The Button Nut's Favorite Search Words

I am a button nut. As you can see from the picture above, I have an addiction to Victorian black glass buttons. I probably take a half hour each day to search through the eBay and Etsy. My favorite search words is "black lacy glass buttons" Why black glass? In the late part of the 19th century the most detailed buttons were comprised of black glass. These black glass buttons are also called mourning buttons, this is due to the fact that Queen Victoria wore only black jet buttons after the death of Prince Albert. Another favorite search word of late is "carved celluloid". Bakelite or celluloid was the first plastic of the 20th century. It was not until the I came across this celluloid bird shown below, that I paid more attention to carved celluloid.

(Vintage carved celluloid bird bottom left, bronzclay bird from mold upper right)

I live close to a Hobby Lobby (aka Michael's or AC Moore) that sells my favorite two part silicone mold maker. I use a product called "The Amazing Molding Putty" I love this stuff it is very rare when I can not get a good mold from this product. Another product I use to create molds is polymer clay. I specifically use sculpty when making molds that have very fine detail that is not recessed enough for the silicone mold to pick up.

Below is an example of my Sunflowers Pendant, you can see the finished silver pendant, the unfired greenware, the original black glass button and the two part silicone mold.

Online Tutorials for Metal Clay Users

I am for the most part, a self-taught precious metal clay artist. I use the term "artist" loosely here, a better description of me would be a professional silicone mold creator. I have a mountain of precious metal clay books but I am a very visual learner. So when I can actually find video tutorials online for various precious metal clay techniques I bookmark them and study them diligently. The two websites that I have always returned to for their video tutorials is Whole Lotta Whimsy and Cool Tools.

There was however a very cool development last night on Tonya Davidson's blog , who is the co-owner of Whole Lotta Whimsy. Tonya Davidson has created a design team which she calls the Master Muses. These Master Muses are ten highly respected and experienced metal clay artists, that will be submitting a precious metal clay tutorials on various techniques on Tonya Davidson Blog every Wednesday starting January 28, 2010 . Two of the ten Master Muses are also Etsy Metal Clay Team members. A big congrats to Lora Hart and Ruth Baillie of Birdland Creations. There will be roughly 60 tutorials posted on Tonya's Blog. I can't wait to see all the different tutorials!

Sunday Sneak Peek and Front Page!

It is always exciting when you make the front page. You know something is up when an item goes from 20 views to 115 views in one afternoon! This front page lead to the sale of my mirror flower charm. Sweet. A big thank you to Pianobenchdesigns for placing me in her treasury! Pianobench designs have several cute wire designs. I love her "Love Necklace"

Love Necklace

I am working on a lot of bronzclay pieces right now. I found an incredible snow owl mold the other day. I believe its an old soap mold, I made a bronzclay mold of him. Pictured below is the unfired green piece of my snow owl. The owl is huge though he is 3 inches long. I am hoping by firing him in bronze I can shrink him to a more manageable size. Is 3 inches long and an 1.5 inch wide just too big to be a pendant?

Birthday Gift for my Grandmother

My grandmother turned 80 this week. I was so sad I could not be back in Massachusetts to help her celebrate her birthday. For her birthday I made her a scallop shell pendant. Growing up I used to collect shells on a small beach close to her house in Centerville. I still have a lot of the shells I collected when I was a kid. I still remember some of the nasty sun burns I used to get walking up and down the beach. I sent her gift in the mail today, hopefully she will like it. Her birthday was yesterday, it's late I'm such a bad granddaughter. I was thinking about adding this to my shop but my nautical themed pendants do not seem that popular. Hmmm. Should I add this to my shop. What do you think?

Etsy Metalclay Team Virtual Trunk Show

The Etsy MetalClay team will be participating in a Virtual Trunk Show this Thursday October 30 at 7:00EST /4:00 PST in the Virtual labs on Etsy. Please follow this link, http://www.etsy.com/virtual_labs.php , and click on the tree house room in order to reach our Trunk Show. This will be a live Trunk Show, ten members of the Etsy Metal Clay group will be presenting three of their items during the trunk show.We will have three door prizes available for attendees that are paying attention. Free handcrafted jewelry is always a good thing!! So check out Etsy Virtual Labs this Thursday!!

Can't take New England out of the girl

I'm looking at my bench and realizing I miss my grandmother's beach. I have scallop shells and starfish almost ready for the kiln. The Fall was the best time of the year to collect scallop shells on Hyannis beach. I have one large scallop shell in bronzclay and one silverclay starfish. I will hopefully finish them soon. I miss my ocean and I miss my Fenway. The Fall also means baseball for me. If you haven't notice my profile picture, I am a huge Red Sox fan. Big Papi came through Thursday night but we are back in Tampa tonight , so I wish my team luck, we will need it. Below are some pictures of my current work.

