New Zealand Student Projects

One exciting thing about teaching both at home and abroad is seeing the creativity demonstrated by the students with the materials offered in class. This was the first venue where we used resin clay in conjunction with metal clay. Recently we started selling our own brand of clay called KlayResin. Everyone was excited about using the clay. The students made amazing pieces. These are KlayResin Porcelain with toner images set in Art Clay Silver.

Ingrid Schloemer

Cathie Wells

Clare Gunn

Ingrid Schloemer

Who Talks Funny?

Dan joined me part way through my trip to New Zealand, and within hours of his arrival, a competition began between him and Anne Marie about which one of them had the funniest accent and colloquialisms. I think it all started when Anne Marie's daughter Alexia thought the word "graham crackers" was hysterical (she heard it on an American teen movie), so Dan brought her some when he arrived. This was followed by several days worth of new words and phrases to suss out. ("Suss" being one of Dan's newly acquired words.) One such discussion was launched over a misspelling on a menu "Fagita". "Fajita" as it should be spelled could be pronounced several ways, further complicated by the different accents in play. I couldn't help but think of the old tomato song in a new context (you say "faheeta" I say "fa-gita"). In our final etching class, Anne Marie proudly presented Dan with a souvenir - a neatly etched comment for him to treasure.

One one of our free days, Anne Marie and Peter arranged a day trip for us to go with them and their friends, Richard and Alison, to Waiheki Island, which is stunning. We visited a quiet beach near Richard and Alison's vacation home, and enjoyed nice lunch at a local vineyard.


Next, we headed to the earthquake-devastated city of Christchurch. We taught a group of optimistic attendees who were excited to be creative despite having to endure aftershocks and having to boil drinking water. We experienced a 5.3 aftershock while we were there. The pavement moved from side to side under out feet. I've never felt the earth move like that. Dan documented some of the damaged buildings as he made his way around the city in search of an open museum or cafe. Very few tourist attractions were operational.

In tomorrow's blog, see some of the amazing pieces created by students in my class.

Kiwis (not the fruit)

I see now why people love New Zealand. It was green and tropical and from my perspective, it was like Seattle, where I grew up, mixed with Hawaii. The people were really polite--for example, saying "thank you" to the city bus driver as they got off the bus, and then drivers stopped for pedestrians at the crosswalks even if they weren't trying to step out.

Auckland was my first stop to teach for Anne Marie and Peter Grace from Art Clay NZ. they invited me to teach there, and then to travel to Christchurch for another round of classes. The first stop, right after a 15-hour flight, was to the beach near Anne Marie's home. As we walked along, I was intrigued by of the small seashells, twigs and pods native to New Zealand. I became completely obsessed in my search for potential specimens for electroforming, stopping to stuff my pockets with shells like a five-year-old. The seashell hunt, combined with my jet lag, must have scared Anne Marie a little. Within a day, I would be expected to lead a coherent workshop. My side of the conversation consisted of "Huh?" or "Can you repeat that?" while stopping suddenly to pick up one more shell. Later, I taught her about the wonders of copper electroforming, hoping to validate my persistent scavenger hunt.

I met a group of talented Art Clay instructors and jewelry designers in Tacapuna who attended the first class. The workshops consisted of a full day each of electrical etching, resin clay and image transfer techniques on Art Clay Silver. Everyone found unique ways to implement these mediums into their work.

I thought this piece by Ingrid Schloemers was a nice design. She used ITS to transfer a seashell image.

New Use for ITS

Sherri originally developed ITS for transferring images onto non-porous surfaces like metal. But there is another bonus use for the product that she’s been using to get fantastic results. By mixing ITS with pigment powders, you can create a custom palette of colors that you can use to paint on non-porous surfaces. The example here shows colors applied to a fine metal clay bracelet. So if you have some ITS solution and pigment powders, it’s time to get creative. It’s best to practice on some bottle caps or other metal surface to get used to working with the paint before you start on your jewelry piece.

Steps for applying color to metal using ITS:

1. Mix a very small amount of pigment powder with a drop of ITS with a toothpick on waxed paper. A little goes a long way. Use less powder for a transparent watercolor effect, or add more for opaque color. (Wear a respiratory mask to avoid inhaling pigment powder.)

