2011 Charm Exchange Workshop

Ready to make charms for our annual exchange?? The October meeting is next week, Tuesday, October 18 beginning at 7 pm.  Dinner at 5pm (for those who are interested) will be at Fans Tea and Dumplings (the little Asian place across the parking lot from Harder Driving School at Mastin and 103^rd).

We have 21 members committed to making charms. It’s too late to add more names, sorry. Members have received an email with the list. See below for a “what to bring” list. 

Everyone will be getting a 16g pkg of PMC3 silver clay and will need to make 22 charms. (Last year we made this many from only a 9g pkg, so it should be much easier this time!) We encourage everyone to use your entire 16g pkg to make 22 similar charms so each person will be exchanging for a comparable set of charms. Use your own style and personality.

We have several new members participating who have limited (or no) experience with metal clay so this will be a great teaching experience for our group. I’m hoping those who know what you are doing will be helpful to these people. If you are not participating this year, you are still welcome to come and play or watch and learn.

You will also sign up with a volunteer who has a kiln to fire your pieces. If you finish them on Tuesday, they can take them, but it is likely you won’t have all your charms completed by the end of the evening. It will be each persons’ responsibility to get your charms to the assigned person and to pick them up when fired. Then at the November meeting we can continue adding finishes, patinas, keumboo or embellishments to complete your charms. We will exchange them at the December meeting.

What to bring:

1.       Money or check (cost for your subsidized clay will be about $15 and there are several extra 9g pkgs available at market price).

2.       Small flat box labeled with your name, email and phone with tissue to hold your unfired charms

3.       PMC working tools – note: be sure they are very clean if you have used them for polymer or other clay!

o   Silicone work mat, clear hard plastic report cover or tile work surface

o   Acrylic roller

o   Old playing cards

o   Cutters (cookie or Kemper cutters, straws,

o   Carving and smoothing tools (dental tools, sculpting tools, etc)

o   Texture plates, rubber stamps

o   Craft knife

o   Needle tool, needle files

o   Tissue blade

o   Spray bottle or mister

o   Air tight container and plastic wrap to keep clay moist.

o   Hand balm or olive oil

o   Brass brush

o cup warmer or foam block to dry pieces on

2-part silicone molding compound is available for members’ use so if you have a custom shape you have carved or found, bring it, make a mold and use it for your charms.

New to this? Check out these links online:

                Art Jewelry Mag Metal Clay Tool Kit pdf – great visual that shows all the tools you may need!

Art Jewelry Magazine’s how-to videos

               

                Questions??? Email me!

2011 Charm Exchange Deadline

OK. At last week’s meeting we have decided to begin our Charm Exchange Workshop at our October meeting (Tuesday, October 18). We will then have the November meeting to receive our fired pieces and apply patinas, keumboo or other finishes you desire so that we won’t need people to drive all over the city retrieving charms in early December.

Each person signed up for the exchange will need to make 20 charms (This number could still change.) One for each participant, and one extra for a bracelet which will be donated to a charity auction from us. If you have NOT yet sign up to participate, you have 48 hours to contact us to be added before we order clay on Monday, 9/26.

This moves the sign-up deadline up a week so we can order clay. Members have all been sent emails with these details.

For those who are new to our exchange: At the next two meetings, we will all bring our PMC tools, extra texture plates, stamps, cutters, etc. and make charms together. This is a great chance for those less experienced with PMC to work along-side members who know what they are doing. We share cutters, stamps, etc. and we encourage everyone to make 20 generous charms, not just cut out as many tiny pieces as possible. Once fired, charms may be embellished with other materials, beads, wire, etc. and brushed, polished or patinaed as desired. In December, each participant will receive one charm from each other person to use as desired.

Questions??? Call or email Lynette.

Annual Charm Exchange

At the August meeting we discussed our2011 “charm exchange” and made some decisions:

a.       Use PMC3 Silver Clay

b.      Sign-up to participate (at the September meeting or by email to Lynette) so we know how many charms we each will need to make.

c.       We will order 16gr pkgs for each person

d.      Purchase of clay for members (who have paid their 2011 dues) will be subsidized by the guild so that we can all have enough clay to make nice charms.

e.      Cost to each member will be about $10-12.

We hope to have everyone signed up by October 1 so we have plenty of time to order clay. If you sign up, you have made a commitment to make enough charms for each participating member. We will also need kiln owners willing to commit to firing everyone's charms.

We may use BOTH the October and November meetings for charm -making. This will give us time to collect our charms back and finish them before our December exchange party.

Making Custom Headpins and more

The KC PMC Guild Chapter's January meeting was filled with new ideas and Jule's headpin demo.

What's new?   Verrey Glass© Fusing (Cold Cast Pate-de-Verre)

Margaret Braet (long-time member of our guild chapter and local Kansas City artist) has been developing her own product - called Verrey Glass© - and she's now teaching classes and selling her product. The next local class is at the end of January 2011 - at Heartland Bead Marketing in Lenexa.

What's new about this? Traditonal pate-de-verre is a class casting technique layering glass (frit in a suspension medium) in a plaster mold for firing. (photo of a fabulous beaded collar by member, Betty Chaison, with a cast glass serpent in the center which she brought to show at the meeting.)

This requires working blind and backwards if using colors and leaves a plaster film which must be removed. Margaret's technique permit reusing molds (even like silicone texture stamps) and much more control of color placement. Go, Margaret! She's promised to demo this for us later this year.