Scallop Shell and Starfish

Rose, and Victorian Button Designs

Etsy Treasury List

Etsy :: Treasury List

I don't know what's harder waiting until the final seconds of a popular ebay auction item to bid or trying to snag a treasury on Etsy. The Etsy treasury list is fun to create and I think it was a good idea on Etsy's part. The front page of Etsy website always features a list of someones favorites (that should not include their own work). This keeps the Etsy front page fresh and it also showcases handcrafted items that fellow Etsians find interesting and beautiful. And from a sellers point of view it is the best free advertising one can have on Etsy. So I have created a list of my favorite Etsy items with a fall theme hoping it will make the front page. I would love for my jewelry to make the front page of Etsy but alas it is yet to happen.

I have included a number of my fellow Etsy MetalClay team members in my Treasury list. I have been drooling over Karena's Fennel Feather Leaf Pendant and Jennifer's Fern Fossil Pendant. Please check out my Etsy Autumn Radiance Treasury and tell me what you think!

Karena's Fennel Feather Leaf Pendant

Jennifer's Fern Fossil Pendant

Things I have been working on

So I finally fired my Koi Fish and King Arthur Bronzclay Pendants last night, hence my dirty fingers in the picture above. I carved all of the scales in the Koi Fish and I also carved out a lot of detail in the King Arthur Pendant. Both pendants still have a lot of finishing work but I think they came out pretty good.

I think I will be redoing the King Arthur Pendant for the Art Jewelry Magazine contest that was posted on Etsy the other day. Art Jewelry magazine (www.artjewelrymag.com) is challenging Etsy artisans to make a piece of jewelry, using 10 grams of metal clay or less (Arthur is exactly 10 grams). Art Jewelry will select five finished pieces and publishing them in their magazine, along with the winners names and contact information. I think Arthur would be a good submittal. The Koi Fish is 13 grams so I can't use that pendant for the contest unfortunately. I really want to redo both pendant in silver clay and experiment with aura 22 carat gold paint. I think Arthur would look cool with a gold shield and silver armor and the koi fish would look interesting with silver and gold scales. Anyway things to experiment on. Let me know what you think.

Etsy MetalClay Team Website

I have been very fortunate to be part of the Etsy MetalClay Team. This new group is currently comprised of 21 members with various skills and perspectives on jewelry fabrication. Liz Hall, of Lizards Jewelry, was generous enough to put together the Etsy MetalClay Website. The MetalClay Website features all of the jewelry created by members of Etsy MetalClay Team, the website will connect you to each of the members individual Etsy Store fronts. A large thank you to Liz for all of her hard work on the website.

Working with Bronzclay

I was so excited back in July when I heard a new precious metal clay was about to come on the market. Precious Metal Silver Clay is a lot of fun to work with but the cost of silver clay will make anyone hesitate before undertaking a large, complicated project.

Bronzclay is composed of 11% tin, 89% copper, water and non-toxic binding materials. Bronzclay pieces can be molded, carved and then placed in a kiln where the binders burn off, leaving a piece that is composed of casted bronze, a process similar to silver clay. The difference in price though is extreme. This summer the average price for 10 grams of silver clay was $20, but currently I can by 100 grams of Bronzclay for $20. At $0.20 a gram, I have been experimenting a lot more with Bronzclay.

There is another large difference between Bronzclay and silver clay. This main difference is the method to fire the material. With Silver Clay a beginner could utilize a torch to fire their jewelry pieces but Bronzclay requires a kiln. The Bronzclay must be fired at such a high temperature and at such a long period of time (think 5 hours) that torch firing would be impossible. A kiln is not the only other piece of equipment that is required, a stainless steel container and activated carbon is also necessary. While sliver has to be fired in environment with oxygen, Bronzclay requires the opposite. No oxygen can be introduced to the Bronzclay during the firing process and this is why it must be buried in a layer of activated carbon.

So about three weeks ago, I am in my basement playing mad scientist. I got the kiln, the Bronzclay, the activated carbon and the Bronzclay directions in my hand. I follow the firing directions that came with the clay to the letter. So after about 5 hours of waiting I rushed to my kiln and after carefully extracting my pieces out I found them to covered in raised bumps. So a word to the wise do not follow the directions that come with the clay. These temperature are too hot and will simply cause the piece to blister. Cooltools has a learning section on their website that has been super helpful when it comes to figuring out firing times for jewelry pieces of different thickness.

I am currently working on a King Arthur Pendant and a Koi Fish Pendant. One of the aspects of Bronzclay I do like is the ability to easily carve into the dried clay. I am carving some cool scales onto my Koi Fish Pendant. But above is a picture of my first successful bronzclay piece, my Pirate Ship Pendant.