A great video demonstration of cloisonné enameling.

It's in French, but it's worth watching (reading).

An Artist I Admire.

I am still planning to write about the workshop I recently attended... but in the meantime, a bit of a tangent...

My copy of Glass on Metal magazine arrived today, and, well... wow.   One of the featured enamelists is Ewa Buksa Klinowska of Poland.

Some scans from Glass on Metal:

According to her article, she is currently working on mastering portrait miniature painting.  

She also has done very different pieces using other enameling techniques.  Even though the style is very different than the realism of her miniatures, I love her abstract pieces too.

This one is from the book 500 Emameled Objects

This photo is from this site, but it can also be found in the Glass on Metal issue and the book as well.  Not sure how well it shows here, but this technique is called plique a jour (light of day).  There is no backing, so light can come through the glass.

From an article in the Polish newspaper Gazeta.pl Łódź about how the following piece won an award in the International Cloisonné Jewelry Contest held every year in Japan.  

One more, from another Polish newspaper article about an exhibit she was in.

I think her work (that I have seen so far) has a delicacy that really appeals to me.   Did you notice the wisp of hair across the little girls face in the first image?

Beautiful stuff. 

Linda Darty!

Starting on this friday, I will be taking two three day classes, back to back.

Linda Darty: Champlevé Workshop

Linda Darty: Cloisonné Workshop

Both classes are at Terri McCarthy's Studios which I have heard wonderful things about.  I have wanted to take a class there for ages, but I must have had my contact information wrong because I never got a reply to my email.  Or maybe it was just an overly protective spam filter...  Either way, I heard great things about her studio, I just couldn't find specific info on classes.

My mom lives just down the road.  Terri is in Grafton, my mom is in Saukville.  People travel from all over the country to study jewelry-making there, and I have free lodging, right down the road.
I was starting to think I might have to actually go down there to get a calendar.

But then, my Art Jewelery magazine came in the mail, and there was a article about Terri's studio!  Complete with a url.
The author's impression of Terri's studio?
"I have a feeling that I'm in some sort of jewelry-making Shangri-La."

So, all a-twitter, I go to Terri's website... I find the class schedule... and I discover... two classes by Linda Darty! coming up in only TWO WEEKS!
No!  Wait!  I'm broke, I'm sick as hell, there is no way... there is NO way, I cannot possibly afford this class I cannot possibly manage when I'm having all this pain...  I can't do this now...

I signed up for  both.

A couple days later... I got mail... snail mail.  SUPPLY LISTS!  Woot! The classes weren't full.  Whew...

the very best book on enameling

note the author

I've taken a few enameling classes now, and every teacher always recommends one book above all others.  If you get one book, you get this book.  Linda Darty's The Art of Enameling.
She's got a great reputation as an author and educator and she's an established artist, silversmith, and enamelist.

Her website:  http://www.lindadarty.com/
all photos that follow are her work.

She'll be teaching me champlevé...

 

and she'll be teaching me cloisonné.

I'll explain the techniques better another time.  But if the enamel has relatively wide walls of silver between the enameled sections, it is probably champlevé.  If it has thin wires, that is cloisonné.  


I have attempted both techniques, but I haven't been entirely successful yet with either.  My mother and I both took a class called cloisonné on the curve, and well, after that... she swore off enameling forever.  (Mom, the kiln was really glitchy that class, you aren't cursed, it could have happened to anyone.)


I know that once I get there and get settled in, I'll find the zone and spend a week entirely immersed in my artist place.  It really is going to be great.


In the meantime, I'm a nervous wreck.  


So, to remind myself...  
The goal is to learn, not to create a masterpiece.  If my projects are all epic fail, that is okay.  The important thing is what's I leave with inside my head.


*deep breath*


It'll be great.

MUS? Who is MUS?

Last Christmas I received a package of bronzclay and the container and charcoal I needed to fire the stuff.

