Filed under: Commission, Enamel, Favorites, Jewelry, Process by ramune

Big Lazy – Just Plain Scared

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After spending seven straight hours in the studio last Tuesday night, I was able to finish the art nouveau inspired cloisonné pendant! I am pretty excited that 1. nothing horrible went wrong in those seven hours (trying to stay calm and not rushing helped) and 2. I am really happy with the piece . . . so much so that I don’t really want to sell it.

To see the previous posts showing the original sketches and the first steps, check these links:
105 . . . Two Years and a Commission
107 . . . Cloisonné Commission II

Below I have compiled some photos of the process. I didn’t take photos of every single step because that would be incredibly boring (since it involves building up thin layer after thin layer after thin layer . . .), but I tried to show a variety of steps.

1. Put the thinner inside wires in place. These were a challenge and took up a good bit of time.
2. First layers of yellow and green (post firing)
3. Adding some gray to the edges (pre firing)

4. In the kiln.
(Side note: The previous week I had aluminum on the trivet in the kiln and managed to push it so it touched those red hot 1500 degree coils and I got a serious zap through my entire body. Lesson learned.)
5. I love the way enamels look right when they come out of the kiln, too bad they don’t stay that way. (post firing)
6. I made little paper patterns to protect my yellow areas from the gray enamel (pre firing)

7. After removing the paper patterns (pre firing)
8. Added in the pink/yellow for the flower. At this point I liked my colors as they were. (post firing)
9. Once I got the coloring I wanted (8), I filled in the empty spaces with N4, a clear enamel (pre firing)
10. After putting on enough N4 to build up the enamel to the top of the wires, I stoned the hell out of this piece. Here it is ready to go in for it’s last firing (pre firing)

My messy space

Filed under: Commission, Enamel, Jewelry, Process by ramune

Deastro – Biophelia

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Hello from yet another gorgeous almost summer-like day in November. First off, this week’s song comes to you from Deastro, one of my absolute favorite musicians of 2009. I was hooked ever since I heard this song. This past Thursday I had the pleasure of seeing him open for Max Tundra (he is a character, well worth seeing live) at a rather small show at DC9. He and his band mate have only been playing together for three weeks in their current setup (which he amusingly would remind us whenever there were technical issues), while he puts together a larger band. Check it out.

As promised, here are some photos of my progress on the commissioned piece I am working on at the moment. Things have been moving a little slower than expected but I am learning a lot in the process. For example, don’t polish up your fine silver with a brass wheel. The brass can transfer to the silver and then completely mess up the enamel when you fire it (gets cloudy and splotchy). I’m glad I learned this after “ruining” two pieces of silver and nearly ruining a third. Oy. I am not as far as I would like to be considering this Tuesday is my last class for the season (I need a kiln and studio of my own already), but I am hopeful that I can finish in time (showing up to class 3.5 hours early should help). This past week I managed to get my main wires on, so at least that part is done. Hopefully everything else will fit into place nicely. Here are some photos of the process so far.

The Flux 2020 firing was finally successful! No cloudiness or splotchiness!

You always have to enamel the back of any piece, otherwise it is more likely to crack.

Bending my wires to mimic the shapes in my design was a finicky process. It was trickier than I had expected and I had to adjust the shapes a wee bit to fit the domed silver disc and make room for thin wires that will be inside the piece on the right.

Filed under: Design, Doodle, Enamel, Jewelry, Process by ramune

The Shins – Sea Legs

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Well friendlings, it’s been two years and I’m still here . . . plugging away at a project a week, or something like that. Thank you to those who have dropped by and commented or silently perused through my projects. Thanks also to those who were patient and collaborated with me, I would like to do more projects with friends in year three. This might be a good time to mention that on the right side of the page you can send me suggestions for new projects, since I like a challenge and also run out of ideas. Back to this week’s project . . .

