Clay, Color, Creativity

In the January issue of  “Art Jewelry” magazine, Seth Savarick had an article titled “Go Big” where he gave instructions on making a bold bangle bracelet.  I followed his instructions to build the form but instead of using a silk-screened veneer I use Lindly’s bubbles.  This bracelet is HUGE and I would never be able to wear it but I LOVE it.  I call it my “Bodacious Bangle.”  I decided to make a smaller one that I could actually wear and I call it ” Baby Bo.”

I promised myself I would clean my studio over the holidays.  Every time I started to clean I would get distracted and end up claying so I gave up.  Today I pulled my book out from under a pile of skinner blends, conditioned clay & deli sheets, cleared some workspace on my table and started blending colors for the “Bargello Bead Project” inspired by Laura Liska  on page 75.

I didn’t get around to making “color scales”  with Premo metallics but I loved the hues I got when I made my “Pivot Tiles” so I decided to use them for this project.  I was really disappointed with the finished cane.  The blends weren’t as smooth as I had hoped and the lines distorted.  It would not have made a nice bargello pattern.  I sliced off a piece, thinned it out and decided it wasn’t a total waste.  I played around with it using some of Lindly & Maggie’s trademark shapes and came up with some fun pieces.

Tomorrow I plan to use Kato and refer to my color scales for help.  I hope to get better shading and straighter lines.

I probably won’t be getting back to the book until after the holidays but I wanted to post some pictures of what I have been doing in the meantime.

I wanted to skip ahead in the book and do the Bargello project but then I would probably never come back and do the color scales.  So at this time I am diligently working on my color scales.  I love watching the colors change subtly as I go but they are time consuming.  I plan to make the color-scale triangles too so I may not be posting for a while.

I skipped the “Ruffle Spiral Flower Brooch” project but decided to revisit it after Maggie ’s weekend extra.  I chose a light and dark purple but realized after making the cane that I needed much more contrast.  I liked the dark purple I had chosen so I kept it. I changed the value of the light color by adding more white pearl.  The book suggested that you added black to the dark color in equal proportions for the wrap, but I learned from making my pivot tiles that Kato black was much more concentrated than the others so I used less.  Actually, I used a lot less, and I was pleased with the end result.

The contrast in the second cane was much better so I decided to add a few more elements and made a cane similar to the one I learned in the Julia Sober workshop.  I love it.  I should enough to make several beads.

My Julia Sober Workshop Creations

I’m taking a break from “Color Inspirations” for a few days so I can play with what I learned from Julia Sober last weekend.  We had Julia here for a two day workshop.  On Saturday she taught her Faux Enamel Reversible Pendant and  Sunday was all about  Mixed Media Jewelry Construction.  Julia is a wonderful instructor and I loved the pace of this workshop.  Her calming personality brought out the creative spirit in everyone.  On Sunday, many had difficulty getting to the Art Center because of road closures due to the Marathon but Julia found a way to work around this and everyone was caught up by the end of the day.  If you ever have a chance to learn with Julia go for it.  I am posting pictures of the few things I have finished.  I have been coloring every chance I get so there will be a lot more Faux Enamel pieces in my future.

Last weekend’s extra was doing the watercolor beads.  I have tried making these before but my colors were too bright and they didn’t look good.  I made some blends to match the colors on my collage and set out to make the beads.  My first mistake was that I made way too much of each color.  My second mistake was not having enough value difference between the colors I chose.

After adding colors with more contrast I ended up with the Green & Orange beads.  The blue necklace is one I made after I took Maggie’s color class several years ago and I didn’t mud down the colors.

Maggie was in town for a book signing at the Beehive Bookstore in Delaware, Ohio this weekend and I attended along with some fellow guild members.  We were invited to Maggie’s parents home before the event and it was so nice to see their lovely home and visit with Maggie’s family.

I finally finished Lindly’s  pinched petal necklace with Kato clay .  I made a huge skinner blend with my dream machine and used it all so it is twice as long as the Premo one.  I still had a problem with the cracking when I pinched some of the petals but I took the time to heal them now that I know they will show.  It is hard to tell from the pictures but the Kato colors are more intense even though I used the same primary colors.

I want to try the watercolor beads next.  I made one when I took Maggie’s color workshop a few years ago.  Now that I know more about color I would like to make a whole necklace.  It will be hard for me to “mud” down the colors as I always tend to use bright ones.  But I think the muted ones look better with this technique.

On Friday Maggie is coming to Ohio to do a book-signing and many of our guild members are going.  Maybe I’ll get a picture to post here on my blog.

The petals are baked and strung.  After comparing them to my collage I think my primary color choices are good … perhaps a bit of tweaking is needed on the blues though.  I used the new formula Premo for this cane  and found it to be really sticky so I leached the skinner blend overnight.  When I pinched my petals several of them cracked on the back side and I wonder if this was because of the leaching.  I used them anyway because I didn’t realize that some of the  back sides would show. You really can’t see it so much in the picture but they really do look bad.  I think I am going to do this exercise again with Kato.

Petal Necklace with Premo