Precious Metal Clay....a ring in a day!

If you remember reading  this post last November  I was lucky enough to attend a class at our local college as an introduction to this marvellous medium. For those of you who are not aware, Precious Metal Clay (or PMC as it is known) is a made of particles of fine silver held in a pliable binder. This can be worked in a similar way to clay or fimo or sugar craft icing. When completed it is either blow torched or placed in a kiln where the binder burns off to leave solid fine silver which is actually purer than sterling silver.

Well this Sunday I was delighted to return for another PMC course called "A ring in a day". Just as it says on the tin, this is exactly what we did! It was a very intensive day and we only got a 30 minute lunch break, every one was so absorbed in their work. Please excuse the quality of my photos, silver is SO hard to photograph, flash on wipes it out, flash off it seems a little gloomy.

This is my completed ring, not fully polished but in a near finished state.

It has a cubic zirconia stone set in the middle as a feature. This ring was more a ring for me to learn some new PMC skills rather than to actually make a ring I would wear but in the end I did rather like it! My ring started its life in a very different state to the above.....

 
..........it is in this piece of foil wrapping as a blob of clay on the right side of the photo. This is my workbench as we got started. We had to condition and roll the clay out, on this piece of Teflon in the centre, into a ring shank shape.
 
 
 
 
 
 
We then had to texture the clay and carefully wrap it around the ring mandrel which had been marked up to our ring size. It is quite fiddly to work with and needs to be kept moist and not dry out until the shape is final. You also need to use plenty of olive oil to stop the clay sticking to everything.
 

Next we had to carefully remove the ring and put it on a hot plate to dry thoroughly. The clay is SO fragile at this stage if dropped it shatters and sadly the girl's sitting next to me did just that :0(

Once fully dried it was filed smooth at the edges.

 
 
The seam was also filled with clay "paste" which acts in a similar way to the use of "slip" in pottery making. I then decided that I would like to find out how to set stones in PMC so I bought a 4mm cubic zirconia stone from the tutor. These stones are heat proof and will not crack when being fired.
 
 
 
 
 
I had to use a drill bit and then a burring bit to make the hole for the stone to sit in.
 

I then put in the stone and used PMC paste in the form of a "piping" syringe to make a bezel setting and a pattern on the ring shank.

 
This was all carefully dried off again and then fired in the kiln. At this point the fragile clay becomes solid silver. It really is incredible to see.
 

Once it had cooled I used a brass brush to burnish the surface and then tumbled my ring to polish it. Here it  is balanced on top of the lid of my bottle of water.

When I got home I tried to get some better shots;

 I also found it actually went rather well with a heart ring my Hb had made for me 2 Christmas' ago. I may well wear them as a "set".

 

 

I really enjoyed playing again with "Marvellous Precious Metal Clay". I may even attend a 3 day summer school in July to further enhance my skills in using this wonderful silver medium. Oh the thoughts of summer.......... :0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

A little gift of kindness....follow up to my Pay It Forward

I promised I would post a follow up to my Pay it Forward to show what handmade gift I would be sending to my fellow "Pay it Forward" blogger friends. So far I have Andrea from the delightful blog FallingLadies who is joining me for the fun.

 Please do have a look at my original Pass it Forward blog here and see if you too would like to play along. If you do please add you comment at the bottom of that post not this one. I still have 2 free spaces (as this post was launched) for anyone who is interested. It involves just sending a little gift of kindness to 3 fellow bloggers who will also pass it on. The aim is to spread a little happiness via our blogging world.

I thought you would like to see what I am sending Andrea. I contacted her to ask if she had a favourite colour and her  response was blue......

So I  first made a blue themed card. In my recent giveaway I noticed that Andrea's favourite card was my butterfly one so I decided to keep to this theme. I used some bright cheerful blue floral backing paper. I added a  pretty punched  border ( I so love using punches). I used white glitter card for this. I added  jewels to the body of the butterfly to give some sparkle to the card.

I have deliberately left the card blank so that Andrea can use it for any celebration or she could even keep it as a little picture if she want to.

