“More Woes Than Wows!” by Melody Pierson

 

Guess you haven’t heard from me in a while because I have to been too busy screwing everything up that I work on. Actually, you have heard more than you care to know in all my posts here and there.

 It all started with a flower. No, it all started with a manicure. I had gone to the hair salon because for every reason you can think of but mainly because my hair was turning grey very quickly. I also decided I needed a manicure, which is kind of insane when you think about what we do with our nails when working with metal clay. So I sat down with my favorite manicurist and friend, Rosie, who loves my jewelry and paintings. She asked me for a brass ring. I still haven’t done that yet. The lady beside her, another manicurist, gives me a flowered ring and asks me in broken English to make it bigger for another finger. I agreed (it must have been the fumes of the dark purple nail polish Rosie was applying to my nails)…She dropped the ring into my bag.

Manicure finished, I move onto the next stop on the assembly line to have my hair washed then on to the hairdresser. Walked around for 3 hours until I was SURE my nails were dry and then got out of there and drove home. Oh, and by the way, the other manicurist with the ring, Theresa, asked me for a pendant just like the ring but bigger. This was all fake silver or nickel plated I don’t know what said Anna Rosana Danna but it looked pretty icky to me.

When I arrived home, I showed my husband the ring. He said, no problem, I’ll take a Dremmel to it and grind away the inside of the ring. That raised a red flag. My idea (that somehow couldn’t leave my head to make the journey to the mouth) thought it would be better to cut it (a bit) and try to solder silver clay to fill in the cut.

He ground it. Well, it was going to fit now, but on the inside there were a whole array of metals. Now what? Gilder’s Paste – Silver! I had that. I love when I have something that you need for a project and you don’t say, “Drats (fill in your real word) I don’t have that.” However, the Gilder’s Paste was there. I open the lid, take a tiny corner of a cloth and start spreading it inside the ring gently but with even coverage. I let it dry. I do this about 26 times. In fact, it looked so good that I figured I would re-do the outside of the ring the same way. Again the application, etcetera. After a day, not that I shouldn’t have waited two days, I decided to use my OWN noggin’ and protect it with a lacquer protector thing, Permelac. Seemed like clear nail polish to me but I am sure it was much stronger.

 I’ve looked at the ring from both sides now. Looks good! I also make a molded impression of the flower so I can somehow make a bigger one. I move in the right direction but I am never sure where I am going to land up in these projects. Anyway, I bring it back to the salon and Theresa wasn’t there. No problem. I gave it to Rosie, who asked again about the brass ring. I should tell you that during these waiting times for the paste to dry etc., I tried making the brass ring three times. Really! Too thin! Too thick, too small, not wide enough…yeah, I made about three of them.

 A day or two later, I am anxious to hear what Theresa thinks about the ring. I call up Rosie or Facebook her. She replies that all that silver stuff came off and now the inside of her ring is orange. Damn, geez, expletives….Does it make a difference that the ring cost her ten dollars and I used up how many hours to accomplish her initial request. Well, I was horrified. I asked Rosie if she was really upset. She said, “You’ll have to ask her…” This did not bode well. In the meantime I played with the rosette mold and made a necklace of three hanging on a silk ribbon in different color metals. I so tried to like it. I did not. You’ll notice I didn’t call Theresa back yet. I figured I would make her the pendant from the rose mold. She knows I wasn’t going to use real silver, so the closest to that was Pearl Grey Silver by Hadar Jacobson, which I love.

 I made the pendant. It wasn’t round. I had to add to it with more rosette parts to equal it out. Then the bail in the back and really making sure that everything was even. In green ware it weighed a pound. I finally put it in the kiln fully expecting this THING would not sinter. Ah, but it did. I took the brass brush, the Dremmel, the tumbler, my agate burnisher. Not so silvery. Well, truth be told it’s supposed to look like steel, but a light steel. I put it online to show friends, as I did the rosette necklace and I must say how polite everybody was. I tried this thing on and I felt the old ball and chain without the chain.

 At this point, to add insult to injury, my hair is really dirty and they grey is coming in oddly matching the Pearl Grey Silver I used for the pendant. Should I go back to the salon and have my hair properly done,coloured, etc…and face Theresa about the ring and show her the pendant. It’s Rejection vs. Vanity. I chose rejection. I just couldn’t bear going back there, yet.

