Tuesday Tips: One of the Great Websites!

Joanna Veevers - Brooches, photo from Ceramic Arts Daily

Do you have follow Ceramic Arts Daily?  While most of the site is devoted to pottery, there are frequently techniques and tutorials that are inspirational for bead makers. For example, the instructions for making the colorful brooches above can be found here.  But you needn't limit yourself to the jewelry related information. Most of techniques used in traditional pottery are transferable to small scale clay bead work. And that can lead to some very unique work by you!

Ceramic Arts Daily is a great website chockers full of information on clay bodies, decorative techniques, and even bead specific tutorials. Best of all it is free and you can sign up to receive daily updates. If you haven't seen the site, head over and check it out. I'm pretty sure it will be inspirational!

Tuesday Tips - Making Lentils

           Winner of the Beads-of-Clay Giant Giveaway is
           Raida Disbrow!!   Congratulations Raida!!

I was making large lentil type beads for Christmas ornaments today when it occured to me that you might like to know the in and outs of how I make these puffy two sided hollow bead. Last year I published this post on my blog. It shows you through the process from start to finish. It's not all that time hard, just a little fiddely.

Enjoy!

Here's the link:

Raising Lentils

Tuesday Tips - Making Rubber Stamps

Actually, that would be having rubber stamps made for you. It's fun to take your own art work and make rubber stamps for use in bead and pendant making. You can even use them like you might a plaster mold. It's not even horribly expensive. Those butterfly pendants up there were made from stamps I had made.

Here's an example of two different types of artwork that I've had made into stamps.

The one on the right is the art work for the butterfly pendants. The one on the left is from traditional Korean drawings of Deva flowers. These types of patterns produce very different effects when used with clay. The white spaces on your stamp will be cut away and the black will be raised. It's probably easiest just to show you a photo of how these two images work with clay from the stamps I made.

The butterfly stamp results in a raised pattern on a flat background. The Deva flower results in an impressed pattern. So if you have stamps made for use in your clay work here's a couple of things to consider.

1) Do you want a raised pattern? If I'd wanted to the tracery of the Deva flower raised I would have reversed the black and white in the drawing like this:

2) Think about how you are going to glaze a piece. I don't actually use the Deva flower stamp with clay because I prefer raised patterns. The glazes I use work best this way allowing the glaze to break across the raised edges of a design. But an impressed pattern can be very nice with glazes pooled into the design. The possibilities are kind of endless!

3) If you have a particular size that you'd like your pendant or bead to end up as, you need to think about shrinkage of the clay from wet to final firing. Then you can size your drawing on the computer. For example, my porcelain shrinks about 15% so my drawings are 15% larger than I want them to be in the end. You don't need a graphics program. I do mine in power point using the options to size an image.

So where to get stamps made? If you do an internet search you will come up with dozens of places that make custom rubber stamps. You can even make your own with different systems like photo chemical reactions, and UV lights and so forth. I've never done that but it might be interesting.

Two companies I've used with good results are Rubber Stampst and Ready Stamps.

Tuesday Tips – Mary Harding Uses Art as Inspiration

Finding inspiration for your work can be as simple as a trip to a museum. Mary Harding recently wrote on her blog about a trip to see paintings by the Canadian Group of Seven. I love how Mary abstracted the trees in these paintings into her own unique design that is clearly a ‘Mary Harding’ piece.

Mark Aurele Fortin

Tom Thompson

Tom Thompson

Look at this wonderful pendant Mary made inspired by these paintings.

But how do you that? How do you translate art that inspires you into your own design?


Think about what a piece of art says to you. What emotions does it evoke? Is it the colour? The forms? In other words, what makes it personal for you? That’s a great starting point for making your own personal statement.

Mary, abstracted an individual tree from a images of a forest. Sometimes I like to use my fingers to form a little window to look at smaller pieces of an image.

Another way to approach this would be to pull out elements, like a tree, a bird, a flower, and start rearranging them in a sketch. Often times a completely unique design can spring from this.

One of the greatest things about using clay is that you have the means to work in three dimensions. Look at Mary’s trees. Clearly they have an affinity with the paintings but they aren’t literal copies of those paintings. But look at the dimension she added by sculpting a model for her pendants.

These are just my thoughts on how you might approach other artist’s work as inspiration for your own. Many of you have your own way of doing this and I’d love to hear about it!

Mary, thanks so much for sharing your photos and your inspiration with us!

Tuesday Tips - Natalie Pappas & Two Part Molds

Hi, I am away and a little too giddy with excitement over my son's wedding to post anything of my own on Tuesday Tips. But Natalie Pappas had stepped up and kindly offered up her demo of a two part mold she made from a sunflower button. I first ran across this demo her blog a while ago. I 've never done this but love this idea. I even have a couple of designs that I'm thinking I might remake using this technique. Natalie makes pendants with this particular design. But I have visions dancing in my head of two sided tablet beads. 

