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!