But what did I have to lose? I already put in the hours, did the best I could and if she didn’t like it, so she didn’t like it and there was a Ladies Room nearby where I could heave from the pain. So here’s the bottom line.

I went to another hairdresser, took off my own nail polish and my hair continues to grow even more grey with the length. I just tell anyone who asks that I want that “older hippy look”….which isn’t so bad. Didn’t that whole generation start off with Flower Power?

Book Review:

Ring A Day  

Written by: Marthe Le Van 

Lark Jewelry and Beading 2011

Reviewed by Lori Phillips   

Are you interested in a book that is purely fun to look through? This is it! Marthe Le Van has compiled pictures of over 700  fantastic pictures from the Ring A Day Challenge that took place on the internet in 2010.  The Challenge was for  any  jewelry artists to make one ring a day for an entire year, from any materials, giving freedom to create with no parameters. I myself had considered doing it but as picture after picture was posted on Flickr, I decided I was not quite that ready to be so prolific!

I admire Marthe for being able to pair down thousands of entry pictures to 700 of the best examples of insane creativity! She was able to capture the uniqueness of 44 different artists. There were few metal clay artist’s names I did recognize such as, Lorena Angulo (Our Featured Artist March 2010) , Lora Hart and Angela Baduel-Crispin. 

This book is completely a treat to the eyes and a boost for some  marvelous creative motivation! These artist shattered the norms and created with everything from Maria Apostolou’s  Pencil Shavings to  Lora Hart’s melted plastic spoon.  I  am absolutely enthralled with how on page 83, Kathern Riechert bends flatware into the coolest rings! Lorena Angulo never seizes to amaze me with her creativity from a gorgeous  metal clay Tree of Life ring (pg.60) to a ring created with fruits and veggies! (pg.64) What goes on in the minds of these artists? I love that the artists also took into account the  2010 holidays when they created as well.  Nina Dinoff’s marshmallow Bunny ring gave me a good giggle! Check it out on page 69!

If I have gotten anything out of this book, it is that I need to stop limiting myself into thinking that I can’t be creative just because I don’t have certain supplies.   Angela Baduel-Crispin’s words  in the Introduction captured best what I  have gleaned from this book, “But this challenge pushed me to look at everything around me in a different light and imagine that absolutely anything could go on a finger while also expressing that particular day like a sketch in a dairy.” Do take the time to read the Introduction because Marthe has been able to capture the thought of all the contributing artists and I believe you will be inspired!

Marthe, you have a fantastic book here! I recommend it to every jewelry artist! It is small enough to keep handy to grab whenever you need a bit of inspiration. If these artists can create with rubber bands or tape, just because you don’t have some metal clay handy doesn’t mean you can’t create!  Broaden your horizons! And maybe next year all of us will join in on the next internet challenge!

“Off With Their Cuffs, I Say! ” by Melody Pierson

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  It’s the latest rage. It’s actually an old rage. All I know is that it is outrageous that I cannot seem to make a cuff from metal clay. I’ve seen photos of beautiful cuffs made out of all different kinds of metal clay. There are not a lot of instructions on how to do this. It seems it’s much easier to work it like a metalsmith. I’ve seen Tim McCreight’s work and believe me, I am no Tim McCreight.
First of all, I tried something new. Logic. Every cuff I’ve ever had, had some flexibility. This doesn’t seem to be an option. Flexibility makes it ease to tighten the cuff or loosen it or even put it on. Someone kindly tells me you can put your cuff on sideways with a smaller opening and turn it. OK. I’ll bite. I have a copper cuff forming thing and I put some clingy wrap around it as I am advised to do and then I shape the cuff on my cutting board and then gently lift it to put around the forming thing. It falls apart in slow motion and I am silently cursing like a truck-driver. OK, not all truck-drivers curse, but I’m just sayin…I tell my story of woe to the various groups online and someone says, build the cuff on the mould. Alright. I start doing that, forgetting the clingy wrap and it’s falling off and I am patching it up until it looks like a quilt made by the Amish who were raised in New York City. This doesn’t work. I try two more times, at this point I cannot remember how I tried….one breaks in greenware. It’ a clean break. Yipee. With a smooth dash of distilled water (yes, everyone insists on distilled water) I make a light swoosh on the crack and squidge the two pieces together and start to pray. Then I turn into my mother. I start talking to them. “If you two can’t stay together nicely, you’ll just see what I’ll do. It’s not supposed to be that hard. All of my friends’ cuffs behave nicely so don’t give me any more problems.”

