Crystal Clay steampunk compact mirror

In which I am so enchanted by my own reflection I fail to see time is the wrong way round. 

Last year we visited the MOSI Maker Faire.  It was a really good day out and we had great fun. The Mite learnt to solder at age 3 and made some cool flashing badges, my husband drooled over 3D printers and Raspberry Pi stuff. I admired the jewellery makers stall.

I ended up buying a piece that I really loved, a necklace made from an old watch.
Though I loved it, there were two problems with it, firstly I thought the back of the piece was prettier than the front and I liked the little rubies in it, but it sat weird if I wore it that way.  Secondly, if I wore it the right way, it scratched my skin terribly! So I decided to re-purpose it.

Back 

Front

I removed the pearl from it and will use this in a future project.  I also got some other watch innards from my husband who is a bit of a chronophile. Some of these bits also had tiny rubies.

                                                 

I used a bezelled compact mirror with a lovely flower engraved design on the back.

I added the clay roughly to the mirror. After it had been mixed.

 Then I added my watch bits and a few of the rose pink chatons from my ring design. I tidied up the surface of the clay with FIMO tools.

It was then that I realised that I had put the watch from my necklace on backwards! So I had to dig it out, which wasn't easy, clean it and replace it in the clay!

But luckily it worked out ok.  I need to smooth the clay a bit more and then polish the compact itself when the clay has hardened.  I am glad I now have something cool for my handbag, made from something that would otherwise be left in a drawer or thrown away.

Finished mirror.  I have a little velvet pouch for it so it can travel in my bag in style.

Decisions, decisions

So I have a few things I want to work on next and I am not sure where to start.  I am also conscious that July's project will be arriving soon!

I have an idea for a Crystal clay compact mirror, but I think it is a little cheesy.  I'm going to sketch it out and maybe get a few more bits to add interest. The annoying thing about both clays I used this week is that they harden quickly so you have to start with a very clear idea of where you want to go.  I dunno, maybe that is a good thing :)

I also have an idea for another silver pendant, the design is something very close to my heart but it is an unusual shape for a pendant and I am unclear if it will work.  As well, I  need to order some silver chain to make the flower print pendant and the new one into necklaces.

The third thing I have to make is a whole heap of cross stitching. I like cross stitching but most patterns you come around are aimed at a particular demographic and are a little twee.

Then I came across Wee Little Stitches which I absolutely love!

I have spent a few months stitching the Superhero Alphabet for my son's room which is finally finished and have since ordered another four smaller patterns to do!

My fourth option is to get off the computer and get to bed for a reasonable hour as undoubtedly I will be woken by small people at some point!

Decisions, decisions!!

June Project part 3 - success at last!

I decided to try again with my silver clay pendant using the rest of the clay and what I had learnt making mistakes the first time!

I couldn't removed the fireproof stones from the disaster piece so I had to buy some new ones which I got from this website. I got a mixture of different sizes and colours and I am glad I did because the piece looks better for smaller coloured stones rather than the clear ones in the pack, in my opinion.

Here is the piece, stamped and cut.  I took two attempts to get it how I wanted. Then I set the stones into the clay.  These are lab created gemstones and suitable for firing but you should never quench a gem set piece as the stones could shatter! I chose two 1.5 mm stones, one a sort of lavender and one that looked like a peridot. I also chose a 2mm red-orange stone for the larger flower.

I sanded the edges of the piece after it was dry.  I didn't need to do much as cleaning up the edges with a damp paint brush before allowing it to dry out sorted most issues.

 Here it is straight after firing. You can see from the marks on the heat block how it has shrunk.  This is normal, PMC generally shrinks 10% during firing as the polymer that holds the silver burns off leaving you with pure silver..  I really took my time over the firing, used a lower amount of heat and worked in quite dim light so I could observe colour changes more easily.  it was more time consuming but it was worth it!

 Here is my newly fired piece with the failed one. It appears white because of the oxide layer on the silver from heating .

 Here is the pendant after polishing with a stainless steel brush

Comparison with the disaster piece!

                       
                                       After burnishing and using a silver polishing cloth. 

I am very happy with the end result and I am wearing it right now! Just need to order some better silver chain for it soon. :-)

June side project - Crystal Clay ring

Whilst I was browsing the Cooksons website and trying to find some more fireproof gemstones after messing up my silver clay pendant.  I came across Crystal Clay.  This is a two part epoxy clay, that air dries. It's a bit like fancy, sticky FIMO. So I thought I would have a play with some of it after my disaster with the blow torch.

Here is all the kit, it comes with the two parts of the clay, a pair of gloves (very necessary as it is sticky stuff at first) and a beeswax stick for picking up chatons. I thought the beeswax stick was rubbish, I used my own bead/gemstone tool which I got from Hobbycraft

 Here are the two parts of the clay, A gives the colour, B is the hardener. In this case I am using black but it comes in loads of colours.