So here's what Natalie does.

I made the sunflower mold by pressing a button into two pieces of porcelain clay. (this mold was then bisqued for use in making her pendants).

I took a small ball of Taos red clay and gently pressed together the two molds. This is quick and easy, but it took a bit of practice to get just the right amount of clay each time. There are some variations in each pendant, but if it is twisted while pressing, or smashed too quickly, the details get distorted. I am careful to apply just the correct amount of pressure.

Voila. A lovely sunflower is uncapped. Next, I lift it out and smooth any rough edges.

Next it is time to attach a wire to the pendant. This is a high fire wire (also known as High Temperature Wire) which is fired along with the pendant.

But first I have to make a loop and snip it off. Next I insert the wire into the pendant.

Thanks, Natalie, for sharing this with us!

You can see more of Natalie's beads at her Etsy Shop. Natalie also has pottery and wonderful clay whistles that are made to be strung on cord like a large bead at her second Etsy Shop.

Tuesday Tips - Using bisque molds to press pendants

Last week I showed one way to make a bisque mold to press pendants here.  So if you are new to this, check that out and head back over. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve on how to use your mold.

There's my bisque mold on the left and a couple of freshly pressed pendants on the right. Ah, but those ones in the first picture are round and this mold is clearly square. Yes, that's true, but when I was designing this, I sized the mold so I could cut either round or square pendants. So with a little planning you can get two designs out of one mold.

I start with slabs of clay that I've rolled out to be roughly a 1/4" thick. They get quite a lot thinner as I manipulate them. I then cut sections of the clay so they are slightly larger than the surface of the design. I pick up the mold and a small slab of clay and use my thumb to press the clay into the mold. This forces the clay into the design and produces a raised pattern on the surface of the clay that you can't see here because it's the back side.

I use a pony roller to further compress the clay into the mold and smooth the back of the pendant. This is one of those dual purpose steps. Clay has memory, sometimes I think more memory than I have. It will twist and turn as it's fired because it kinda remembers how it was handled during the making. This is especially true of porcelains and clays without a lot of grit in them. By rolling the clay across the back sideways, up and down, and diagonally, you can trick it into lying flat and not warping in the final firing. Well, most of the time, anyway.

I use those red and white drink stirrers straws to put a hole in my pendants. They come in packs of 1000 from the local party supply place and work a real treat. Because they are so inexpensive, I just toss them out when the hole gets clogged. Usually, I press a few pendants and keep them under plastic until I'm ready to punch holes in the pendants.

The next step I take is to use the end of a paint brush and twirl it into the hole of the pendant a couple of times to make a little divet there. This makes it easier to glaze right up to the edge of the hole and not have the pendant stick to the rod I fire it on. Leaves a little space between where it hangs on the rod during glaze firining and the glaze.

Once the pendant is dry, I use a spoon shaped dental tool to scoop out the back side of the pendant hole.

This little step of making the outside of your pendant hole on both sides a bit larger than the place where it will hang on a rod during firing can save you heaps of cleaning up or sticking to the wire it was hung on. I am so for not doing anything at all once a piece comes out of the kiln!

Tuesday Tips - Bisque Molds for Pendants

These butterfly pendants were formed from a bisque mold I made from a carved slab of clay. It's a technique I love because you can build up delicately raised texture for your glazes to pool and break over. Most of my designs start with an idea of how glazes will work to acheive the effects I want. But that's a whole other blog post. So I think we'll save that for later.

Most of my designs start with sketches. I wanted a final glazed pendant that would be about 1.25" square. So there are two things I need to remember before I start. First the bisque mold is going to shrink during the firing.  Second, my pendant is going to shrink as well between its raw clay form to it's final glazed form. How much will it shrink? Well that depends and it's really only possible to figure it out by doing a few shrinkage tests with your clay and your firing conditions.

But for me, I know that the stoneware clay I use for molds shrinks about 5% from raw clay to bisque fired piece. I also know that the porcelain I make pendants from shrinks about 15% between raw clay and glaze firing. From that I know that the bisque mold needs to be about 1.44 inches square to account for shrinkage of the porcelain.  To that I add another 5% to account for the shrinkage of the raw clay of the bisque mold.  That brings me to a 1.5 inch square starting point to size up my image.  Whew, that's a bit tedious, no?

So that drawing up there is a print out of a scan I made from the original. I just put a copy into power point, click on the image properties, and tell it to size it at 1.5" x 1.5" and easy peasy, I've got a properly sized drawing.

I roll out a slab that's a little over a quarter of an inch thick and let it set up to leather hard. I do this between two sheets of dry wall to keep the slab from warping. I find leather hard clay the best for carving because any softer and it's just too difficult to keep from gouging and tearing the clay.