A while ago, a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless for the time being) asked me if he could commission a cloisonné pendant for his significant other. He wanted something that was Art Nouveau inspired and that included vines and floral elements. These are the four sketches I came up with that were both Art Nouveau inspired and true to my style. In other words, not only will he and the recipient hopefully like them, but I will too and it’s always nice to like what you’re making (please don’t ask me to enamel a portrait of you and your cat . . . I won’t do it). The sketches are a bit light, but the colors on the actual piece will be much more vibrant and all the black lines will actually be silver.

During the coming weeks I plan to post my progress on the design he chose. I was hoping to get a decent amount done this week, but because my materials were not what they were advertised to be, I ended up wasting 3.5 hours trying to figure out what was wrong and eventually had to admit defeat. Now I have ordered new silver (from a different and more trusted vendor) and hope that things go smoothly from here on out . . .

Filed under: Failure, Jewelry by ramune

Metronomy – Heartbreaker

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Dear Rio Grande-

I am sorry to do this to you, but I have to end this relationship. You see, you lied to me and I don’t think I can trust you anymore. When I asked for fine silver, I believed you when you said it was fine silver. I don’t think I ask for much, but I do expect honesty. Because of your careless nature, I lost 3.5 hours tonight working with some weird mutant silver that is clearly not what I asked for. You know I am on a tight deadline and yet you provided me with crap materials that reacted in ways they should not have. I spoke with some of your exes and they say that you have told them the same lies. When will you learn? You have left me no choice. I am going back to Metalliferous. We have a history anyway and there are no lies between us.

Goodbye.

-Ramune

Filed under: Doodle, Enamel, Favorites, Jewelry, Process by ramune

Song of the Week: Benoît Pioulard – Loupe

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I just realized that my two year anniversary is coming up in two weeks and well, that means I should be at around project 103 by now. Oops. Where did those missing 13 go? Spooky. Since I have two weeks to catch up, I am going to post a project every day until October 31st. I am not promising any Michelangelo here, and my commentary might be lacking, but I will do it . . . dammit.

In the meantime, here is something I am very excited about . . . PNP paper! I have been taking the same enamels class for two years now and (for the most part) do my own thing. Occasionally I ask my teacher for help/advice, but there hasn’t been much new in the way of techniques learned. A few weeks ago however, she taught the new students how to use PNP transfer paper. With PNP you can photocopy any black/white design to the paper and then transfer that to copper as a resist. We did not have great luck with PNP when we tried it two years ago, but after experimenting with some different techniques, my teacher figured out a way to successfully get the paper to adhere to the copper. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the details transferred and how well the PNP held up in the etch.

Below are some photos of the PNP paper after I had successfully transferred my designs. In some areas the PNP didn’t transfer, but it was pretty easy to touch up using asphaltum. It isn’t a huge deal, but I forgot to reverse the images before printing, so all of my designs are flipped. It bothers me slightly that everything is facing the wrong way. At least I didn’t have any words anywhere.

I was hoping to post some nice photos of my shiny new etched pieces, but I am having a hard time getting the PNP paper off of the copper. I thought I could use mineral spirits, since that’s what I use to take off asphaltum, but I think I need to use paint thinner. Instead of buying a large container for a few uses, I will just wait for class this week.

You may recognize this fish and this guy.

Luckily the touch-ups I had to do with the asphaltum were pretty minor. Here are the copper discs ready to be etched. The piece on the top right is my halftone test. It was also the first one I placed on the PNP, so the pattern is off a bit. My next mission is to find some photos I’ve taken that might work well on copper and transfer those.

Here are my original designs.