Yes, I dialogue with my pieces. Sometimes I pretend they are part of the mob and I’m a cop and tell them I have ways to make them stick, etc…Call me crazy. It won’t be the first time or the last. The cuff will not stay. I try paste made properly with the oil…No luck. Now I have too beautifully sanded arches and by golly, I am not going to let them go to waste. I never say “golly” by the way. I can’t write what I really say. I fire them. I take them out. I use some epoxy and stagger them together and make a long necklace. My daughter, the fashion expert comes into town and says, “I have to have that.” If she only knew the karma behind all of this, she would have smudged the room with sage and cleansed herself at a sweat lodge. She took it anyway. She wears it and she’s happy. My daughter is happy. I’m happy. However, I haven’t given up.

It so happens that I have a whole whack of steel clay from about 7 months ago and it’s starting to oxidize before my very eyes. I roll it all out. I texture it with a wavy stamp and put it again on the cuff mold. I have some clay left over and now I am really going to town because at this point I’m just don’t care…what else can happen? I gently lift it and put it around the mould and if I tell you it stays on would you believe me? No? You’re right. It start’s cracking here and there and so I start misting there and here and with that leftover clay I whip out the extruder, thank you Wanaree Tanner for the video, and squeeze out some spaghetti lines and apply them on top of the cuff, figuring that this may be an architectural fix. Clearly I am not of sound mind. I plan on leaving the cuff on the mould for a month. ( I can’t find a dehydrator if my life depended on it, but that’s another story.) The next day, the adorned steel cuff it’s cracking and the little pieces of tubing design come apart if you just look at it. Again, I mist it. Again, I missed it. See the irony?

As I write this, the ugly steel thing is across the hall in my studio is laughing at me. What he doesn’t know, (yes, it’s a he) I’m counting on ugly turning into funky. One day I will make cuffs and bracelets and arm bands until those broken pieces are ashamed of themselves.
What DOES it take to make one of these. I see them on covers of metal clay magazines everywhere. I’ve figured it out. Photoshop. Now, that’s not fair.

From The Ridiculous to the Sublime by Melody Pierson

I’ve just noticed that this whole metal clay thing can become a business. How did I find out? People bought stuff from me. I found it a bit ridiculous at my stage of the game, though there were a couple of pieces that could pass the muster. (always wanted to use that phrase).

From the ridiculous to the sublime (no, I’m not dyslexic), an acquaintance came over one day and noticed a painting I had done of my daughter, Amanda.

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My friend loved it and asked who painted it. I told him I did but I’m really into making jewelry these days, wearing like three rings and a necklace I made.
He said, “My wife and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary June whatever…do you think you could paint her portrait and make a set of jewelry, earrings and a necklace. Of course I’ll pay you, x amount of money.” My jaw would have dropped had I not propped it up at the piano. “Sure, that’s good, when do you need this all for?”

Here’s the essence of what I had to do. The input from the client was almost minimal. The “wife” is athletic, sexy and elegant”. He gave me a photo.
In the pit of my belly, part of the jewelry design just came to me. The portrait painting scared me half to death. NOBODY likes the way they look in a painting. Not at first anyway.

For five weeks I spread my time from my shop to a painting studio. Every time I changed something on the portrait, I changed something on the jewelry design.
I think I lived on adrenaline for a good 3 weeks. When I would get home in the evening from painting I was exhausted. Working on the jewelry all day, the next day, I was exhausted at night.

As a jeweller and a painter (and especially you hairdressers out there) you have to learn when it’s time to walk away. I re-did the background of the painting no less than three times. I used a lot of paint. I re-designed part of the jewelry set many more times. I had it in mind to make dangling heart earrings. I went blank every time I sat down. Why” I had made copper, bronze and silver chains. The technique would be the same. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. Now I have so many fired-up hearts in my studio, send your friends to me for Valentine’s day if they need something.

The deal is this. When adrenaline is pumping you can be creative good or creative bad. If it’s the latter, you have to chalk it up to experience (hate that phrase, too)..and use more supplies to do something new. Not so much adrenaline is left. Now you just have to practical and fit the bill. Oh, and pray the client likes your works. This is what I thought, at first.

When it came down to the silver clay necklace, I made a profile of a woman, full body. I decided that hearts around her would symbolize her children and her marriage. Those hearts came very easily. It was when I couldn’t make the dangling earring hearts, for the love of G0D, not even WITH a template, I knew I needed an alternate idea. Seeing the profile came out well, I made a set of earrings in profile, one facing west, the other facing east.