The tools I use are pretty minimal, a wire loop tool and a soft brush to sweep the clay crumbs away. That image up there shows the design marked into the clay and the first start at carving. You know, you kind of have to think upside down when you do this because whatever I take away is going to end up raised on the final pendant.

A little further along in the carving. I take away clay quite slowly. You can always take away more clay but it's nearly impossible to add any back.

The completely dry slab of clay then gets a bisque firing. I prop mine up on end in the kiln. It helps to keep the mold from warping and even worse cracking. Sometimes large flat pieces will warp and crack if they are lying flat on a kiln shelf because the shelf temperature is hotter than the air on top.

Ta Da! My bisque mold and freshly pressed pendants.

One last little tip. By the time I got the lines of this particular pattern deep enough the clay was quite fragile. If I brushed away the clay crumbs I risked damaging the mold. So I just fired it and then used sand paper to smooth the surface of the little crumbs.

Come back next Tuesday and I'll show how these pendants get pressed. Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday Tips: What do tiles and beads have in common?

And why is this blog post actually about plaster? Well first of all, pendants in many ways are like tiny little tiles. This book by Frank Giorgini is one of my favourites and so many of the techniques he describes are perfectly suited to making beads. Much of what I learned about plaster comes from this book. Way back when, most of the people working in clay that I knew, were potters. Nobody was working with plaster except for making sprig molds. The internet was just young and there really wasn't a lot of information out there. This book is great! You can get it on Amazon  here or just search the web and you'll find other sellers.

Not all plasters are suitable for making molds for beads. Plaster of Paris, which most of us know is really not that great for bead molds. It's a bit soft and won't hold up over time. The most commonly used plaster for our purposes is Potter's Plaster. The second is HydroCal, HydroStone, or some other proprietary name. Potters Plaster is great in that it is absorbent and releases your pendants quite quickly. Hydrocal, which is my favourite, is very very strong and capture details really well.

See that broken plaster mold up there? Whatever plaster you are using you need to pay particular attention to the plaster to water ratio. That broken mold was weak because I was hasty and didn't measure my ratios properly. For small things, like bead molds, weight measurements are best. I know you can do volume measurements, but if you are only mixing up one molds worth of plaster for a pendant, the volume measurements don't give you much room for error. I use a digital gram scale and that works well for me in terms of precision. I usually mix up twice as much plaster as I think I'll need.

So here is a list of my tips for working with plaster:

1. Plaster has a shelf life and if you are storing it, put it in an air proof container. It takes on water and if you are in a humid climate your plaster will go off and weaken over time. Even in an arid climate, like where I live, it will go off.

2. If you can, buy your plaster from a supplier that has a large turnover so that you are always getting 'fresh' stock. Most plaster comes in 50 pound bags. Look for someone who repackages in smaller quantities or share a 50 pound bag with another clay person. Although, out here in my semi-arid climate, my plaster has lasted well over a year.

3. If your plaster sets up with a lot of water on top, you probably have too much water in the ratio. Your mold may be weak and may break just like mine up there in the photo. Press another model out of your mold and recast it just to be sure that all of your hard work making the model doesn't go to waste.

4. Never, ever mix plaster and cast molds where you are working with clay! Tiny little bits of plaster will get into your clay ad cause nasty, unsightly blow outs and pits when you fire your beads. Believe me, I know form experience :-)

5. Tap, tap, tap. I lightly tap the table I'm casting my mold on once I pour the plaster.  I pour plaster from the corner of my mold and let it flow over my model. Then I tap the edges of the mold form.  It helps to get any bubbles on the surface of your model to rise to the surface.

This is not in anyway comprehensive. Plaster mold casting can be somewhat daunting but is an exciting way to put your carefully made pendants into production. I'd love to hear any questions you might have. And I'd love to hear how any of you out there make molds. Let's learn from each other!

Tuesday tips - Plaster molds

Probably, for me anyway, the least glamarous part of making molds is casting my model in plaster. Last week I brought you through the process I use to make clay models of a design.  While not so glamorous, casting your model in plaster is the most critical part of getting your design into production.

First up is selecting something to contain the plaster. I'm pretty simple with this.

For my dragon fly pendant, I used a ricotta cheese container. Loved the ricotta in a yummy lasagne. Loved the cost free upcycled mold form.

Problem with this mold form is that the bottom is not flat. I solve this by placing a slab of clay into the bottom of the plastic container.

Then I attach my clay model to the slab in the bottom of the mold form. What I do is make a bunch of cross cuts into the slab with a needle tool and the back of the model. Then I brush on water to make a bit of a slip on the surface of the clay slab at the bottom of my mold form. I place the model and gently tap it to get it to stick to the slab of clay. I find this useful as it keeps the model from 'floating' when I pour the plaster.

