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...

What a Trip!

A highlight of our recent KCPMC Guild July meeting was a report from a lucky trio who recently spent a week in New Orleans (great city) studying fabrication techniques with Thomas Mann (great Mann) at his new French Quarter studio.

Do NOT let these sweet faces fool you - if their report was anything close to their experience, NOLA is  recovering from another hurricane!

Mazzie, Carol and Liz brought samples of the pieces they made, using a wide variety of fabrication techniques to create personal pieces like this "sandwich" pendant using an old photo of Mazzie's father as a child.

We hope they will share some of their newly acquired expertise at future meetings. We already know their stand-up routine is wonderful!

Metal Clay is HOT in KC this summer!

At least, Kansas City is hot! Verrey HOT. So join the KCPMC Guild to cool off with a demonstration by member Margaret Braet on her Cold Cast Pate-de-Verre glass clay.

Margaret is pioneering work in glass clay - similar to metal clays in that it involves use of finely ground particles in a binding medium that burns out when fired. Pate de verre is a technique used by the ancient Egyptians and French artists of a century ago. (Note: images shown are old French glass.....)

Margaret's product and techniques are different from the old methods....we'll find out all about them at the July KC PMC Guild meeting on July 19th.  


She uses texture molds, the freezer and more modern equipment to update this ancient technique. 

If you Google Pate de Verre you'l find that it's not a technique for the casual artist....but Verrey Glass Clay brings glass into the realm of clay, which may sound familiar to PMC users. Join us for an interesting evening.

The meeting starts at 7pm, but join us for no-host dinner ahead of time at 5 p.m. at Fan's Tea and Dumplings - just across the parking lot from Harder Driving School at 10362 Mastin in Overland Park, KS

Susan Breen Silvy

Have you checked the most recent issue (July 2011) of Art Jewelry? (Received mine in today's mail.) The Artist's Profile article in this issue is about Susan Breen Silvy - member of the Kansas City Chapter of the PMC Guild.
A Conversation with Susan Breen Silvy

A multimedia artist celebrates the challenge of taking an underdog medium into new territory. 

 

It's a terrific article and show great photos of some of her art - both glass, faux bone and metal clays. Susan joined our guild chapter this past year and is sponsoring a class by Barbara Becker Simon in August (registration is full).

If you don't subscribe to Art Jewelry, check it out at local bead shops. She's one of us!

Way to go, Gale!

 KCPMC Guild member Gale Schlagel recently donated one of her large PMC lentils with gold keumboo and crystal necklaces to a local charity auction - and it ended up on tv last week. Worn by NBC Action News anchor Elizabth Alex, Gale's piece caught my attention right away.

Here's the link to the story and video for a better view. Stamp Out Hunger drive brings 223,000 pounds of food to metro non-profit organizations

Gale has a website if you want to see more of her work. She has been featured or interviewed on Metal Clay Today and on REview.

Now, if only the news anchor had been wearing a sign that said "jewelry created by local artist member of KCPMC Guild"!!

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.

April - Guest Speaker Jean Noren

Thanks to Jean Noren of Blue Springs who spent her evening with us. She shared her various methods of incorporating PMC Silver onto her porcelain pottery - from silver embellished porcelain figures (such as dragonflies) added after firing, to pieces with PMC paste or clay painted or embedded onto pieces that have been through two firings (bisque and glazed stages).

She brought samples - which we forgot to photograph! But included pit-fired and horse hair fired pieces. Her colors were muted and lovely, her pots graceful and sturdy. Wish we could show you.

Thanks again, Jean.