wandering spirit designs

In Love with Ekho

I must say that Double Helix’s newest silver glass, Ekho, is a new favorite for me. It is a striking and reducing glass, and it keeps wonderful iridescent effects under encasement. There are some particularly talented artists that have played around w/ success in getting different colors, etc. Hayley, Karolen and Steph are three that come to mind right away.

They were encased w/ Double Helix’s Aether clear which is only available once every few months since Jed and Julie have a stringent standard of quality- I got a half pound of seconds and wish I’d bought a pound or more since I’m blowing thru it at an incredible speed because it is such a nice clear. You would never know they’re seconds comparing them to other clears like Effetre or Diamond Clear.

Deets: These were Ekho encased opal yellow w/ dots of clear, reduced and then encased. Easy peasy! It’s so tricky to catch the iridescence.

Slip Painting Experiments

Tried to slip paint w/ Copprclay for the first time today, I think I still need to work on getting the consistency just right..The leaf had three layers and the rest around half a dozen layers of slip- thank goodness I have a handy-dandy mug warmer to dry my pieces lickety-split.

My hand developed a bad habit of shaking at inopportune moments while trying to do close work on my fern, hence the slightly odd placement on some fronds. Is frond the right word? anyhoo, it was fun and I still need to settle on a design for my BIG hollow forms.

Carving Practice- Numbers

Thought I’d get some carving practice in since I haven’t tried it yet for metal clay. These are back sides of pieces I haven’t fired that have just been sitting around. I carved them in order: 7, 9, 3 and lastly 5. It’s easier when the number is bigger w/ the size of nib I was using- a #1 on my Speedball cutter.
The numbers were free-handed w/ pencil onto the copper clay, this was pretty fun and relaxing..as long as you don’t mess up, lol.
Another thing I’m wondering is whether it’s a little easier to carve the pieces when the clay has just dried instead of these pieces that have been waiting for weeks to be fired? Hope to get around to testing my theory this afternoon if I have time.
Not sure what it is about using odd numbers, they seem to look better to me for some reason.

New Beginnings- Faux Bone

I’ve had this sheet of 1/8″ thick 8″x8″ sheet of Faux Bone glaring at me for weeks now and I couldn’t take it any more.

Although this is my first time using a jeweler’s saw on my own, I don’t think I did too bad..are you supposed to use beeswax when cutting faux bone? I didn’t, but may try it next time just to see if it makes a difference.
Still deciding on designs and colors but it is exciting to have a blank canvas like this that is easy on the wallet.

There is still lots of finishing to be done, hope to get one piece completed by the weekend.

The bracelet is fired and I’m so happy that all the links stayed together! The links’ width is 1 mm to give you and idea of thickness.It’s light and airy- I measured and it can be worn on the last link at 8-1/2″ and fits me on the next to last length at 7-1/2″.
The beadcaps are 9 mm, Copprclay daps like butta! I’m going to put a couple on a bead and see how the hole corresponds to a 3/32″ mandrel. I tried to get a good pic of the bracelet on, but my camera died after only getting one shot..gotta find some more batteries.