Tutorial - Fine Silver Earrings

One of the techniques for working with metal clay is to press it into a mold.

The main advantage of this technique is repetition - with is great for duplicating the same design over and over again.

The mold can be made out of any object, and also your own design. These designs can be carved out of wax, pressin a metal prototype, shaped using polymer clay etc.

I work with Art Clay Silver, wthich is easy to handle, shape and burn at home.

I pressed soft silver clay into my mold, and waited for it to dry. 

work stages (left to right): mold - silver clay - fine silver piece

My long experience with the material tought me I should let it to dry completely. My patience paid off, and the next day I burned the pieces over a net on the gas stove in the kitchen.

After firing and filing corners, I blackened the pieces - now pure silver - using liver of sulfur, then smoothened the relif with sandpaper and polished with a burnisher.

All that's left at this stage is to assemble the earrings: adding the beads and the hook.

fan earring - fine silver with rose quartz

These earrings are "little siblings" to a pendant I made last year:

"big brother" - fine silver pendant with rose quartz and sterling chain

Georgia, For A Day

Today is Purim, a jewish holiday, and it is custon to masquarade.

I really like being me, but for only a day I would like to be Georgia O'keefee. Well, not "be", but see the world through her unique eyes.

So I'm Georgia, for a day...

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1918 (Source: Wikipedia)

"Light of Iris", 1924 (source: wikipaintings)

Gem Carving

I will probably never stop learning, and often brows the net for knowledge.

My search today was for ancient jewelry making techniques. Many of the links were sponsored or lead to commercial sites, but I finaly found myself in the J. Paul Getty Museum Youtube channel. Among the many art-related videos, I found a real gem: The art of Gem Carving.



Enjoy!

A New Line In Progress

I love working with silver. Maybe it's the way it allows me to form it in so many ways.

A while ago I bought a lagre spool of fine silver wire, and began to search a way to use it. At first I repeated some of my artistic wire designs. I was satisfied, but still wanted to "listen" to its language, its flow.

In the past few weeks I came up with a line which combines pearls and gems - but also bare silver.

Here are a few samples:

fine silver wire crochet and chrysocolla neckpiece

dangle earrings - fine silver wire crochet and pink corals

bridal cuff bracelet - fine silver wire crochet and white fresh water pearls

fine silver wire crochet doughnut pendant