Techniques Used

The following are some of the mediums and techniques I use in the making my jewelry:

What is metal clay?   Metal clay is a crafting medium that originated in Japan in 1990.
It consist of very small particles of metal such as silver, gold, bronze, or copper mixed
with an organic binder and water which can than be used in making jewelry, beads and
even small sculptures. The clay can be molded by hand, textured, used in a mold, carved, filed, drilled when dry and joined to other dry pieces. It is then fired in a kiln. The binder burns away, leaving pure sintered metal. The fine silver is .999.

Tear Away is a technique originally developed by Gwen Gibson and perfected by Celie Fago using a particular combination of polymer clay and an image printed on heavy glossy paper using toner ink. The image is burnished onto the clay and the paper is then torn away leaving clay attached to the ink. The paper is baked in an oven harding the clay. This technique gives you a nice shallow texture to the clay and allows the artist unlimited possibilities to images and design on their work using metal clay.

Sand Casting is a technique I taught myself in order to reuse scraps of silver. An oily sand use for this method is pressed into a round cylinder. The object I want to copy is placed halfway into the sand; a top cylinder is added and packed with more sand. They are then taken apart.  The object is removed and the sand is carved away to allow the molten metal to flow into the vacant cavity. The extra metal is cut away, filed clean and a ring for hanging is soldered on.

Lampworking and glass fusing are worked into some of my pieces.  All glass piece are properly annealed.

I strive to create every component of my jewelry!