May Meeting Report

We had a small crowd last night – sorry if my late information caused anyone trouble….

Here’s what you missed….

Gale demonstrated putting a metal clay bezel around a piece of pottery or china. NOTE: transfer-ware works best. Some glazed pottery loses color upon high-temp firing, so test fire the pottery first or you may end up with a color-less piece! This sample - which is still adorable - originally also had a lot of dark pink, which almost completely faded.

Tips from Gale:

• Cut a “window” in the back to prevent tearing or pull-away

• Designs that span the top of shard must be anchored (with slip, not just water) to 2 or more locations of the bezel or it will straighten and shrink away from the bezel
• Wide bezels that wrap over the shard can tear upon firing. She recommends adding clay inside bezel instead. (Think window glazing….) Note the tiny tear in lower left of  photo.....

• Use thin strips of clay rather than syringe clay for more precise, even look.

Those who came to the Saturday workshop at Lynette’s house saw this first….an easy and cheap way to make a metal clay turntable…..we brought beads and condiment cups last night, so everyone took one home.

Here’s a link to Wanaree Taylor’s blot – she a metal clay artist and the condiment cup spinner was her idea. http://artwarebywanaree.blogspot.com/2012/02/make-your-own-metal-clay-turntable.html . I think I’m going to glue the top of a cup to the center of a 6” square piece of matboard – so it’s less tippy.

Cecelia brought a pasta machine, some pieces of take-out box Styrofoam and leaves. Everyone present played with making a nice, FLAT texture plate. NOTE: the 2-part silicone we used last night was slightly sticky and hard to roll - it made you hands feel oily and wanted to cling to the rollers. 

Cecelia used a cheap product she found at Hobby Lobby and said it was very easy to use!

 This one went through the pasta machine a 2nd time, with a thin leaf. Do not change the thickness setting, or the texture material may embed into the silicone.

We were using pens, pencils and stylus on the foam - 

Then mix the putty, flatten slightly and run through the pasta machine - using the thicker settings. Lay the putty over your design and using a brayer or acrylic roller, roll ONCE and step away until the molding compound sets. Don't try to re-roll or you'll get shadows or imprecise images.

When the putty has set (test with your fingernail - if it doesn't leave an impression, its done.) 

May Day! May Day!

May is speeding on and my days are filling fast, with graduations, gardening and out of town visitors. Oops! And the May KC PMC Guild meeting is tomorrow night! (Tuesday, May 15).

Gale will continue teaching us her techniques - this time on capturing a shard of pottery or china in PMC. Bring some clay and a piece of pottery you want to use in your project.

 We will also have a BONUS hands-on activity. Cecelia will show us how she made her custom texture plates using 2-part molding silicone. Bring some meat tray foam and a pencil or stylus. Silicone provided.

Tear Away Success

Thanks, Jennifer, for a great night of burnishing and tearing paper and polymer clay! Here is Janice exercising her arm, rubbing and rubbing....

With a row of pasta machines (to condition the Studio Clay by Sculpey), several toaster ovens to cure the clay and a laser printer loaded with glossy paper, Jennifer Finley led us in a productive evening of creating low-relief polymer and paper texture plates.

Experimentation confirmed what the online tutorials told us - not all polymer clays will adhere to the toner on the paper - which is what pulls the design off and leaves the negative plate. Also, when using a commercial copier (such as Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, etc) be sure to specify LASER printer, not ink jet (which results in transfers, not tear-aways).

• burnish 2 minutes, rest, reburnish 2 minutes
• work on small ceramic tile that will fit into the oven - moving clay from worksurface to tile causes ripples
• don't push too hard, but work to create friction heat
• pull paper away quickly - like a bandage
• back both clay and paper tear away to get a positive AND a negative plate of same design
• let clay cool before removing from baking tile
• use copies that have definition - no half-tones or too-fine lines

Can't wait to see these textures used on some pmc pieces!! 

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

           

Congratulations, Pat and Susan!

Congrats to Pat Kuehn - she had a beaded piece accepted for publication by Beadwork Magazine later this year. We'll look forward to seeing that. She brought a trayful of gorgeous crystal and beaded jewelry for show and tell - no photo, sorry.
Congratulations also to Susan Silvey - she's a Saul Bell 2012 Award finalist in the Metal Clay category!