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Unfortunately, I didn’t have a photo take with the earrings, or maybe I did and have it hidden away in some file folder in my computer.

Now, the rest of the painting. People suggested I paint the necklace on her in the portrait. Can you imaging if she hated the portrait AND the necklace? No, this was Certification 12th level or higher, in both metal clays. Oh and really, I should have taken an intensive course in the study of Monet. Yes, “monet” is involved and there’s that to consider. I won’t say how much he paid me but it was enough for me to act nonchalantly very cool and say, “Yeah, that’s good.” In the meantime I am dancing inside and almost in a state of disbelief. Like a good dream. (Just a little flashback, there…)

It came time to solder on those hearts to the profile and I’m not the soldering type, yet, if ever, though of course, I bought the thing-a-ma-jigs online to be able to do it correctly.
As an aside (when my husband brought home a small tank of oxygen it was almost bittersweet. I had to carry around a tank of oxygen 3 years ago, so I could breathe.) And look at me now, wheeling and dealing in paintings and jewelry…I wasn’t proud. I was grateful for all the advice, encouragement, kindness I received from everyone in this online jewelry designers, much the same as for the people who helped me through my lung transplant. It all seemed surreal at one point.

I digress. In the end, I ordered a product that could do this for you without solder. Unfortunately, my pieces were too thin for my husband to work with so he soldered everything. I love my husband. A LOT.

Now the jewelry was all done; anded, tumbled and shined. It was not perfect. But who’s heart is perfect anyway? There are always nicks and scratches. OK, that was just a line I thought up should the client point that out. Always be prepared.

Finally the painting. I sweated gallons on this and had to pick the frame. I was told about the pathology of someone looking at their portrait for the first time. My art teacher said, “You know she won’t like it.” What? “Nobody likes their portrait at first but then it grows on them, etc.” I felt doomed. Finally I let go and let G0D and after that, it was out of my hands.

Here’s one of those blurry camera phone photos I am notorious for.

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She’s Come Un-Hinged” by Melody Pierson

Let’s see. It seems so long ago when I think of it now. I was trying to make a simple hinge with metal clay. Seemed easy enough. I rolled out two small rectangular pieces (practically the same size) and then rolled, by hand, a long tube. The instructions said to cut them up equally in 3 parts. So I did. Pretty much equally.
Then I saw trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with me and I had trouble. It appears I was supposed to simple wet the top of the already dried piece of clay and place 2 tubes, one at either end. Just a dash of water should do it and it will absorb the tube onto the clay as if it was thirsting for this moist little almost evenly cut tube. NOT. It didn’t stick at all. And that went for the other tube at the other end and for the middle tube which was in the middle of the other pieces’ end. You know, this is like trying to explain tying your shoe laces with no hand gestures.

This went on for two days. Day and night, night and day. And I would walk around my house looking at door hinges, cabinet hinges, hinges on boxes, shower stalls till really I was becoming, as they say, “un-hinged”.

I did get to the point where they did stick. I think was ready to use crazy glue at this point but I believe, if memory, what’s left of it, serves me right, wound up making a new tube with three MORE equal parts. Perhaps I even started the whole thing all over. I know I used copper. When it was finally dry, leather dry, bone dry, mental dry, dry mouth, dry mind, I put it in the kiln. And I waited and watched television and re-arranged things in the studio. I was actually angry. I was talking to the clay, first nicely then not so nicely until, really, under my breath I was swearing at every single little thing I was doing to make this possible. I hated the hinge. Why did I need to do a hinge? Oh yeah, so I can open and close things and it’s cool and a learning curve and I did want to learn.

The kiln was programmed as per instructions. “I set it and let it go…” I waited. When the time came I tried to act all non-chalant as I moseyed on over to the kiln. At this point, I haver personal relationships with most all of my tools. Some are my very favourite teachers’ pets…A nice piece of work, you did there…: ) Have an apple. Clearly, there were other tools that I despised. I think that’s a whole other story. Suffice to say that if anyone was in the room with me while I was making this hinged book (2 pages, front and back) they would suggest strongly I find a new hobby. Not gonna do it…(Think Dana Carvey doing George Bush)…

Finally I open the kiln. It’s cooled down. Me, not so much. I sift out the two pieces and they are, yes, IN TACT! They have shrunk but that’s just fine. They are both in one piece. Admittedly they were rather dark but I just gave that up to small copper pieces can get very dark? I yelled out to my husband to come see…”HEY IT WORKED. Come look at my hinge!!” Yes, very sexy, we know. My husband, oh so patient and supportive, saw that it looked good and asked to hold them, to see how the hinges fit in. And that’s when the whole damn thing crumbled. Why me? Why me? If you are on Facebook and are a jewelry friend of mine, you probably saw the photos and the status updates. You gotta know, this slayed me.