 You make equal sized balls :-) 

 Mix them together 

 I then made a sausage shape and added to the channel of the ring blank.

 I then started to add the chatons

 Completed pattern 

After 12-14 hours the clay is completely dry and the piece is ready.

I really liked using this clay and have a few other ideas for using it which I will post when they come to fruition. I need to work on having a more even surface and less finger marks in my work though! 

June project part 2 - in which I mess it up every step of the way.

For this project I had to roll out a piece of clay, imprint a design, add some fire proof crystals and heat it up for two minutes. Dead simple? No!

I got everything ready, you can see the stamp I used on the left, the cutter beneath it. I didn't like the stamps included in the pack so made a pilgrimage to Hobbycraft and of course bought a ton of other stuff too because I just love Hobbycraft.  I will no doubt be posting some of the other things I bought :-)

Here you can see some very important parts of the process, the teflon sheet to work on, so the clay doesn't stick to the work surface and badger balm to rub on hands, stamps and other tools to stop sticking. You don't want it to stick because you will waste material and ruin your design. The clay is very sticky when it first comes out of the packet.  The blue things are spacers so that when you roll the clay you get a uniform thickness.  So far, so good. 

 I stamped the design on after much faffing to get it as I wanted. I added the stones but messed it up, so stamped it again. The clay was getting very hard at this point.  It was getting very difficult to work with and I was shocked at how quickly it was drying up! I had to abandon that lump of clay and use the other half of my clay. Luckily I was able to rehydrate the clay by adding water and kneading it in clingfilm over the course of 24 hours, which was lucky really, considering the cock up I made later.

This is the second attempt set with the fire proof crystals.

This is where it went wrong. With my silver clay paste pieces I fired them on a gauze on my cooker hob. The silver clay kit came with a blow torch that can heat up to 1300°c. Silver melts at 900°c. Can you guess what happened? The instructions said to make sure it was glowing orange for 2 minutes which I did. I later found an online video showing you how to do it properly and it should be pale orange not the glow stick colour I took it to. 

And this is what I got :-(  I suppose the positive side is that I got the stones to set and a piece of solid silver jewellery.  The negative is it looks rubbish and I have wasted about £15 worth of materials. 

Thankfully because I rehydrated the first bit of clay, I was able to start again tonight and I will post some (hopefully) successful pictures soon.

Lessons learnt

• Be clear on your design and work quickly once the clay is out.
• Don't keep messing with it once it is done. Many imperfections can be sorted with a damp paint brush, rather than your clumsy fingers. 
• Trust your instinct on firing!. Look at the colours carefully, do not allow your piece to glow!

June project part 1 - Silver clay

Project one is to make two simple silver pendants with PMC3 silver clay.

Silver clay is clever stuff.  It is very fine silver powder held together with a polymer resin which burns off on heating leaving a pure silver piece. I also like that it is all recycled material, as the silver is reclaimed from machine parts and computer components. 

I have played with silver clay paste before, I bought a kit after watching my girl crush Kirstie Allsopp make a leaf necklace on TV.

Here are the ones I produced:

Some earrings

Pendant

Pendant set with a peridot, but I couldn't get it to set right so I had to use superglue :)

So you would think I would find this easy, right? It turns out silver clay is a very different beast to silver clay paste!

Reigniting my hobby

Everybody needs a hobby, a thing. I dabble in jewellery making. I did a couple of night classes a few years back and made all the jewellery for me, my mum and my bridesmaids for my wedding. I also made my husband's wedding ring.

But then I had a baby, I still do the odd bit. I put future projects on my Pinterest. I never do them.  I have no real interest in selling things, I just like "faffing about" as one friend put it! Sometimes I might make something as a gift or to go with an outfit, but I am never really happy with the quality of my pieces. I have loads of ideas but I needed to practice more to get to the standard I want to be.

Then I had another baby and though I wanted to, going to more classes was going to be difficult.  So for my birthday my husband gave me some money towards a distance learning jewellery making course. Every month for six months, whilst I am on maternity leave, I will get a different project to make through the post.

I will post the results of my endeavours here every month along with any other crafty stuff I am inspired to make or do. I appreciate feedback but I am a delicate little flower so be nice!

Links

The lady who taught my night classes with can be found at Pink Butterfly. She is an excellent teacher and still teaches in a private studio for an excellent price. I own one of her jewellery pieces, she makes some lovely, lovely stuff.

The course I am following is the Cooksons Gold distance learning - Let's Make Jewellery.  I may still attend some of their day courses if I can later on in the year.