers and got some cool effects.

See those dark spots? That’s copper scrubber I cut with scissors.

Eventually, I used up all the glass.

By the way, I made the beads on my new Mega Minor torch I bought from Wale Apparatus at Bead Fest in August.

I’ve been busy, haven’t I?

Think Sandeye will be surprised when she gets her beads? Don’t worry. I will keep a few.

Susan’s Blue Candy Dish

By: ornamento.blog October 14, 2010October 14, 2010

Art, beads, lampwork, Personal History, problem solving, recycling, repurposing, risk takingArt, creativity, Found Object Jewelry, inspiration, recycling, repurposing5 Comments

I broke Susan’s cobalt blue candy dish. An old cobalt blue candy dish. It was probably an heirloom. Susan took one look and said “Phooey.” Then she smiled. “Make me something from the pieces.” So I took the pieces home and stared at them. I got an idea. I put them in my rock tumbler and tumbled them into velvety looking beach glass. I didn’t know what to do next. I showed them to Susan and asked what she thought. “I liked it better shiny,” she commented. Phooey, I thought. I put the glass away. That was twenty-five years ago.

One day I took the glass out and stared at it because the time had come to make something for Susan out of the glass. The glass was talking to me. Not only that, I had taken up lampworking in the twenty-five years that had passed, and I will stick mostly anything in the flame. Well, that’s not exactly true. I don’t cook in the flame or light combustibles or body parts. I respect the flame. But I love to play and experiment.

I made lots of beads for Susan using all kinds of inclusions where the COE of the glass didn’t matter. I had didn’t have a plan or directions; I just heeded the laws of chemistry and improvised as I went. After kiln annealing, I put the beads in a box along with with some findings and jewelry tools and other beads and gave them to Susan. She took one look and clapped her hands. “Oh, goody gumdrops!” she exclaimed.

One day when I can tie her down, we will make things with the beads. Here’s to the next 25 years, Susan!

Here are the beads I kept.

I will post next week on how I get these effects with scrap glass.

What I made in Olivia Surratt’s Class

I first met Olivia Surratt at a two-day workshop the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild sponsored with Robert Dancik. For some reason, I liked Olivia right from the start. I don’t know why; sometimes that’s the way it goes. So when Olivia offered to teach a wire and fusing class to benefit the guild, I jumped at the chance to take it, even though wire working is not new to me. Not only has Olivia studied with some great teachers, no matter what you think you know, you can always learn something new or a better way to do something from a good teacher. Olivia did not disappoint me.

One of the first things I did was to replace my portable butane torch with the model Olivia likes best, the original Blazer GB 2001 Self Igniting Micro Blazer Torch. It actually costs less than the torch I already have, but works so much better.

Olivia and Pauline, her trusty assistant, led us through her methods for fusing fine solver and wrapping with copper wire. I used beads I made. Here are some pictures. I give the class an A plus!