Donna Penoyer – Master Muse Challenge #9

Donna shares with us a quick synopsis of the steps she takes to create her beautiful pendant. If you are interested in the full step-by-step tutorial please stay tuned. It will be available June at Whole Lotta Whimsy. They will be in a handy bench format too! This tutorial looks like it will be over 80 pictures with tons of detail in this #9 Tutorial! She even included a bonus section!

Donna says that when she received this challenge she thought “what an exciting combination to combine vintage watch parts, metal clay, Kelly Russell’s paste-and-stencil texturing technique into a steampunk-style object.” “I loved the vintage parts Tonya sent me from Whole Lotta Whimsy. They had a true history of being worn, used and cast aside, visible only by the authentic marks and worn spots left behind. I liked the poetics of flipping time, or making time go backwards. It’s a winning combination.”

In this tutorial you will learn:

• How to design a composed piece with layers and compensate for shrinkage
• How to saw out a shape from brass to use as a stencil
• How to use carve a mold for a unique texture
• How to add to paste to make a texture slip and apply it with Kelly’s Spackling Technique
• Tricks to creating double sided texture
• How to create side walls
• Tips on refining and sanding
• How to make a curved bail with embellishments and end caps
• How to make a simple wire-working for a bail connector
• How to do simple cold connecting
• How to finish the surface and patina your beautiful piece

Spread out all the cool vintage watch parts. I thought the watch dial was really great, but what was even better was the back side with its genuine patina—colors of time, age, and wear. As a performer, I love the costumes and role playing of steampunk enthusiasts. As a jewelry artist, there’s nothing more fun that finding ways of combining the old and the new, Victorian and fantasy elements. Clunky and industrial revolution contraptions are re-imagined, with futuristic purposes and stylings.

Sofar, I was happy with all the gears, but I also had a hankering to include a pipe of some kind in my design. I love the look of steam—I always hope it’s just water vapor I’m watching coming out of a smokestack—so I needed a pipe to carry the “steam” in my steampunk contraption! I drew a curved bail and made it look like a pipe with end caps, strips that looked bolted on at the seams, and more gears—some fixed in place, some able to turn around and around the pipe. A curved presentation like this is a signature of my regular jewelry work, so I was happy to include it as a contemporary and personal take on the steampunk theme.

Paste a photocopy of your pendant drawing onto the brass sheet with a glue stick. After using a center punch to start the drill hole, use a small drill bit in a rotary or flexshaft. Drill through the brass and into the wood. Saw out the stencil.

Roll out your double-sided textured background. After it’s dry, using really really thick paste, apply Kelly Russell’s spackling technique using the sawed out stencil. Carefully lift the brass stencil from the PMC background layer to reveal the thick paste shape.

To make the Gear Layer: Roll out PMC+ or PMC 3 clay large enough to compensate for the watch face after firing (complete instructions in tutorial available soon at WLW). Make notches with a diamond toothpick file at the positions marked and then sand to refine. Add this gear to your background layer with paste.

Roll out PMC clay and create sidewalls that you’ll attach to the base piece. Pay special attention to how they line up in respect to the next one, since there is a gap between the walls.

To make the curved “steampipe” bail, roll out a strip of clay around an armature and allow to dry. Sand and refine. (as a side note this step is worth the price of the full tutorial alone…brilliant!)

Make some gears and the bail! These are made from rolling out clay and embellishing them. (Donna shows how to do this in detail in the full tutorial. It’s a bonus, but too much to fit here in the blog. She shows you how to carve a custom texture plate to get those fabulous ridged gear beads!)

To create the steampipe end caps, roll out clay, cutting 2 circles of each size. Using water, stack the two circles. With a clay shaper, indent the center to prepare a spot for drilling. Drill, sand, refine and add end cap to tubing with Paste.

To join the pendant to the tube, take the partial gear you made and with paste attach it to the pendant. Reinforce with paste, let dry and sand. Inside the bail, the best tool for clean up is a dampened Fantastix. Fire to 1650°F for 20 minutes on a bed of vermiculite. Polish and Patina.

Drill holes in watch parts and watch face if necessary. Find the wire that coordinates with the hole. Mushroom the head of the wire with a ballpein hammer. Add onto the wire the items in the order they face out on the piece. Put the wire through the pendant. Hammer the wire on the other backside to complete the rivet.

Donna’s tutorial is full of tips and tricks. You’ll want to check this out in it’s entirety when it’s available! It’s a must-have and must-do!

We’d love to see you take the challenge as well to make an incredible steampunk pendant. Can’t wait to see your pieces. Send them and we’ll post pictures in a future Challenge Gallery. Also, please post a comment to be entered into the monthly give-away. If you tweet it, facebook it, or post it on your blog, send the link to tonya@wholelottawhimsy.com and get double entries!

Donna Penoyer started out her artistic endeavors learning to be a poet. Instead she became a stilt walker, married a professional fool, and today is known as “The Whistle Lady” for her sculptural, wearable metal clay whistles. Donna has been working in PMC since 2005, is a founding member of the Western PA Chapter of the PMC Guild. She teaches nationally at The Bead & Button Show, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Touchstone Center for Crafts, and Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh. She has written articles for PolymerCAFÉ and Art Jewelry magazines, and her work may be seen in Robert Dancik’s book Amulets and Talismans and other upcoming publications. Donna’s whistle ring “Journey Companion” is currently on the cover of the 2009 edition of the PMC Guild Annual 3.

Check out Donna’s work at www.DonnaPenoyer.com. She teaches at many venues across the country. She plans on teaching this project. Make sure you find the location nearest you and sign up!

Photo credit: final piece Drew Davidson; step-by-step Donna Penoyer