When Wanaree Tanner writes a tutorial, she is really serious about it. This beefy, 12 page tutorial is comprehensive and full of pictures. She shows you exactly how to get consistent, reliable firing results when firing Art Clay Copper.

Find it here: http://artwarebywanaree.blogspot.com/2013/03/art-clay-copper-carbon-firing-guide.html

via Metal Clay Academy

Any book that quotes Yoda has to be good. Since I’ve been working with metal clay for a long time, and own a lot of books, at this point, I’m happy if I get just one good tip from a book — from Metal Clay Fusion I got many good tips.

I found a useful style of bail, instructions for combining copper and bronze clays for a married metals look and the tip on how to make fish scales is worth the price of the book right there.

The book starts with a solid fundamentals section and also includes a history of the development of base metals firing methods, which is useful.

His sense of calm and “you can do this” pervades the book. He covers design, making and using templates and thoughts on being an artist.

In what seems to be a departure from usual practice for Lark Books — brand names are used. You may have noticed in earlier Lark Books on metal clay that types are referred to as “first generation” and “second generation,” leaving you to translate that in your head. In this book, I’m glad to see brand names used. There are so many types and brands of base metal clays, I don’t see how we could have clear instructions on them without naming brands.

Overall, what most people will be looking for in a book from Gordon, is how he builds his complex pieces. While not all of the projects are signature Gordon Uyehara pieces, you will learn to create complex and sometimes mixed metal pieces. Projects include objects and jewelry.

The Silver Flora project — the one on the cover — is worth the price of the book. If you’re struggling to move from flat pieces to complex construction, this is the book for you. if you make Silver Flora, you’ll come away with a new understanding of how to build a complex piece that looks more complicated than it really is.

While there are a couple of projects that aren’t my style, I do plan to make the bi-metal cuff bracelet.

Who this book is good for:

I think it’s meaty enough for intermediate and advanced makers — you will definitely find a challenge, refinement and useful tips here. It’s also comprehensive enough for beginners. The fundamentals section is very clear and complete. A couple of projects could easily be done by beginners, and the rest will inspire you as you work up to them.

Available in bookstores and at amazon: Metal Clay Fusion: Diverse Clays, Detailed Techniques, Artful Projects (Metal Clay Master Class)

They probably really want a gift certificate to one of their favorite metal clay suppliers. But if you really want to wrap that gift certificate up with something…

Here are some ideas of what to tie it to:

This is the new ceramic firing box from PMC Connection, to be used instead of a stainless steel one. (Stainless steel works great, but the black flakes in the kiln are a drag.)

Thanks to Hadar Jacobson for first coming up with the idea for alternative materials for firing boxes. I love her idea for making individual boxes, but don’t personally want to grind fire bricks, so I’m excited to see this new product from PMCC.

http://pmcconnection.com/webshop

I haven’t reviewed this terrific book yet, but anyone who doesn’t have it yet will be thrilled to have it. Our local guild watched the video that comes with the book (with permission from Kate) and all found it helpful. It’s an enthusiastic thumbs up for the book with DVD.

Or you could go local, with a gift card to your local bead store, many of which have metal clay classes, plus, you know, beads, and everyone loves beads. Saturday is Small Business Saturday, a great day to stop by your local bead store.

And you can’t go wrong with a subscription to a jewelry magazine. Try this special issue all on metal clay jewelry, from Art Jewelry Magazine. Buy it in book stores or online: http://www.artjewelrymag.com

Membership in a metal clay guild is always appreciated – there’s the PMC Guild, the Art Clay Society and local chapters. Join up at:

http://www.pmcguild.com/join.html

http://www.artclaysociety.com/join

Find UK local chapters here:
http://www.metalclayacademy.com/resources/groups/index.html
and for French speakers:
http://www.metallurgia.org
(any I missed? Please post a comment.)

I know I’d love to get the Riveting Tool from Metal Clay Findings (hint, hint family)

http://www.metalclayfindings.com/catalog/riveting

That’s 7 ideas! Help me get to 10, what are you wishing for this holiday season?

Update, Dec. 5: Here’s a video tutorial from Beaducation on the riveting tool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch

Lora Hart has a great “eye candy” photo montage up on tools here: http://lorahartjewels.blogspot.com.

Cosmic Folklore is having a Facebook auction of a handmade bracelet:
http://www.facebook.com/Cosmic-Folklore-Studios

Cindy Edelstein announces an entrepreneur’s launch contest at Daily Candy
http://jewelrybusinessguru.typepad.com

Try Handmade has highlighted the photographic collage works of Mathew Parker, which I love. He combines images at the same place from different seasons, and more. Very cool.
http://tryhandmade.com

Kelly Dragon has posted a really nice slide show of the progression of a piece of torch fired enamels.
http://s810.photobucket.com

That’s an ad for a special issue, coming out in late October, from Art Jewelry Magazine. Metal Clay Jewelry will include reprints of favorite metal clay projects from Art Jewelry Magazine, plus three brand new ones.

That’s my Splat pendant there on the right. Rings by Linda Stiles Smith, additional jewelry in the bottom row by Michelle Ross, Kate Richbourg and Kim Otterbein.

See http://www.artjewelrymag.com to order the special issue.

I wouldn’t have imagined that things would have gotten wild west-ier, but they have!

In addition to the first base metal clay, BronzClay from Metal Adventures, we know have CopprClay from the same, Copper Clay from Art Clay, Hadar’s Powders (sold in powdered form) from Hadar Jacobson, and now Prometheus Clay from Turkey. Oh, and did I mention another company sells silver powder for mixing up your own silver metal clay?