Filed under: Enamel, Experimental, Jewelry by ramune

The other week I had my last enamels class of the summer (sadness). Because the summer session is so short, I didn’t have any grand plans for anything, but wanted to play around with a wee bit of metal forming and making earrings. I started off this particular pendant wanting it to have a nice gradient of transparent red to gray. Unfortunately while I had it in the kiln, I managed to overfire the red (this is easy to do with reds) and it became a disgusting opaque vomitous brown. I was pretty upset because before this accident the red was really quite lovely and I destroyed it so quickly. After that unfortunate moment I decided I had nothing to lose, so I intentionally continued to overfire it until it was obvious nothing else would change. It was still an object unpleasing to the eye, so I put it under the torch (weeee!). To my pleasant surprise, putting a torch to enamels in the right way gives even the most foul of colors a metallic pearlescent sheen. After playing around with this a bit I decided the piece was finally done and acceptable. This is nothing I would have intentionally created, but sometimes it’s fun to mess up and then play around with the piece until you get something else completely.

Filed under: Artomatic, Enamel, Exhibit, Jewelry, Photography by ramune

Starting tomorrow night I will be one of 1,000+ exhibitors in Artomatic 2009! Above is a sneak peak of what you will see in my exhibit. These postcards will be available for your taking and all framed items on my wall will be available for sale (wink wink nudge nudge).

I will be by my exhibit (on floor number 4) this Friday, May 29th from 6pm-9pm and Sunday, May 31st from 6pm-8pm. There will be home-baked treats (while supplies last), so please drop by and say hello. Artomatic is a nine floor smorgasbord and impossible to see completely in one day, so be sure to make some time for the fourth floor. I believe there will be floor plans, but so you know, my exhibit is in the northwest corner facing the Capitol building. I am really looking forward to opening night and hope to see you there!

Here is some basic information on Artomatic. For more, please visit artomatic.org.

55 M Street, SE
Washington, DC 2000
Located directly above the Green Line Navy Yard Metro Stop, West Entrance

May 29-July 5, 2009
Fri-Sat: 12pm-1am
Sun, Wed, Thu: 12pm-10pm

Filed under: Design, Jewelry, Process by ramune

It hit me this morning that I only have three more enamels classes left for the Winter session. No worries though . . . our class was postponed so many times that the Spring session starts only two weeks after my last class . . . phew! How I long for a large studio in a barn in the middle of nowhere with a teleporter to a nice city loft. I can dream, can’t I?

I will work on those plans (and you work on developing that teleporter for me), but in the meantime here I am preparing some copper discs to be etched. I need to get better at focusing when I can’t actually look at the viewfinder.

Filed under: Jewelry, Process by ramune

Last Monday I was all excited to start my enamels class and wanted to make sure I didn’t waste a minute of potential kiln time, so I did some prep work. I got out my dwindling supply of ferric chloride and put in a few copper pieces to etch. I used asphaltum (black) on some and DecoColor paint marker (red) on others so I could try both methods and see the results on the same design. The asphaltum holds up better in the acid, but needs to be painted on and does not lend itself to detailed design (or maybe I just need to find better brushes). The DecoColor paint marker is far easier to draw with, but breaks down a lot faster. I think this was the last run for the ferric chloride (or close to it) as it took me six hours to etch this deep when it usually only takes around three.

Unfortunately I did all that prep work and then my class was canceled (for the third week in a row) due to the fact that the DC area can’t handle an inch of snow. The coffee shop I went to on Tuesday closed at 4:30 “due to weather” as well. DC needs to learn how to deal with snow, it’s not like we’ve never had it before. At least today I finally have my first class.

Filed under: Enamel, Jewelry by ramune

Cloisonné Fig Pendant on a fig branch

I meant to post this last week but with Thanksgiving and all it was pushed back. Last week was my last Enamels class and I managed to finish my fig cloisonné pendant as well as a few other pieces. This is my second cloisonné and I am pretty happy with it, but wish a few things had worked differently. For one, reds are hard to work with and it is difficult to get them to look vibrant. The red inside the fig is a little bit duller than I would have liked, but that’s ok.

Instead of putting the shot in early on in the process, like I did in my last cloisonné piece, I put them in at the very end during the last firing so they would stick out more and stay round.

On the trivet waiting to go in the kiln for the last time

Closeup of the cloisonné fig pendant on a fig branch