I don’t know why it pleases me so, but it does. Click on the photo for the link to the news.
Some days off-island
just feel longer than others.
Today was one of those days. It feels so good to be home by the fire. Day is done.
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Silver rock beads in progress
It’s really late. Actually it’s really early Monday morning and I have to get up in a few hours to spend the day off island. So here’s what I worked on today. (That would actually be yesterday, Sunday)
I gathered my silicone molds of beach rocks:
I rolled out silver PMC and pressed it into the rock half molds to make matching bead halves:
Once the clay dried enough to pop out of the mold without losing its shape, I finished drying the pieces on my cup warmers.
I made the edges smooth and flat and fit the two bead halves together, dried them again, and drilled holes for stringing.
They will need to be fully dry before I fire them in the kiln. Then they will come out as pure silver hollow beads that are shaped like the beach rocks I love to collect.
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Saturday’s excuses for not getting to work in the studio
We invited friends to come for dinner tonight. I thought I would be able to find time to work after I made the bolognese sauce:
But I still had sourdough bread to bake:
I remembered to throw some garlic in the oven to roast during the second half of baking the second loaf.
And still there was the house to clean and the table to set and a pineapple almond crunch pie to make.
Now I’ve posted my blog, I’ll take a shower, make a salad, and then people will arrive. That’s it. There’s my Saturday. I can’t wait to eat, and catch up with good friends. All in all some very good reasons to miss studio work today. It will be there tomorrow and so will I. Bright and early!
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Back to work with metal clay and a shout out to J.Fred
It sure seems like a long time. Maybe it was before Christmas that I last worked with silver PMC. I don’t even remember the last time I worked with bronze or copper clay.
I got ready by straightening out my tools, putting away other projects, and getting my metal clay bench in tidy shape as I figured out what I might do next. I actually had some specific earrings in mind; a pair I had made years ago and wanted to retry. The original pair were hollow, flat on the back and domed in front with an off center dip in the dome shape. I could not find the original mold I made with a plastic watercolor palette, so I tried again to get the shape.
These were not quite what I wanted, but I was not getting any closer with successive tries, so I worked with what I had. I wanted to use 40 gauge copper foil to recreate the dome and dip shape. By having a little mold of copper, I can lay the metal clay on it and transfer it directly to my cup warmer. Using a metal form to drape and shape the metal clay is a handy little trick I learned last winter from my metal clay mentor J.Fred Woell.* The copper foil or wire heats up quickly, so the clay dries quickly and it doesn’t stick to the metal.
Getting the foil shaped properly didn’t work as well as I had hoped, but I’ll keep at it. It may be that for this particular design I just have to wait for the dome shape to air-dry on the plastic water color palette. I have a few other tricks to try before I give up on this idea.
I also made some cone shapes out of the foil to use for shaping and quickly drying cones from PMC. I would like to use them more with multi strand sections of necklaces. I made some a while ago but they were too wide. I used this handy dandy tool I picked up at a conference to get a thin cone shape. Without the foil cones I could shape the clay directly on the plastic form, then wait and wait for it to dry, or dry it a little more quickly with a hair dryer. With three little copper cones, I can make 6 cone beads in the time it would take for one to dry enough to remove from the plastic form.
The results were more predictable this time.
*To my friend and teacher, J.Fred Woell, congratulations on your well-earned recognition from the Society of North American Goldsmiths. When you introduced me to precious metal clay in 1998 it changed my life!
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Then and Now
What a difference between last year and this year.
Green grass in February!
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More hearts,
though none of the photos were taken today. I just like to capture heart images when I come across them. The last one is the only one I created. All the others are as they appeared on the ground when I walked by.
Hover over the photo to see where they were taken.
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On Valentine’s Day morning, before I got up….
…my sweetie pie rushed around, hoping I would sleep late, so he could make a card for me.
Just like he did 22 years ago!
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35 to 40 knots west northwest
It was a pretty good breeze last night, and still a bit breezy this morning as I hurried to board the mailboat and get out of the wind and into the warm cabin. I didn’t even look around as I walked down the dock. But once on the boat, still waiting for the mail to come down from the post office, everyone else was doing this:
What were they looking at through the pilings at low tide?
The hangers had “let go” at the dock end of the bridge at the Cranberry Isles Fishermen’s Co-op. They had worn out more than anyone realized and the nighttime wind and wave action took their toll.
Coming home this afternoon at high tide, I looked over to see if the bridge at the Co-op had been fixed.
Nope. Apparently, before noon, the Acadia Fuel Barge showed up to get the bridge out of the water (it may be made of aluminum but it is heavy and 40 feet long). They took it to Manset where guys from Ocean House picked it up to do the welding repair. Everyone is hoping it will be back in place by tomorrow, but in the meantime, the only way to get to the co-op float is by skiff.
A slice of island life.
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New sea glass pieces in necklace
Mixing Keith O’Connor‘s raku beads with my own silver beads, I finally figured out what I wanted to do for my first necklace using some pieces of English sea glass that I spent the last few days drilling.
The whole time I was drilling I imagined combining these greens with freshwater pearls. I strung and restrung a series of combinations, but nothing seemed right. Surprisingly, a necklace of all sea glass seemed too “blah” this afternoon. I ended up going back to my asymmetric comfort zone, and included some of the ceramic beads I’ve had on hand.
I just love this sea glass and can’t wait to drill more and come up with more designs. I know I’ll find a way to use the pearls with it; today just wasn’t the day.
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Barbara S Fernald Jewelry 