Still no Studio, but yet another new endeavor.

Well I still don't have my studio set up. I got some work started toward that end but we had a very strange winter weather wise that has kept me from transferring the bulk of my equipment from the old house to the new, not to mention having my nephew every day all day. But it's all right as I haven't been inspired in a long time to work on any horses, the most that I've gotten done in the last six months or so is prepping and primming my Valentine and Heartbreaker. I got that far then I started questioning the colors that I had chosen for them, and there they sit, forlornly waiting for me to make up my mind what I want to do with them.

 In the meanwhile I've finally got to put my Jewelry design course to good use. I bit the bullet and invested in a ArtClay silver starter kit and I'm in love!

 This guy is my first project(sorry about the less than stellar pics, sliver is VERY hard to photograph well.) I used ArtClay silver clay that when fired renders to .999 fine silver. This stuff is so cool to use! When in the clay state you can work it just like any air drying clay, then when you fire it, it can be working in all the traditional metalworking techniques. The clay work on this piece was fairly easy for me, I put to use a lot of what I have learned while sculpting in ApoxiSculpt and SuperSculpy for the model horses. The torch firing was a little scary, but after I got in to it, it wasn't as bad as I feared and I didn't melt my pendant. YAY! Once I was done firing I cleaned and polished my pendant and bezel set a itty-bitty round brilliant cut Aquamarine for the eye, this was a learning experience. Silly me I followed the manufactures instruction that said there would be a 8% shrinkage rate, yea, I got maybe a 5% shrinkage so I had to do a LOT more working to get the stone set firmly, but in the end I think it turned out really well for a first try. I titled and signed it "Fighting Fish" on the back, which was super easy to do with a pin tool before firing. Now on to decide which project I want to do next, I have a sketch book with a ton of designs to pick from at the ready. So many designs, so little clay :)