 Then I checked my bead stash and found some pretty one-of-a-kind artisan lampwork beads in a blue colour and made up something new that I have been playing with recently.............

............bag charms.  I have been  working on these as a thank you gift as part of a rather special birthday of mine which is coming up in April. I will show you more in another post. I have found some lovely Tibetan silver charms to add and I am quite pleased with this prototype. The charms I used here are a funky sandal and bunch of keys together with a very dainty dragonfly.  I shall package these up and get them off to Andrea, they will be going to the USA. I hope she enjoys them.

Whilst I am showing some WIP I thought I would also give you a peep of the invites I have recently sent out....hmmm yes this is really is happening to me soon.

Here is one finished

 ......... now that does look quite old when you see it in rather large gold numbers, but hey they say it's the new 30 so I am going to celebrate it in style when it arrives. I have booked a small country hotel restaurant for the Sunday after my birthday and have invited my closest family and friends to enjoy lunch. I am really looking forward to it and am now working on making the place cards. The theme will be spring and I intend to have some lovely spring flowers on the tables too. I still have plenty of time to get things done but it pays to get organised now. I even made and sent out "Save the Date" invites last October....just to make sure people kept the day free. It is an incredible coincidence but my lunch is the same day as Mother's Day!

 

These were very cheerful birdies asking everyone to save the date and everyone has!

So there we are, lots of things on the go...busy, busy...not sure though that Billy is! He is just dozing here on his favourite chair. I think he too is looking forward to some warmer weather when he can chase insects and lie in the shade of his favourite bush in the garden.

Whilst I was looking at some photos recently I found some of Billy as a kitten. This one below was taken in September 2008 when my daughter came to visit him for the first time. If you want an ahhhhhh moment,here is one........

What a sweetie! I had forgotten how tiny he used to be...and he still has his glorious pink nose!

I should now get back to some of my projects. There is also an exciting day for me coming up on Sunday..another precious metal clay class and we will be making a ring in a day. I will take my trusty camera and share all! Watch this space.

Bye for now,

Jane x

A card with some history............and a Pay it Forward!

After all the excitement of Christmas  the dull winter weather of January can make us all feel a little flat. We are very lucky that in this gap until spring are ALL our birthdays, yes my Hb, mine and both children.They are nicely set out - one each month in January, February, March and April! How convenient is that? Each birthday allows us more celebrations, laughter, parties, presents and of course food. By the time my birthday has arrived we are in spring with longer days and usually warmer weather. Some years though I can have four seasons in one day, I have had hot sunshine, snow, wind, rain, hail, thunder........on different birthdays.

Thursday of last week was my dear Hb's birthday and I thought I would share with you the card I created for him.  For family birthdays I try to do something very different if I have the time. Some time ago I managed to buy some very old postcards and amongst them was a wonderful card showing the ancient church of St. Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, London. The writing at the bottom of the card on the left says "Oldest London Church".

It was founded in 1123 as an Augustinian Priory and has been in continuous use as a place of worship since at least 1143 There is a lovely link to it here

 Now this church has a link to us for a few reasons........

Firstly my Hb has worked very near to this church for the last 7 years. His office in Farringdon actually over looks Smithfield market. It is such an interesting and often not visited part of London. During the summer I sometimes take the train up to London to meet him from work and we walk from Farringdon, across to St Paul's and on...it's fabulously historical.

Secondly St. Bartholomew the Great has also featured in some very famous films, including one of my all time favourites, "Four Weddings and a Funeral". It was used for the inside shots.

Some years ago my husband was looking out of his office window on a windy day and noticed the flag flying unfurled from the pole above the church, just as it appears in this old postcard. He and some other staff members in his office were intrigued as it flies quite a unique flag, resembling the Royal Standard. On the spur of the moment he sent an email to the rector of the church, not really expecting a reply. Within 30 minutes he was amazed to find one arrived . This is the email;

Dear St Barts,

Can you help with our question?
We can see your roof from our office, and the flag. Three gold leopards/lions on a red background (looks a bit like the arms of Richard I) .
Why do you fly this flag whereas most other Anglican venues appear to fly a different flag?

