Lots of time spent today working on several new incarnations of these flat PMC silver beads. I made some flat beads to match those toggle clasps I worked on last week, and worked on hollow form earrings.
To make the flat PMC beads, I place a piece of “wax wire” across the “equator” of one side of the circle. Then I place the other circle on top, to make a flat disc bead with a hole through the center. (The wax melts away in firing, leaving the hole intact. I won’t have to drill.)
I tried the Bronze clay today for the second time. Good thing I watched some of the videos that are available on You tube. It made a big difference to condition the clay before using it.( Something I had not paid attention to the first time.) When I made the flat, two-sided beads in bronze, they did not warp while drying, as other flat bronze pieces have done. Might have been the wax wire through the center, or the fact that two sides pushed against each other create some kind of counteracting tension? I’m not sure what will happen to the wax when I fire the bronze.
The glass in the necklace above is not sea glass. I wish I had such a collection! Instead these are pieces of glass that have been commercially tumbled. I love their translucence, color, and consistency in size, and how they compliment my hand made beads.
Barbara S Fernald Jewelry 