Headpin Demo 

 
Using 20ga fine silver wire and a variety of small shapes (flowers, disks and balls) Jule's created various headpins, suitable making so-simple earrings or using with beads or any way you might use a headpin. She also demonstrated how to ball the ends of the wire with a torch and to ball up scraps of wire or bits of PMC scrap. This also works with Sterling silver, but the balls turn black and need to be pickled.

Tip 1: to make uniform balls of silver (for setting onto a PMC piece or soldering to a fabricated piece)

1. wind the wire around a mandrel as for making jump rings, choosing the mandrel size to control the amount of wire per piece
2. cut the coil as for jump rings, the resulting rings will have a equal length of wire
3. using a small torch on a charcoal block, ball (heat with torch until it melts) up the pieces 

View a Cool Tools video on Youtube.com here.

Tip 2: hold the wire straight into the flame - a tilted wire results in an off center ball or one that melts and drops off.
Tip 3: torches vary! The hotter the torch, the faster the wire melts, so know your equipment.
 
BE SAFE: Always work over a flame-protected area, wear eye protection and cotton clothing...

KC PMC Guild 2010 Charm Exchange

This was our third annual charm exchange, where members spend the November meeting making charms to exchange with one another in December. We have done both silver and copper clay, this year returning to use PMC3 silver clay. Although more signed up, at our December meeting we had 12 people with finished charms.

This is the collection of charms I received - not everyone made their charms identical, so some of us likely have a different collection. It's always interesting to see how people decide to use their variety of charms, so in the coming months we will share finished jewelry photos.

Artists' names included when known. We'll try to identify and add names.

The tab-style charm with musical not design was by Cheryl Coleman. 

Some of her charms were stamped with a sun-face motif.

Jules Van Hoecke (sweet heart imprint with darkened detail)

Lynette Fisk  (used 2-part silicone molding putty to create a mold from an old spoon handle, then added LOS patina.)

Darkly patina-ed flower from

This one looks a bit like an ancient coin.

(square charm with added chrystal)

Great patina on this 4-pointed star by Linda Maloney. She used stamps on both sides, cut the charm freehand and heavily oxydized it.

Dainty textured star

Leafy cutout from a textured round charm by Liz Willis. Liz enameled most of her charms but this is one of several on which she experimented using different hole punches.

Floral imprint, perhaps from an old button?

Jen Finley  (Man in the moon charm with crystals)

Carol Harder (leaf charm to which she added a variety of colored glass beads)

Thanks, Carol Harder

At our December meeting and Christmas party, the members of the Kansas City Chapter of the PMC Guild surprised our host Carol with a thank you gift - we pulled off the surprise! Members were all invited to make a charm (or two) in their favorite medium (PMC or other) to add to a bracelet for Carol Harder.

Since our first meeting several years ago, Carol has generously hosted our meetings in her driving school's classroom space. She makes us coffee, offers treats, bottled water and we use her paper supplies. She frequently is a presenter, sharing her many years of teaching experience and jewelry-making skills as well as her supplies. We have done pewter casting, glass enameling on copper, and many other things thanks to her sharing of supplies and equipment. Carol has an MFA in metalsmithing and taught high school art in the KC area for over 30 years.

She has also battled cancer more than once, including now, and yet never complains and always attends our meetings or makes sure we have access to the room if she is ill or out of town.

So....here is the nearly finished bracelet....

Some of the charms are PMC and others are beaded, fabricated, woven, felted, wired, found or sculpted.

Janice Lemasters created three charms, using wire, beads and found objects.

Leanne Doljac created a sparkler from PMC and a rhinestone bead ball.

This amazing charm was made by Betty Chaisson by painting a leaf with PMC paste and adding a pearl.

Robin MacIntosh created a large (1 1/8" long) PMC charm with a bead.

Jules Van Hoecke created a sculptural layered flower with a topaz colored CZ fired in the center.

Jen Finley's creation features PMC paste fired onto a large round lava rock bead.

Joyce Reed knows Carol's love of color, and combined beads with a silver headpin to create this charm.

Carol Hale used her fabricating skills to create this tree or arrowhead shape from sheet silver and added gold and silver beadwork.

Pat Kuehn used a variety of techniques to make charms from a felted bead and wire, press glass beads and a doll's eye with a seed beaded bezel.

Liz Willis (also a beader) created a beaded bead, weaving a hollow bead from tiny seed beads and using it to create her charm.

Lynette Fisk's charm is faux antique coral bead, created from polymer clay, sterling and brass wire and acrylic paint.

 Linda Maloney created a PMC coin which she embellished with dice and heart charms.

Mindy McLaughlin made a charm using pearls, turquoise and Bali silver on wire.

Cheryl Coleman's charm has symbolism, representing her nickname (Pooh bear), her company (Angel Stamps) on a yin yang bead.

 Janie Clark's adorable bird charm was lost in my Christmas card pile! It will soon be added to Carol's bracelet.

We were pleased with the results...

Our guild chapter has nearly 50 names on our roster, though not all are currently active. However, if other members want to add to Carol's bracelet, they still may. She's a jeweler, after all - she can add them herself!

We did print a 4x6 photo of each charm to be signed by the artist and presented to Carol so she can remember each of us by our charm.