Vickie shares with us a quick synopsis of the steps she takes to create her Silver Metal Clay, Pearl and WhimsyCrete™ Earrings. This is the fourth challenge for the group of 5 Masters. The first team has tackled Metal Clay Clasps, Torch Fired Enamels and Metal Clay and Boxes 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!
Vickie says:
“WhimsyCrete™ is such a surprise material for jewelry. Although its customary uses make us think it heavy, in small quantities it is light enough for setting stones into earrings. It can be worked either smooth or rough, vividly colored or neutral. I’m quite taken with the juxtaposition of rugged concrete with refined pearls.”
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 45 pictures with tons of detail in this #32 Tutorial!
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to make an open bezel with slab construction
- How to texture metal clay
- How to add on components to a bezel
- How to use WhimsyCrete™
- How to change the shape of a pearl
- How to patina and finish a fired piece of metal clay
- How to make custom ear wires
Roll out the silver metal clay, texture and cut two discs using the Kemper Pattern Cutters for the earring backs.
Dry fully.
Roll out a flat sheet and cut strips with an oiled Tissue Blade which will become the walls. Attach these to the outside of the disc. Mend the seam with your Clay Shaper.
Dry fully.
Roll out the clay the same thickness as your bezel piece (Vickie shows you tips and tricks in the full tutorial on how to make a template, figure out thickness, etc). Cut out the shape and attach it to the bezel wall.
Use a clay shaper to smooth the seam. Don’t forget to do this on the backside as well as the top.
Roll out a slab of clay the same thickness again and with a small round Clay Pattern Cutter, cut out two more smaller discs. Using the same cutter remove half of the disc creating a crescent. Attach to the bezel. Again mend the seam. Dry.
Sand the edges of the bezel to perfect. Then using a Dockyard Gouge, add carved details in the edges. Vickie uses a rubber blockto elevate her work and provide cushion while carving.
Using a file, apply edge treatment to the bezel. Next add a ball of clay to the surface of the lower triangle.
Fire in your kiln to 1650°F for 2 hours for maximum strength.
Polish, patina and then remove patina from the high points with an AdvantagEdge Polishing point
Select your Mabe pearl so that the undercuts do not interfere with it’s capture in the concrete. Vickie shows you how to adjust the pearl so that it will be the perfect shape for setting in the WhimsyCrete™.
Mix up the WhimsyCrete™ following the instructions (and Vickie’s helpful tips) until the desired consistency is achieved. Vickie shares her tricks on how to color the WhimsyCrete™ and advises you make sample patties, allowing it to dry, before putting it in your work.
Pour into bezel but allow for enough room for the pearl. Be sure to have the concrete come up over the edge of the pearl.
For a rougher surface you will want to reveal the aggregate. You can use a craft knife to scrape the surface.
Heat up a piece of wire to ball up the end, with a torch, and then form the ear wire. Vickie shows you to bend, hammer and wire round up the ends to remove the sharp edges.
A wonderful pair of earrings! I love the roughness of the concrete paired with the pearls. These could easily be found in my collection!
Incredibly each of these Master Muse class tutorials exposes new techniques to even the most seasoned of instructors and makers. I’m always surprised at how differently each artist approaches a challenge and how their skills allow them to execute a creative result. I learn at least one valuable shortcut or new technique in each tutorial.
These are affordable classes that you can take in your studio, at your pace, with all the details and more that you would get in a live class. Not to mention that they are carefully edited as if I was the student in the class. Each Master Muse delivers detail and information rarely found even in a class.
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 in September. 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!
Bridging many medias, Vickie Hallmark pursues her artistic muses in whichever direction calls: metal, glass or fiber. This cross-pollination of different ideas, coupled with her experimental nature as a research scientist, leads Hallmark to combine materials in novel ways. Metal over glass is a particular fascination, be it electroformed copper over lamp worked beads or silver clay formed around enameled-painted tiles.Over the last decade, Hallmark’s work has been exhibited in prestigious juried fine craft shows, including Craft Forms, Crafts National, and Materials: Hard & Soft. Chosen as a Glasscraft Emerging Artist in 2007, images of her beads have appeared in The Flow, The Glass Bead, and Bead Release 3, an annual compendium of the year’s best beads. Metal Clay Artist and Metal Clay Today have showcased her metal clay jewelry. The best of Hallmark’s creations are preserved in both private and museum collections.
Check out Vickies’s work at www.VickieHallmark.com. You can purchase her work online! Contact her for more details.
Photo credit: final piece Drew Davidson; step-by-step Vickie Hallmark
Vickie, these are awesome!!! Just love them!!! I, too, love to juxtapose bling and pretties with concrete. So fun!
Nice contrast between the smooth, slick pearl and the rough concrete. The silver portion has both rough and smooth elements which brings the whole thing together in a nice design.
Fantastic earrings!
I am very interested in learning how she shaped the pearls.
Gorgeous !!!
Very cool – even more inspiration to try the whimsy crete!
Positively inspired Vickie. Gives me a new appreciation for WhimsyCrete!