Basically, Bronzclay is clay, until you fire it.  Then, it's bronze.  Real bronze.  I'd had success (and fun) with the fine silver version (PMC 3), and I was really excited about the bronze.

Made with PMC 3

Unfortunately, the bronzclay is a bit different than the PMC 3.  For one thing (one very big thing) instead of being minutes to fire, it was hours, many hours, 9 hours... it requires ramping the temp up slowly over six hours, then holding that temp for three.  My kiln does not have a controller.  It has a dial that has some numbers and "low, medium, high" and it has a pyrometer that shows me the temperature, but there is no way to set a specific temperature and hold it.

So, for 9 hours, I need to keep an eye on it, tweak the dial, try to get it to ramp up without getting too hot too fast, or too slow... then keep it at the right temp for the last 3 hours.

So, day one, I made the cute little bronze bowl, and let it dry, and day two, I fired it.  And I was doing great, until, okay, so maybe, a bit past six hours... I may have wandered off for a few...

It overheated.

My bowl smooshed and strange crystals formed on the back.  Interesting, but not exactly what I had in mind.

My husband Gary, having seen me spend many hours on this odd little object, looked at it and said,

"parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus"

(Yes, I live with a man who randomly speaks medieval Latin.  You get used to it.)

What does that mean? 

"The mountain goes into labor, and there is born a ridiculous mouse."

And well, there it is.  I'm starting to sign my stuff MUS (Latin for mouse) and build a business identity around The Ridiculous Mouse.  
It just... fits.  So much time and effort... power tools, insanely hot fire... and in the end, I have a dainty little thing.  Sometimes, a pretty silly dainty little thing.  

Oh, and as for the bronzclay?

Um, okay... well... still working on that...

Jewelry Class

The Ridiculous Mouse would like to encourage people in the Green Bay area to sign up for the "advanced" jewelry night class at NWTC. It's not really advanced, it's very informal and mostly self-paced, so it's good for beginners too.  Students of all levels are welcome.


It's Monday nights 6:30-9:20, from 11/16-12/14 and it's only $60.10. For about $3 an hour, you can learn to polish stones, work with metals, or both.  It's also great for experienced people who want access to tools and equipment.  I'm one of the regulars myself.


It's a great way to make someone something special for Christmas.


Class# 81922. Registration phone # 920-498-5444.

In the Beginning...

Hello and welcome to my blog about the things I make.

I plan to use this blog to offer informational posts about the types of work that I do... also some progress updates, photos, links.  Mostly I'm hoping to use this as a way to offer additional information about the hows and whys of what I do.

My primary interests are in enameling and jewelry-making, small sculpture, and decorative objects.

My materials are enamel (glass fused to metal), copper, silver, gold, semi-precious and not-so-precious stones, iron, steel, the precious metal clays, and all kinds of other materials.

I am fairly new to this, and in the learning process.  Some of my work that I hope to offer for will be simple, classic, with a focus on good technique and craftsmanship.  The only way to really develop this type of skill, is to do, and do and do it over and over again, until my hands know, and muscle memory takes over.

I also plan to do crazy experimental things that are impractical, time consuming, and expensive to make.  They maybe be a bit pricey, or not offered for sale at all.

Here are some examples of my stuff so far:

Cliche Bracelets

The cliche bracelets are made from copper strips stamped with letter stamps, formed into a circle, and then closed with rivets.  The entire bracelet, inside and out, is covered with enamel and fused at approximately 1500 degrees multiple times.

Copper Patina Bib Necklace

This necklace is made up of copper washers and sterling wire.  The different colors are from various patination techniques.   Patination means that metal changed color from exposure to heat and/or chemicals.  Similar effects can happen naturally.  It is why the Statue of Liberty is green.

Copper and Enamel Outlet Cover.

This is copper, copper tooling foil, and enamel.

This might be a good example of putting too much time into an item to make it practical for sale.  I suspect there is a limit to how much people want to spend on outlet covers...  but this was just too time consuming to be cheap.