To Patina or Not Patina

This is the exquisite ring that Rachel made during our time with Kate (and what an incredible little thing it is - clever girl). The pics show the ring in the bright silver after being tumbled and then blackish from the patina. It's been tumbled again after and has turned out a beautiful colour (don't think I got a pic of that one - might need Rachel to take a pic of it now to show you the difference). Kate's book "Structural Metal Clay" explains the patina process beautifully and shows what amazing colours can be achieved using patina.


The ring in all it's silver glory........


and after patina - to be tumbled again.

Ringy Things!!!!

Soooooo many pictures and so few we showed........

Re-visiting the blog and looking through all the pics that we shared has made me realise that quite alot of great piccies got missed. Waaaaay too much fun and not enough time is what I put it down to!! Soooooo......without further ado......some(more)pics from our silver clay workshop with the very talented Kate McKinnon.



This is Rachels yummy ring stack.


This is my finished ring.


Kate showing us how to add a bead.


Kate finishing off her post rivet ring.

Bye Donna - Bye Puppies - Bye Everyone.........

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who made this experience possible - especially my fantabulous friend Rachel - without her this simply wouldn't have happened.





I'm not quite ready to say goodbye yet so will be showing some pics every now and then from the trip, and hopefully of new stuff I've made using some of these great techniques.

and so it's my last day.....

What an incredible adventure this has been, and so on the very last day Donna, Sylvie, Gerard and I all went shopping and on the way home Donna drove us through the Garden of the Gods. What an incredible place this was. I would love to come back here and sightsee next time. There are just so many beautiful things to see but not enough time to see them all (have to admit the clay play was pretty exciting so I don't feel like I missed out on anything).

I wish Rachel could have been here with me................

Smokin hot, smokey!

After wrecking my brand spanking new electric bead reamer, I hand drilled this lovely smokey quartz bead to fit the wide shaft of my silver clay ring to finally complete this lovely flower ring that Kate showed us, what seems a life time ago now! I particularly love the contrast of the patina and non-patina pieces together!

Thanks Kate, I love it, it hasn't left my hand since I finished it!

........and our new "gremlins"

Mumma, bubba and dadda. I used embossing powder and chalk pastels to tint some white and trans blue.


...kinda wierd guy....


and check out Dusty's absolutely awesome attempt. I think they're just sensational.

Great project Christi. We both loved this one - thanks so much.

Ghoulies!!!!!

These pics may be ones you've seen before but I wanted to revisit them as I've just had a play around at home creating some with my 11 year old daughter Dusty. I wanted to show you these pics again first and then will share the pics I took of our own little creations.


So these are Christi's gorgeous "gremlins" in all their gorgeousness.


....and this was my first little feeble attempt.

More Simple Embossing Powder Beads

So we're getting towards the end of the last day so rather than start another big project I decided to have a play around with coating some beads in embossing powder and seeing what happens. I've since had a play around with this at home and am learning lots of "what not to do". It can be tricky working with this stuff as a surface treatment - of course depending on what powder you're using. More experimenting to do.....

Mmmmm Embossing Powders......

So more great fun stuff to play with today - this time - embossing powders. These gorgeous little powders look simple enough in the jar but they can do oh! so much and oh! how I love them. We are simply mixing into some trans clay but the results are awesome. This is a sample bead don't forget (although you should see Donna's - it's freaking incredible!) so the shape is not that perfect and it, of course, hasn't been strung yet but again, you get the idea.


Yummy embossing powder.


Mixed into the clay.


Getting ready to be a bead.


My yummo bead.

Donna's Screenprinted Pieces.

You know I absolutely loved watching Donna work - her sample pieces turn out freaking awesome every time. Gotta love it......



These are Donna's screenprinted pieces ready for baking. She ended up showing me how to turn them into some great pendants but I didn't get pics of those - sorry.

I'll show you pics of my stuff tomorrow.

Screenprinting On Clay - Oh What Fun!!!

So this is a great technique that we learnt on our second day of claying. We decided to play around with different surface treatments for polymer clay. This is probably some of the stuff that I love doing the most. I have never played with screenprinting (on clay that is)and haven't even seen any of the screens. This was a real treat for me to be able to learn this process.


So this is a screen.


This is my clay after one run through with paint.


I did take lots of pics that ended up blurry so sorry about the quality of this one but you get the idea.



Finished pieces ready for baking. Yay!!!

Get set to revisit some old pics.

You know the journey is almost over but I still have so many pics that I didn't include in the blog, many that I can share so keep a look out for some workshops that I'll revisit.

Here's a sneak peak now..............



and what could this be I wonder..................

The Finished Paintings - woohoo!!

So this is my finished piece. We could have cut out sections to create pendants or such - I wanted to bake the whole thing cause I couldn't face the thought of cutting into this. I think they make great "wall art".




......and Donna's drop dead gorgeous piece. Really, really love this technique.

Thanks so much for showing me Donna.

Painting with Clay - Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Another fantastic project that Donna showed me how to do is painting with clay. I've never seen this done before but I think I'm now addicted. I loved the "teeniness" of it all (if that's even a word). Piecing each bit together to create a picture was pretty awesome and veeeerrrrryyyyyyy relaxing.


So this is the black/gold skinner blend base.


The leaves that will become part of this great picture.


The scrappy cane (which Donna had in her stash already and I totally have to try - who can go wrong with this one...) which will form the tree branches.


This is now part of the pic close to completion. Tune in tomorrow for my finished painting and Donna's finished painting.

Donna's Goodies!!

So when I first got into Donna's studio we were talking about what sort of things we thought would be good to make and so out came a large stash of unbelievable work that's all been created by Donna herself. The finish in each piece is second to none and for me was particularly a good thing to see. I'm a bit hasty in my making and like to get as much done in a small amount of time as possible (sooo many other things interrupt my clay play) but have realised that if I want to create quality pieces I need to think of how it will be finished and put more effort into the planning and finishing of each piece.

and so check this out..........

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Awesome Donna Kato Bangle

So using the same components we used for the big bead we decided to create ourselves a pretty yummy bangle.

I learnt some great little tips and tricks in this one so hope I've got my notes written up well (must check and make sure I understand them....)


So first a black bangle base was made and decorated with some of the zipper cane spirals. Oh my gosh - I just love these spirals.


More spirals.


A pink clay "inner" was added to increase strength and then pink logs added to the rim for effect.


Bulls eye cane dots were added here......


and here....and reduced and added - yummy bangle.
This one ended up too small for me so will make a great pressie for darling daughter Dusty.

Spot The Deer....

Got very excited when I spotted a deer out the window below. By the time I got my camera he'd moved - can anyone see him?????

Woops........

.......and this is what happens if you don't sand the bangle properly prior to adding the border cane. You can see that my edges weren't straight and so my border didn't sit properly. I also had a problem with the piece cracking due to air bubbles after attaching my veneer hence the green stripey bit added. I know what NOT to do next time. This one is still to be finished so will get some pics on completion. Awesome project - loved this one.

Donna's Awesome Sculptural Bangles

I really love this bracelet. I can see so much potential in this one - from sculptural pieces to smaller versions for pendants or even wall pieces. The possibilities are endles........



So we started with the scrap clay core.


Creating the inlay veneers.


Veneers finished and attached to the core.


One side of the bangle with striped cane border.


Other side of the bangle with striped cane border.

and so the big beads continue........

Sanding, sanding and even more sanding to create the perfect finish on these beads - as I mentioned the finish can either make or break these beads.


A little lotion helps "bring back the black".


The finished piece - yay!!!!