And the reply; (delivered in 30 minutes!)

Thank
you for your enquiry. We fly the arms of St Bartholomew the Great -

two lions - called leopards heraldically - and two crowns. The lions are

those of Normandy, as we were founded by Henry I. The vast majority of
churches do not have their own arms but ours date from the Middle Ages.

Rector, The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great

How interesting is that and what an interesting piece of English history! Henry the 1 no less, not even near the time of the more famous Henry V111.  My Hb has kept this email for some years and never thought at the time that one day it would surface on his wife's blog!


The final link we have is that my daughter trained at St.Bartholomew's (or Barts as it is more commonly know) medical school. Barts hospital is one of the oldest hospitals in England and it's origins go back to 1123....yes that long ago. Although Barts medical school merged with The London and Queen Mary's Medical schools in 1995 there is still an ancient " stand alone" ceremony  called "The Rights of passage" which  Barts holds for it's graduates before the main graduation at Queen Mary's in London. We attended this when our daughter graduated in July 2009. It is one of the few remaining ceremonies where the Hippocratic Oath is still taken and the setting of the ceremony in a marquee on the green of Charterhouse was magic, right out of Harry Potter!

I am not going to embarrass my daughter by putting on a photo of her here so I have deliberately found a "no family members" photo to show you some of these amazing ancient buildings which are not usually visible to the general public. They just ooze history and you could feel that you were part of the chain of history. It was quite an experience. I don't believe in ghosts at all but there was a definite "presence" of  doctors who had gone before. It was one of the most memorable occasions I have had the pleasure to attend. It was also one of the only hot,dry sunny July days we had in 2009, we were very blessed that day.

So to find this lovely old postcard, with so many personal connections,was such a  delightful discovery that I knew I had to use it to make my Hbs birthday card. Here is what I made.

I chose some gold linen card
and some swirly backing paper.

I then mounted the postcard using photo corners onto a piece of  gold card stock. This was so that my Hb could remove the postcard when he had finished with his birthday card and use it as a bookmark etc.

I also used a heart punch to punch into the backing paper so that the gold from the card base could show through.

I also repeated this inside with a larger heart punch.

So here above is his completed card. I deliberately kept it very simple as I wanted the card to be the feature. I added some black star peel offs and some words too. I am pleased to say that he was totally delighted to receive it.

So sometimes when we have birthday cards on our mantle piece they include a little bit of history...............and a lot of pleasant memories.

Bye for now,

Jane x

***************P.S  N.B  this is an edit added this afternoon .................have a look at my friend Shirley's blog...http://shirleysillustrations.blogspot.com/2011/01/pay-it-forward.html
I will be taking part, it's a lovely idea!

Here’s the concept: “Pay it forward” is the idea that random acts of kindness are given without expecting anything in return. It’s passing on a kindness hoping that your recipients will do the same, and forming a never-ending chain of goodwill, that’s what this is about. But it isn’t only kindness, it is also a means to connect and share instead of just keeping it to ourselves.

Here’s how it works: You’ll have to comment on this post and the first three people who comment will receive an original “Pay it Forward” gift from me within the next few months. But those three people will also have to post the idea on their blog and commit to creating something for the first three people who comment and so on and so forth.

SO, the first three people to comment here will get something made by me, but you have to do this on your blog as well. I’ll be reading your blog to make sure that you have posted something about your “Pay it Forward.”

WHAT A LOVELY IDEA!! Jx

PPS If you don't want to take part in this and would still like to leave a comment....just let me know you don't want to be in the "3" to pay it forward........it's not compulsary at all and I appreciate for some of my reader's it's not possible to do this and a  few readers who leave me lovely comments don't even have blogs!! I still love to receive all you kind comments and don't want to miss them!
Jx
UPDATE: Monday 31st January; There are still 2 Pay it forward spaces free......some of my comments have been my lovely normal  "chats" so don't be put off as there are more than 3 comments, just scroll on down! Please indicate when you comment if you would like to join the fun....my gift to you is going to involve not only something from my card creations..but my jewellery too! Keep watching! ;0) Jx