March 2012 KC PMC Guild Meeting Plan

At our March meeting, Tuesday, March 20, Jen Finley will be teaching us the Tear Away Texture Technique – developed by Gwen Gibson and made famous by Celie Fago’s extensive use in her awesome jewelry.

If you want to read ahead there are several tutorials online. (Search for Tear Away Technique)

The process requires some materials and your texture design must be printed onto GLOSSY paper with an old-style toner copier.

Jennifer will be bringing a variety of designs you may use, but if you want to use your own original texture drawing (such as one of your Zentangle drawings or anything else you have drawn – which we encourage—as long as they are large enough lines. See below.)

Line art printed on heavy glossy paper. Jen will bring a variety of designs that people can use.  If anybody wants to bring their own stuff, there are a couple of options:

1. If you have access to an old fashioned toner based copy machine, the art can be copied onto 32# glossy paper. A canon or HP laser printer will probably work, too.  Inkjet printers will not work and other brands of laser printers are not  likely to work.

2. If you want to copy your own take your designs to Office Max or Staples (80 gloss text) and request copying onto 32# glossy paper.

NOTE: Your designs should be graphic – lines that are too delicate will not transfer well.

The guild will provide:

            Polymer clay (requires old formula Sculpey III or new Sculpey Studio clay) in a light color

            A toaster oven to bake the clay. 

            A dedicated pasta machine (we’ll have at least 3, but the more the merrier. Perhaps the polymer people could also bring theirs?)

Glass mats or flat shiny porcelain tiles to work on

32# glossy paper

 You should bring:

            Work surface

            Polymer working tools (such as tissue blade, acrylic roller etc) optional

            Small glossy tile to bake on

           

August KCPMC Guild Meeting - Keumboo!

Gesundheit! Oops....no wait. Keumboo is a metalworking technique, not a body explosion.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - Keumboo How To is the topic of Kansas City's PMC Guild meeting. Member Jen Finley will demo and teach you how to apply precious bits of real gold leaf to fired PMC.

You may watch the demo or actively participate with your own work. To play along, you will need to bring

• A fired, but unhandled, untumbled, unburnished, unpatina-ed, unmessed with piece of silver metal clay. A fairly flat piece will be the easiest to work on for a first piece. Pieces with low relief will turn out the nicest. (Copper and bronze won't work.)
• A tiny pair of scissors like embroidery scissors (optional if you want to cut out a specific shape).
• Tiny decorative paper punches.  I will bring some that everybody can use.
• An agate burnisher if you have one. I will bring extras.
• That's it unless we want to have people who are afraid to torch fire bring a small already dried piece that we can torch at the meeting.  The keum boo process is fast and easy, so people can bring as many pieces as they want to do.  I'll bring a hot plate, burnishers, punches, and gloves.
• Money (Jen has a $75 piece of gold leaf (about 3" square) which she's willing to share - cost will depend on how many people will divide the piece)

Info about the KC PMC Guild and directions to our meetings is on our website at http://www.kcpmcguild.org. 

To view some sample from member artist Gale Schlagel click here to go to her website.

 The Metal Clay Today website here has an intevriew with Gale and several more photos of her pieces using keumboo. As you can see from these sample pictures found with a Google search for keumboo, the gold application can be random or very specific.

There is a great online demo from Jewelry Artist Magazine that shows keumboo used with making hollow lentil beads...

May 17 Meeting

Jen Finley will be demonstrating using PMC oil paste on porcelain and Art Clay overlay past on glass to add dimensional silver to porcelain or glass.

Meeting begins at 7 pm at Harder Driving School.
If you have done anything for the Kansas City Fountains Challenge, bring it to this meeting!
To work along at the meeting here is the list of tools to bring:

PMC3/Art Clay paste

• paper type and/or syringe type metal clay (optional for decoration)
• CZs or fireable stones (optional for decoration)
• paint brush
• water container
• sanding supplies
• work surface
• pipe cleaners/chenille stems

Supplies for glass or porcelain:

• Art Clay Overlay Paste
• glass cab, china shards, etc.
• paint brush
• water container
• work surface
• pointy tool to scratch off metal clay for sgraffito, like a sewing needle

Jen will have some bisque bead blanks and dichroic glass cabs available for purchase.

Results of Tumble Polishers Comparison

For those who missed our May meeting and tumble polishing demo, here is a quick overview. Betty Chaisson brought her Magnetic tumble polisher. At $500, it's a great option for those wanting to polish a lot of small items quickly. It looks like a mini food processor and work by whirling very tiny stainless steel pins in a solution of tumbling medium. Check out various other magnetic tumblers and mediums at Otto Frei.

Betty warned us not to mix metals when polishing silver. Tumbling work hardens fired PMC items as well as polishes....the longer you process, the shinier the piece gets.

Jennifer Finley brought 2 Rotary Tumblers - one a Lortone and one an economy model from Harbour Freight. Janie also brought her HF model - which had disappointed her by leaving a dark patina on a silver piece. (The Lortone small jewelry model retails for about $85 while the Harbor Freight model is under $40.) This type of tumbler also uses stainless steel shot, which will cost about $30/lb and is not carried by Harbor Freight.

Some rotary tumbler barrels are constructed from black rubber, and should be cleaned by running without jewelry....be sure to check the instructions! Even the magnetic tumbler info says to clean the tumbling medium/shot before using with jewelry.

TIP: Clean the shot by tumbling in flat Coca Cola.
TIP: Shot must be cleaned and dried after use, and stored dry to prevent rust!

Look before you buy! and know what use you will be making of your tumbler. Read How to Choose a Tumbler, Tumbling instructions, and know what you need before you purchase.