Successes, Failures, & UFOs : Following Up!

Ok. Following up on previous posts...we have finished with the final stages of 2 projects. One was a success and the other was unfortunately a failure.

We were successful with our wet felted pieces. Scroll down to see them mid-process:

Jamie's & mine

We tried firing our PMC pieces. We have never used this type of open kiln before and it got too hot, too quickly. My 'C' charm completely melted. The backs of the smaller ones got imprinted by the wire mesh:

And I just thought I'd show you my embroidery progress. I've always got about a million other projects on at the same time- so it is slow-going!

-Carolyn

Just playin' around

We wanted to experiment with our new small jeweler's kiln so the 3 of us each whipped up a pendant (or 3: Jamie) to fire using PMC (Precious Metal Clay). Here they are bone dry. I'll show you what they look like after firing.

And then Jamie and I did some wet felting. Angharad's the expert in that department.Jamie'smine
(looks like spinach)

I'll show you how these come out, too.

I love before & after shots!

-Carolyn

Artfest 2008

Artfest 2008
We're back and had a great time!









Out of the 3 workshops I took, somehow I wound up with 2 that were more art than craft. It seemed to take away from the whole Artfest vibe. So many amazing techniques are being shared by innovators in their field- it was a shame not to tap that resource a little more. You get 3 choices for 3 days worth of workshops and either get your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd pick. Basically, you choose 9 classes and wind up with 3.

'Waxy Layers' with Judy Wise was one of the classes I chose and didn't get.

I want to share with you the PMC Bird Pendant workshop I took with Catherine Witherell. It was a great class- Catherine's a lovely teacher- and I was amazed at how easy, yet complicated the whole process was. It works like clay, then you put it in the kiln and it clinks like metal. Because it is metal. The clay burns off during the firing process as it is merely an organic binder. Fascinating!

-Carolyn

Here are some examples of Catherine's work:

Here's the pendant that I made:
(someone told me that it looks like a Pacific Northwest Thunderbird)