Copper and Bronze Metal Clay Pendants
I made these at a "Metal Clay Madness" day held by the same instructor that I took the silver PMC class from. The copper and bronze clays are newer than the silver clays (and made by a different manufacturer) and so are more experimental. The first time I went back for a finishing session they weren't fully sintered and several of them had broken. One was pretty much broken irrevocably, but I managed to fix the rest, the instructor fired them some more, and now they're OK.
Susan B for scale -- I didn't have any quarters in my change purse! One nice thing about bronze and copper clays... they're much cheaper than silver, so you can make larger things, and lots of them. Everything is quite shiny -- the details just show up better in the shade.
The tree is CopprClay and the fern is a mixture of CopprClay and BronzClay. Both were made freehand, except for the oval backing of the fern which was cut from a template and textured with a texture sheet.
The flaming chalice is BronzClay and was done freehand, the others are Prometheus clay (both bronze and copper), a new kind the instructor was experimenting with. They were harder to finish than the other clays, didn't take the patina as well, and I don't like the resulting colors as much, especially in the bronze clay. Th leaf was also freehand, the two geometric pieces are from a mold of a button and from a clear stampbooking stamp.
I'm quite pleased with the fern, the tree, and actually pretty pleased with the leaf, despite being a last-minute thing to use up extra clay. The flaming chalice didn't come out quite how I envisioned it, but I'm pleased with it. (I think I want to try one in silver, too, maybe with a lotus motif.)
The cast/stamped Prometheus pieces I'm not quite as happy with -- I mean, they're not awful, I just don't like them as much. Luckily having cast/stamped them instead of sculpted them, they were fast to make.
This metal clay thing is VERY cool. If I'm not careful I could end up spending a lot of money playing with this stuff. There's so much cool stuff to try... but besides the cost of materials and trying to fit it into my copious spare time, there's probably only so many pendants that one woman needs!
Now I just need to figure out how to string them. A few I'm just going to put onto cord -- keep it simple. But a few I want to embellish more. Sadly, beading was never my forte.
Susan B for scale -- I didn't have any quarters in my change purse! One nice thing about bronze and copper clays... they're much cheaper than silver, so you can make larger things, and lots of them. Everything is quite shiny -- the details just show up better in the shade.
The tree is CopprClay and the fern is a mixture of CopprClay and BronzClay. Both were made freehand, except for the oval backing of the fern which was cut from a template and textured with a texture sheet.
The flaming chalice is BronzClay and was done freehand, the others are Prometheus clay (both bronze and copper), a new kind the instructor was experimenting with. They were harder to finish than the other clays, didn't take the patina as well, and I don't like the resulting colors as much, especially in the bronze clay. Th leaf was also freehand, the two geometric pieces are from a mold of a button and from a clear stampbooking stamp.
I'm quite pleased with the fern, the tree, and actually pretty pleased with the leaf, despite being a last-minute thing to use up extra clay. The flaming chalice didn't come out quite how I envisioned it, but I'm pleased with it. (I think I want to try one in silver, too, maybe with a lotus motif.)
The cast/stamped Prometheus pieces I'm not quite as happy with -- I mean, they're not awful, I just don't like them as much. Luckily having cast/stamped them instead of sculpted them, they were fast to make.
This metal clay thing is VERY cool. If I'm not careful I could end up spending a lot of money playing with this stuff. There's so much cool stuff to try... but besides the cost of materials and trying to fit it into my copious spare time, there's probably only so many pendants that one woman needs!
Now I just need to figure out how to string them. A few I'm just going to put onto cord -- keep it simple. But a few I want to embellish more. Sadly, beading was never my forte.