For a while, I was swept up in the excitement and tried many different brands. By the time Prometheus clay came out, I wasn’t even tempted to try it. (nothing against them personally, it does seem to work well for people.)

With the base matal clays, the firing is a little tricky, and it takes some time to figure out how to have consistent success with them.

For me, I’m happy to limit myself to just a few brands and types of clay, learn how to use them, and use my precious jewelry making time to be creative, not to do endless experiments with every possible brand and type of clay.

To achieve mastery of a media, one needs to focus and place limits. I believe limits actually encourage creativity, not hamper it.

So for me, I’m keeping it simple and limiting myself to only some of the many choices of metal clays. I recently took a class on the new Art Clay Copper. I wanted to try it since it’s a quick fire clay that can be torch fired or fired in a kiln in only 30 minutes. I think it definitely opens up possibilities for teaching copper clay in weekend workshops, which would be nearly impossible with the brands with the longer firing schedules.

The short firing schedule isn’t going to work well for enameling though, so if you’re working with copper so that you can enamel it, you’ll need to stick with Pam East’s firing schedule, which she thoroughly tested for CopprClay. (I wonder if it works with Art Clay Copper too? I’ll ask her.)

There are so many variables when working with the base metal clays, that I think individual artists should choose a brand and stick with it. I have no opinion on which brand – just pick whichever one you like, master that firing schedule, take notes on it, and stick with it.

I just fired some awesome stuff in BronzClay, and against my previous experience, I put too much in the firing container, and most of it came out un-sintered, just dust. I knew better, but I was impatient.

Here’s a question – why work in base metal clays at all? What’s your motivation?

I like making stuff in bronze because it’s really hard and allows me to make keychains and inexpensive jewelry for kids. And it’s what statues are made of. I like that. It’s fancy, it’s different from silver, there are some nice patina options and I just like it.

I’m less excited, personally, about the copper. For me, I find the required firing schedule a (for enameling) bit too much of a pain. I think I’d rather etch conventional copper and enamel that.

Lastly, it’s okay not to try everything. It’s okay to limit yourself creatively, in fact, it’s a great idea. Too many options can lead to doing nothing. Many creativity experts, including my buddy, Professor Marvin Bartel, advocate limiting options in order to increase creativity. I don’t know Prof. Bartel, of Gosehn College, but he’s teaching me to draw through his website for art educators.

I’m letting go of copper clay and focusing on bronze and silver clays. Faced with limited time, I’m choosing to limit my choice of materials in order to keep it simple and encourage creativity.

What’s your take? Which base metal clay(s) do you use? or do you not use them at all? Tell us all in the comments!

Update: Be sure to check out all the awesome comments!

At last there’s a book out on bronze clay! I think many readers will flip right to the trouble shooting chart. If you’re thinking Yvonne’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she’s one of the technical staff at Rio Grande, you may have met her in the Rio booth at a metal clay conference!

Lark Books is the publisher of this first book on Bronze Clay, and they sent me a copy to review. (Yes, there were already some booklets and ebooks, but this is the first physical book from a publisher.)

I’ve been working with BronzClay for a little over a year. I’ve also worked with CopprClay, Art Clay Copper and Hadar’s Clays. I’ve taken a class in Art Clay Copper. Even so, I found this book helpful.

The base metal clays are tricky, and just when I think I’ve got it, ack! something goes wrong again!

The troubleshooting section is four pages long! In a format that will be familiar to you if you buy a lot of craft books, the front third or so covers the how-tos and the back two-thirds features projects.

My one slight disappointment with this book is that it doesn’t have the many, many lush full color pictures that I’ve come to expect in every Lark book. The projects have a photo of the completed project and then a few drawings for the step by step, along with written step by step directions.

This is okay for me, as an experienced metal clay person, but it could be a drawback for someone newer to the material.

Who this book is good for: anyone who wants to work with the base metal clays. Even if you’ve already been working with bronze clay, you’ll still find handy tips in this book. I’ve found tips and reminders that are worth the price of the book already. And it’s nice to have a physical book to sit down and read, with all the information in one place, from one author.

In these cases, I can tell you the error.

Error Number One

I use the two phase firing schedule published by Tonya Davidson on her blog. First, a fast ramp (top speed) up to 1190, hold for 30 minutes. Then a slow ramp (lowest speed) to 1516 (for a muffle kiln) and hold for 3 and a half hours.

Because my Paragon SC2 kiln is an older model, it can only be programmed for one ramp speed/temp/hold time at a time. My error was that for the first phase, I accidentally left it on a SLOW ramp. So in addition to cracking and warping, my pieces also took forever to fire!

Error Number Two

These look okay-ish, but not quite right from the front.

Here’s what they look like from the back:

As you can see, these are not fully sintered. This is the problem that can happen when pieces are dense, the outer part sinters, and you get this shell filled with powder.

You can see in one piece I poked it with my tongs and they went right through.

What I think went wrong in this case is that I tried to put too much in one container load. I follow Hadar Jacobson’s instructions for loading the container, see her blog for details. But this time, I got impatient, and tried to fire too much at once.

Now, just so you won’t lose hope, here’s a picture of a successfully fired BronzClay pendant.

I think it’s time for me to start keeping a log book of firings! How about you? How are your firings going?

Here’s a how-to video on CopprClay from RioGrande.

Once you’ve tried it out and have some pictures to share, add them to the CopprClay group on Flickr.

Thanks for Patrick Kusek for the video, seen on his site – www.patriksstudio.com.