Weekend Artist Retreat

The fabulous Lora Hart & Lorena Angulo traveled to Austin this weekend to play in my studio. Today's project was torch firing enamels. We dapped copper disks, coated with a white base coat, then outlined in black & finally filled in watercolor with a brush, with firings between each step. This is my demo sample.

Torch-fired enamel by Vickie Hallmark

Here's Lora hard at work on her watercolors. Such concentration.

Lora Hart

Lora Hart painting watercolor enamel

Across the table, Lorena was just as absorbed.

Lorena Angulo

Lorena Angulo painting watercolor enamel

And here are the results.

Torch-fired enamel by Lora Hart

Torch-fired enamel by Lorena Angulo

In between all the enamel, we visited some local galleries, where we got to admire two Cynthia Toops brooches with a loupe.  Tomorrow, we make journals before heading to San Antonio to Lorena's studio for more play time.

Affirmations Continue

The affirmation journal is continuing slowly. It is definitely more fun to flip through it and focus on my daily affirmations than to flip through the boring, plain index cards that are the first iteration. More work is needed on every page, but I know that steady work will make it all happen.

Affirmation #3

If only it were as easy as writing it down!

Hallmarks and Purity Marks for Metal Clay Jewelry

I have a fetish for the backs of my work. I want the reverse side to have as much care and planning as the front, so I often embellish it. Even adding hallmarks and purity marks should be done with a degree of finesse.

Because all my recent work is sterling, I want to mark it with .925 (sterling is 925/1000 silver). I could just stamp it during the process, but that runs the risk of marring the front side. My solution is to stamp into a thin sheet of fresh clay, then cut out tiny decals to adhere. I use the same process for my hallmark. (In case you're wondering, my name is for real -- I was born with it!)

Here's my process:

1. roll a sheet of clay one card thick
2. gently mark with a commercial steel .925 (or .999) stamp or hallmark
3. use a cutter (a straw or tube) to cut out a circle around the mark, or use a knife to cut straight sides
4. dry and refine if needed
5. to attach, simply moisten both greenware surfaces with a damp brush and press firmly together
6. add a light wash of water with the brush around all the edges and then dry
7. fire piece as usual

Voila! Professional markings in little time. Hint: I make a bunch of each mark at a time, then store the dry decals in a container to be ready when I need them.

Here are the latest sterling clay earrings, from the front:

More Sterling Clay Experiments

I ran another course of sterling clay through the kiln last night, technically finishing my Four a Month project on time, although I didn't do the patina until today.

I made a couple of small hollow-form heart pendants or charms.

This first one taught me to remember to protect openings from the carbon, as the carbon wedged inside the piece caused it to crack. I'll have to repair it.

This version utilized fine silver syringe work on top. It's not true that fine silver must be fired in air -- it works well! It IS necessary to remove the binder with oxygen available, for all of the metal clays in fact. But after the binding is gone, sintering takes place either open or buried in carbon. Fine silver and gold were the first metal clays manufactured because the pure metals don't oxidize when sintered in air. However, nothing untoward happens when they are sintered without oxygen, as long as the binder has been removed.

One interesting detail here is that the two hearts were cut from the same templates, but came out different sizes. I assume this is a function of all the fine silver line work, which doesn't shrink as much. I'll have to think about how this could be useful.