Now available...

The fall issue of Belle Armoire with my Framed Shape project is now available! 

Low Tech ring sizing

Sorry this is late posting today. Apparently the postal service of another country, that shall remain nameless, has delivered a package of my jewelry to the wrong address. I've spent the morning sorting out the mess.

Onto more interesting things...I stumbled upon this low tech, minimal tool way to size polymer rings.

I've seen it suggested that you form a ring around some sort of tube like a piece copper pipe or some other bit of hardware. Problem is, this limits the size to whatever tubes are available.

Depending on your ring design, this is a method that might help you and will allow you to make any size ring you want and cost you little to nothing.

Basically, you draw a correctly sized circle onto a piece of card stock and then you stand a circle of clay directly over the circle and bake it that way.

First you'll need something to make circles the correct size. Ring sizes are only millimeters apart so measuring correctly is important. You can find ring size charts online at Jewelry Mall and a really detailed one with international sizing at Blue Nile.  I also have a ring template that lets me trace whole sizes but the detailed measurements provided by the charts would also allow you to made your own circle templates with whole and half sizes with a compass.

I got my ring template at a local PMC supplier. Its from Cool Tools.

Cut a rectangle of clay, slight longer than the measurement of the appropriate ring size onto a sheet of clay on your pasta machines thickest setting. So for instance, a size 7 ring, if laid out flat would be 54mm long and so I cut a rectangle about 70-80mm long.

Trace the corresponding size circle onto card stock and wrap the clay around it with the inside edge of the clay just outside the line. 

Gently coax the clay together at the seam. I prefer to just get the clay to stick (by holding it in place for about 30 seconds with minimal pushing) and back fill and clean up the seam after the first backing so that  I won't end up distorting the circle. When the clay sticks, gently re-from to match the circle and bake right on the card stock. This would make for a very simple ring OR serve as a properly sized inner core or base. 

Let me know if you try this out!  I'm really happy with how these are working out for me so far.

Recycling ideas

I continue my search for ways to recycle my shavings of baked/cured clay. (TerraCycle does not currently accept polymer as part of one of their programs although they encouraged me to check back as they are adding to their accepted materials list all the time.)

Here is one simple re-use of already baked clay thats working well for me so far.  I just treat the pre-baked bits as inclusions. No doubt some of you are already doing this but this is my method. 

Recycle

Chop the pre-baked clay by hand into pea size bits if its large and then pulverize it to varying degrees of grain in a coffee grinder. I worked with a mixture of sizes for these beads. I wear a mask to do this because some of the clay is so small that its dust.

I incorporate the grit into an unbaked piece of clay. Here I mixed up a "cardboard" sort of brown to play with the recycled theme.

 Incorporating the grits deeply into the clay or just into the outside surface will achieve different looks.

 Next I shaped and texturize the beads with sanding pads. I make my basic shape, they I pierced the bead and go back and shape further with the needle through the bead. 

I've tried differing amounts of the re-used inclusions and several colors of soft clay, keeping to neutrals so far. 

Do you have good ways to recycle/re-use pre-baked clay? I'd love to hear what you are doing!

Making "seed" beads

Its probably a bit ambitious to be making jewelry to give to friends we'll be visiting on Saint Helena in just a few short weeks. I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew. But since quite a few of these people are artists/craftsmen themselves this seems appropriate. 

Today I'll be making a bunch of "seed" beads. I've gotten a lot faster with these and this is how I quickly make a lot that are all about the same size. This is much quicker than pinching off pieces of clay and then rolling them and its easier on the fingers too.

I roll a long piece as evenly as possible. This is the slowest part and I do it on a larger scale than what I am showing today. If the log is even it helps the beads be even. For larger beads make a fatter roll - tinier beads, tinier roll. 

Then I chopped even chunks off the roll. You could put a ruler along the top of the log and actually measure but with practice I can get them very close in size, quickly. Like a chef with a carrot except the clay sticks to the work surface a bit so you don't have to use your other hand to hold it still. 

Then I roll beads using both hands. I like organic shapes so I don't shoot for exactly round. And I pierce them with a needle. 

I can do this like a little factory now and I find they are comfortable on the neck.

One of the artist's I'll be visiting is Mrs. Rose Bennett. (Here she was in her front garden in 2008 showing us fresh acacia seeds.)  She been making seed bead jewelry on Saint Helena since she was five years old. It would be interesting to learn more about her techniques and try using my beads so I think I'll take a small stash with me.