2. Use a toothpick or small paintbrush to apply the paint to your surface. It dries quickly, so work with small amounts. Colors can be layered or mixed as with any other type of paint. If you make a mistake, act quickly and scrape the paint off. After it is set, you will have to sand it off. (For metal clay pieces you can fire the piece to remove the paint.)

3. If you just want color only in the recessed areas of your surface, as in these examples, paint the entire surface first, then scrape the paint off the raised areas with a toothpick after about 10 minutes, when the paint is almost set.

4. Let the ITS paint dry completely. Set the paint with a heat gun for about one minute. This will not only set the paint, but also bring out the color and clarity of the pigment powder for an enamel-like finish.

The Art of Metal Clay revisited

Sherri's groundbreaking book, The Art of Metal Clay, first came out in 2003 and quickly became a classic. It recently underwent a renovation and emerged with a fresh cover and the most current information about this evolving art. Bead and Button magazine ran a nice review in the February 2011 issue.

Metal clay was a new product when Sherri first started experimenting with it, and since then, it has expanded and new products and techniques have been developed by Sherri and other metal clay artists. New material in the book includes:

• The new bronze and copper clays, with must-have instructions for successful firing
• up-to-date, detailed information on firing with stones
• an improved method for calculating accurate ring sizes
• two recently developed techniques for etching metal clay
• new techniques for adding color, including working with pigments and enamels
• all-new, inspiring galleries of work by prominent metal clay artists

Check Sherri's shop here for more information.

Bohemian Earrings

One of the frustrations of writing instructional books is that you want to give exacting instructions so that you are sure readers can follow along easily, but at the same time, you want readers to bring their own style to the project. Often when Sherri writes a first draft of instructions, she’ll put down something generic such as, “string on a bead” when a specific size or shape doesn’t matter, so readers can choose a bead from their own collection or exercise their creativity. Invariably, the draft will come back with a note from the editor that says something like, “please specify size/shape/color of bead.” It’s with mixed feelings that Sherri adds the specifics, understanding that readers may want to duplicate the jewelry piece exactly, and, of course, sometimes very specific instructions and materials are necessary for the project to be successful.

Ideally, a reader can make the jewelry piece as instructed, and then with that experience under his or her belt, run with the design. The best thing about teaching classes all over the country is at the end of the day when Sherri can see all the amazing pieces that class members have created. It’s inspiring when someone uses one of Sherri’s techniques and creates something she never would have dreamed of.

With that in mind, my daughter Brennyn and I decided to make some earrings from Sherri’s Beaded Macrame Jewelry book with the supplies we had on hand. Very little of what we had matched the supply list for the Bohemian earrings; no silk cord, right-size beads or one-half inch jump rings. Instead, we had embroidery floss, a hodgepodge of beads from the bottom of my stash, and large chain links. Of course when you change things up, you can run into problems (many of the beads we wanted to use had holes too small for the floss, and since I’m design-impaired, I started over twice before I was happy), but we went with the flow, and ended up with some pretty cool earrings. I went for a little plainer style and Brennyn went all out with design and color.

The original project is shown above. Here’s what we came up with:

The Buzz about Beading Across America

The editors of Beading Across America chose Sherri to represent Utah in their book which features a project, instructions and an inspirational story from each artist. The focus of the book is seed bead projects. Sherri used metallic seed beads in an innovative bracelet design with macrame, various larger beads and a silver bee focal point made from precious metal clay. Utah is nicknamed "The Beehive State" or "The Deseret State" in reference to the early Mormon settlers who were known for their hard work, and also to commemorate the industry, perseverance and thrift of the early settlers. Sherri's ancestors were some of the first pioneers who, at great sacrifice, traveled across the plains from the east coast to settle the barren desert where Salt Lake City now stands. This bracelet is a stylish representation of that theme. You can find more information on Beading Across America here. If you are interested in more projects that combine beads and macrame, Sherri's book Beaded Macrame Jewelry is a great place to start.