Wednesday, November 18, 2009

November Charm-making Meeting/Workshop

Wow! Last Tuesday night was a blast! 16 members and a guest gathered to work on making charms from copper clay. Charter member Debra Weld was on hand and shared some basic information on working with and firing copper clay. (She's an expert, after all!)

Most of the evening was spent intently focusing on making charms, which will be fired by several volunteer kiln owners before the December meeting when we will exchange charms with one another.

Carol and Betty got their heads together in one corner. They came prepared with previously created silicone molds. Janice and others brought plastic shape molds and stamps to use for textures.


Tools ranging from brushes and sculpting tools to mini-cutters and fingers all were useful. Everyone was working so intently even the normal conversation was minimal as we all got "charming."





Our brave, lone male attendee Jeff really knows what he's doing and jumped right in making his sculpted charms, while Carol pressed clay into a mold.



Carol preps a mold with a bit of Badger Balm for easy release.




Kana uses a rubber texture plate for impressing her design.


Char getting ready to roll out her clay.

We found out how the copper clay is messy, and requires a good clean up. Don't forget to soap and water wash your tools, work surfaces, textures, etc. before using them again with PMC or ArtClay Silver. Debra explained how copper clay contamination will cause black spots (similar to fire scale) in the silver that cannot be removed. Best to avoid it!

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