Sorry, but pouring plaster is a pretty quick process and I've only so many hands to take photos. But in a nutshell, I pour from one side of the mold form an let the plaster flow over my carved model. I do this to avoid bubbles forming on the model. Not a nice thing to have happen as it will transfer a 'bump' when you press your pendant. See those bubbles on the top. I gently tap my finger against the mold for to get little tiny bubbles in the plaster to rise to the top where they won't interfere with my design.

Above is the finished plaster mold and a pendant I pressed from the mold. I go back in with a file and scrape back the edges of the mold around the pattern so that I can release the porcelain pendant I pressed without it dragging on the edges.

Lots's of things you can use for mold forms. Including clay scraps. Below is a pic of a clay mold form I've used in the past.

Truly, I think there are as many ways to make plaster molds as there are people working in clay. This is just a couple of examples that have worked for me.

What do you do? Got any questions? Comment and I'll get back to you!

Next week I'll go into a bit of technical plaster stuff. Not really eye candy but if you are casting models this may save you a bit of time.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Tuesday Tips - Relief Carved Models

I think that one of my favorite things to do is to create clay models and cast them in plaster to make molds. There is just something about the process that is satisfying.

I start with a blank piece of clay that I then transfer an outline of my drawing to. I use a small wooden knitting needle and find that it's best to start on clay that has passed the soft squishy stage. Most of my models are made from porcelain clay. But you can use any fine body of clay with no grog or sand. Grog and sand tend to make it difficult to get nice clean cuts as inevitably a little groggy bit will drag along your nice clean line and make an annoying scratch.

I then rough out the design using wire loop modeling tools and dental tools. Notice that the dragonfly isn't in there? I added him later using small coils of moist clay.

It's important to keep track of undercuts and remove them. An undercut will trap clay when you use your mold making it difficult to release your pendant from the mold. Might even be impossible. See that arrow? It's pointing to an undercut. I find it useful to hold the model under a strong light to see where shadows are cast. Hold your model as level as possible under the light and you should see where you need to clean things up.

This is the finished model. Most of the final carving was done when the model was in a leather hard almost dry stage. You may find as you are working with the model that it is getting a bit to dry. When this happens, try setting your model on a damp sponge and draping it with plastic for 15 or 20 minutes. Good time to get another cup of coffee :-). If you try misting your model with water you will tend to lose the detail you carefully carved.

The last step for me is to use very fine water colour brushes to smooth out tool lines. I dip mine and then ring them out with my fingers so they are barely moist. Just like misting, if you use to much water you may lose detail.

You can find modeling tools in most craft or hobby stores and at your favourite ceramic supplier. My set is fairly limited, a couple of different size wire loop tool, some metal scoop shaped dental tools,  and the best, my bamboo knitting needle.

Come back next week. I show you a couple of diffrent ways to make your plaster mold.

Tuesday Tips - Offer up Customizable Options

I've been doing a monthly art market for a bit over a year now. It's been a fantastic learning experience. One of the things I've learned is people come in all shapes and sizes. Yes, I know, that's pretty obvious. But I think that if you design jewelry, you tend to design either for yourself or some standard size. Bracelets are challenging for me because wrist sizes vary so much, from tiny to pudgy (like me :-). One of the things I've done over the last couple of months is make bracelets that can adjust from small to large. I also try design so I can take links out on the spot to customize the bracelet so it's comfortable for the buyer. Not only has this helped improve sales, people seem to enjoy having that little bit of extra care. It makes's it special.

That bracelet adjusts between a little over 7" to 8.25". It went home on a tall thin young woman minus two extender links for a perfect fit. So next time you do a show,  bring your tools and make somebody happy!

Tuesday Tip - Dusting

Pendant and Photo by Mary Jane at Maire Dodd

Not your ordinary household dusting. I have no tips about that. I do know I wake up most mornings hoping the fairies have been in. Ever the optimist.

OK, so what is this about? Well often you will read instructions when you are working with rubber molds or texture mats to give them a light dusting of corn starch to keep your clay from sticking.  But just how do you do that? If you use a shaker you are almost guaranteed to get an uneven or too heavy an application of corn starch. This is what I use.

Ta Da! Cheap and cheerful, this is my home made corn starch duster. It's just a square of old t-shirt fabric (originally destined to be a dust rag) with a pile of corn starch in the middle and secured with a rubber band that was cast off from a bunch of green onions.  I just pat it into a mold or onto a texture plate and Bob's your uncle, I've got a nice even thin coat of starch. Easy peasy!

A little post script. Sometimes you will see talcum powder recommended as a release. I've used this. Smells nice. But it can leave a scum on your bisque piece because it contains minerals. Corn starch is organic and burns out completely in your bisque firing.