Lora Hart – Master Muse Challenge #28

Lora shares with us a quick synopsis of the steps she takes to create her Silver Metal Clay and Faux Bone Ring. This is the third challenge for the group B of 5 Masters. The second team has tackled Steampunk, Ice Resin and Metal Clay and now Faux Bone Rings with Metal Clay Components.
We hope the tutorial will serve to inspire you to create! No matter if you just get out your sketch book and draw a similar project based on these challenges. It’s a place to start. It’s a way to start off your day in the right frame of mind with a creative exercise!

Lora says “I make a lot of rings. Some of my friends even call me the “ring lady”. Designing a ring out of Faux Bone was a challenge I really looked forward to. As I was thinking about the project, I was flipping through a fashion magazine and saw an editorial photo of a model wearing the biggest solitaire ring ever! Big bling is just too alluring for those of us with magpie tendencies (like me), so I decided to create my own Big Rock Ring to flash around!

I’ve wanted to experiment using metal clay in a traditional metals application, firing a flat slab and then fabricating my final piece without having to “do the math” or worry about the shrinkage factor. This project is my first experiment using metal clay metal sheet.”

If you are interested in the full step-by-step tutorial please stay tuned. It will be available at Whole Lotta Whimsy. They will be in a handy bench format too! This tutorial looks like it will be over 40 pictures with tons of detail in this #28 Tutorial!

In this tutorial you will learn:

• How to roll out larger pieces of clay and texture them
• How to use metal clay similarly to traditional milled metal sheet
• How to sand and file Faux Bone
• How to repair Faux Bone divots, scratches, etc
• How to connect metal clay to Faux Bone via rivets
• How to drill holes in fired metal clay and Faux Bone
• How to use UV resin gel
• How polish and patina

Roll out the silver metal clay and texture it. Use a Tissue Blade and cut it into a square. Fire it in the kiln to 1650°F. Use the 3M Radial Disks with your rotary polishing tool to polish the fired piece of metal clay. Apply Black Max to the surface to patina the metal and then use Pro Polishing Pads to remove the remainder from the surface.

Cut off a segment of the Faux Bone Ring Blank with your saw and the special Skip Tooth Blades made for plastic (Faux Bone).

Using a course sanding drum, sand away the material until it fits your finger.

***Make sure to read all the safety and housekeeping tips for using Faux Bone first before sanding or sawing the material.

Draw out your design and then saw away the remaining Faux Bone. Lora provides lots of tips about sawing and getting the desired shape, along with a template, in the full tutorial which will be available later in 2010.

After using large hobby files (not your good metal files), to remove material, you will need to sand. Don’t forget the edges and corners so there are no uncomfortable angles. Use sanding materials, 400 grit up to 800 grit.

All marks left in the material will be visible when the color is added.

If you make an error in your design with filing or sanding you can fill these spots in with UV resin and colorant!

Using alcohol inks, color the Faux Bone.

 
Cut or saw out the “gem” from the template (provided with the full tutorial).

Using a center punch, make divots in the metal which will keep the drill bit from bouncing around on the surface as you drill the holes. Drill out the holes.

Fit the metal clay to the Faux Bone.

Drill holes through the fired metal clay template and into the Faux Bone. Using sterling wire, insert it into the Faux Bone and tap it to make sure it is firmly inserted to the bottom of the hole.

Cut the excess wire and prepare to rivet.

Rivet the fired metal clay piece to the Faux Bone.

Lora has definitely made a “Big Bling Ring”! Fun to wear and surely will get lots of rave reviews. Big is definitely in style this fall as are gem shaped jewelry. The bigger the better. So try your hand at Faux Bone and make yourself a ring that surely will create some attention and brighten your day!

We’d love to see you take the challenge and make this or a similar piece as well. Can’t wait to see your pieces. Send them and we’ll post pictures in a future Challenge Gallery. Challenge yourself!

Don’t forget to leave a comment. We are giving away a Linda Kaye-Moses Doming Plate this month. How to win? Leave a comment on every blog (even older posts) or get two entries for tweeting, putting it on Facebook, the Metal Clay Yahoo Gallery forum, your blog etc. Just send us a copy of the link to support@wholelottawhimsy.com! Let your friends know how to make their Wednesday’s rock…. with of course, the Master Muse Tutorial launch!

PMC Connection Senior Instructor Lora Hart began working with metal clay at the turn of the century. After nearly 20 years as a busy make-up artist in the entertainment industry, an actor’s strike put her career onhold. Four happily creative years later, she began a new and fulfilling life as an instructor in the greater Los Angeles area. Working out of her quaint Venice Beach Studio, Lora is honored that her work has been included in many publications including The PMC Guild Annual, Barbara Becker Simon’s Metal Clay Beads, Sherri Haab’s Metal Clay and Mixed Media Jewelry and Holly Gage’s The Art and Design of Metal Clay Jewelry. This year, Lora has begun an online challenge to make a Ring A Day and started work on the first level of The Master’s Registry.

Check out Lora’s work at www.LoraHart.com. You can purchase her work online! Contact her for more details.

Photo credit: final piece Drew Davidson; step-by-step Lora Hart