The next day of my existence of a metal clay jewellery designer (yes, it’s starting to feel like a prison sentence..) I opened another book. I looked at other hinged things. I watched a video or four. I settled on a well-known designer’s pendant of a hinged-house (like that doesn’t give away her name). Well, at least this project had more ooomph to it. Some features to add and different shapes and of course, the hinges. This is starting to remind me of the that TV show, “The Hills”. But I digress.

So this time I had a template. I made it all by myself. Hello, a kindergarden kid could cut out and glue two pieces of paper on a playing card. I certainly treated it like surgery and I was just an intern. Template done, again, not perfect, but done.

Wait. I have to stop. In the middle of all this as I was posting stuff and clearly my frustration was palpable, spreading out to other countries, a wonderful lady, Wanaree from Illinois suggested I get an “extruder”. Sounds like a gun for hire….”The Extruder”….I’ll shoot you into even pieces with different shapes if you like, ma’am…”
This angel sent me one but while I waited until it got to Canada, I kept on with my new hinged-house. I used bronze and copper because I was all out of silver. That was fine by me. I felt like I was painting again. I came across the exact same *((^(*(_ problem adhering the tubes onto the tops of the pieces. FINALLY I did it and when  they dried, I reinforced it and dried it again. Rinse and repeat if you know what I mean.

Long story longer… it was now all greenware. I realized I didn’t have proper wire to go through the hinge. Not only that, I had to BALL UP the ends of the wire, blah, blah blah, blah, blah. Just when I was feeling relatively secure, I watch a video of balling up wire. Hmmm. I need a special torch. That wasn’t a good idea for me at that moment. So I thought, well, this is just a test. I will run some wire and stick something on either side, G0D Willing if this should turn out.

Somewhere in the meantime and in between time I did eat, sleep and wash. Those menial things are a blur but I did notice that I was getting heavier and not exercising as much. Another blog, another time.

The hinged-house goes into the digital kiln on Program #1. I slept. About 9 hours later, I sift it out of the kiln. By George I think she’s got it!. It fit (kinda wobbly) it didn’t break. I polished it and put a headpin through the hinges and just wrapped the other end behind the piece. Why not? Just for now.

I was happy. I was ready to go on Weight Watchers. I looked forward to playing piano again. Just no more hinges for awhile.
A great night sleep followed and the next morning, you got it, THE EXTRUDER arrived.

I think we’re going to be great friends.

Book Review: The Art & Craft of Making Jewelry Author Joanna Gollberg

Lark Jewelry- First Paperback Edition 2010

A Complete Guide to Essential Techniques

This book is packed from cover to cover with vital information on traditional jewelry making. However, it is the stunning examples of the skilled jewelry creators, this author compiled, which make my heart go pitter pat!

Joanna takes the reader from tools, through techniques pausing between projects to allow the reader to be inspired by the phenomenal examples of experienced artists. This book is a delicate dance between information and inspiration, leaving the reader equipped enough to want to attempt fundamental techniques, everything from Cold Connections to working with Metal Clay.

I would recommend this book for the newest convert to jewelry making! With this ample compilation of projects, the newbie will definitely have an abundant grasp of the basics!  Having access to all the tools may be another story, but we all started somewhere! We also know how fast tools seem to multiply!

Now you may think this book would only be for beginners, but I beg to differ! I am so enthralled by the breathtaking galleries, I caught myself salivating! Pick up your copy and you will understand what I am saying, inspiration is valuable for everyone, and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Plus, it never hurts to brush up on the basics from time to time.

For the Metal clay artist, this book does not have much information, but when did pictures of gorgeous jewelry pieces lose its appeal to us? Never! Ever!

This superb book belongs in every library as a picturesque reference tool which will become well used!  It would also make a great gift for someone who is just beginning the extraordinary creative journey that jewelry making becomes!

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