We also saw Janice's amazing Leather Pendant with Zentangles, Cheryl's Polymer Clay Zentangle pendant using colored pens and gloss highlights, and more. No photos - Sorry.

If you missed the meeting, you missed a great class in Planning and Design of your work.
Gale Schlagel showed us some of her early PMC pendants and how a lack of understanding and advance planning resulted in pieces that were hard to attach, had no coordinating finishing pieces (end-caps or connectors) or had holes in the wrong places, hang crooked, etc. (note: Gale's mistakes are way above my best pieces, but still....)

• tip: Rio Grande and other metal clay suppliers will buy-back your fired fine silver mistakes to recycle the metal and reduce your loss.

Carol Harder lead us in a review of the Principles and Elements of Design. (We got a 25 minute, condensed version of a 6-week design unit from her art class curriculum.)



Elements of Art

• Line - the simplest form

She handed out 30 inch piece of straight, steel wire with the instructions to use the entire piece and create a pin. No photos, but Cecilia and Janice both finished very cool, wearable wire brooches.

• Shape - circle, triangle, square
• Form - 3 dimensional shapes, ball, pyramid, etc.
• Space - positive/negative, inside/outside  

•  Value - light, dark, shadow, cast shadow, reflection (chiarscuro)

• Color - primary (red, blue, yellow), secondary (green, orange, purple),  complementary, etc

• Texture - important for PMC artists!! You know this one

We also looked at some online resources for inspiration and ideas.

• keep a sketchbook of your ideas for future use - you WILL forget your great ideas
• draw out your idea before you start
• Carol made her students do 10 drawings before starting a project!
• Subscribe to online blogs such as Jewelry Making Daily, Start with Sketches - Save Money, your own Idea Book, Record your Inspiration or check out the many, many books and publications aimed at jewelry artists.

February KCPMC Guild Meeting

Before-meeting no-host dinner 5:00 p.m. at Zardas BBQ (just west of Quivira at 87th). Everyone is welcome!

TOPIC:
In this meeting, we begin our series of topics to help you design a complete jewelry project. Lead by Carol Harder and Gale Schlagel, they will help you start training your brain to focus on a design. Think about how you can use our next few months' topics to create something spectacular and uniquely yours.

• tear-away texture technique (March) Jen will teach us the technique popularized by Celie Fago
• stone setting by channel, tube, bezel and more (April)
• PMC bezels around ceramic/pottery shards (May)
• custom made end caps (June) 
• kumihimo braiding (July) --  

Materials to bring:

• scissors
• your sketchbook (old or new)
• Elements of Design from last year's design meeting, if you have one. (Carol had us finding pictures of jewelry that illustrated the various principles and elements of design.)
• your ideas for the piece you want to make
• your "mistake" projects

Provided:
         paper, glue sticks, pencils 

ALSO - bring your booboos...a piece you haven't finishd because it somehow doesn't work. We may be able to offer suggestions on how to re-do it, or alter it and make it better. You don't want to waste that precious PMC!!

Don't forget to bring your recent work to show and tell. If you won the January raffle, remember that you are responsible for bringing a new raffle item.

January 2012 Meeting

The January meeting of the Kansas City Precious Metal Clay Guild will be Tuesday, January 17 at 7:00 p.m. at Harder Driving School, 10362 Mastin. Overland Park, KS 66214

The hands-on demo/topic will be lead by one of our newer members, Kim Keane. Kim is a polymer clay artist who will show us how to draw (or use our Zentangle skills learned from Susan Silvy last fall) onto pre-cured polymer clay.

Cured clay pieces will be provided. Please bring your Micron or Millennium Pen #01 and optional 005 pen. Sakura is the name brand of the pens which work best. Available at Michael's. Those who participated in the fall Zentangle meeting received a pen in their kit.

This is the first meeting of 2012 and member dues are now due. $24 per year provides our budget - which will be used to cover materials costs for more hands-on projects at our meetings. That's just $2 a month for lots of fun learning experiences. Check back here or check our website for the 2012 program schedule.