what I am comfortable with.......

Ahhh, now this is how it's suppose to work.  I just can't seem to get the bronze clay to do what the silver clay does for me.  This mezuzuah case was fun to make and didn't fall apart at all after I fired it!  I just wish the silver was less expensive and so I could make more outrageous designs and not worry about wether they would sell or not.  I would also like to reach more people, but asking them to spent $185 is a lot these days, even if it is a totally unique handmade piece and is solid silver.

During winter break I am going to make more inventory ( I am almost out of star necklaces and only have 2 mezuzot left).  I think that I will concentrate on designs that I have already made and sold as I anticipate being creatively charged after I take my PMC certification course at the end of January in Maryland.  I have about 3 50G packages of PMC left.  I'd like to wait to buy more after I get certified and get a better discount.  Actually I'd like the clay fairy to drop about 10 packages to me for free?  I believe, I really do:).

done with bronze clay

Well,  I've attempted bronze clay yet again and yet again my pieces did not stay together.  I spent a lot of time constructing the mezuzzah but the slabs do not stay together when they are fired.  I think that the size and shape of the mezuzah makes it a poor choice for bronze clay and the way it behaves when fired in the carbon. 

The tiny tower, which is supported by 4 walls instead of 3 actually held up fine, but I am not really interested in making towers out of bronze so I am yet again going to abandon the whole bronze clay thing. I did hear that Hadar Jacobson has a copper clay available which can be fired without the carbon pot, which may be a better solution for my pieces.  Still I am waiting to hear more, because so far I've only seen smaller accent pieces made out of this material, not larger pieces like I want to make.

bronze clay....yet again

I am making another attempt at bronze clay this weekend. This time I made simpler structures and concentrated on keeping the connections clean and secure. They are in the kiln now. I will post the results tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed, this could work.

artist annual

Artists and galleries produce portfolios of their works in the form of books or artist annuals.  In my quest to validate myself as an artist I decided to create an annual of my own.  It's a mini booklet of the work that I produced this year mostly in pictures with a few comments.  I naturally chose blurb.com to make the book the book and I plan to give it to my friends and customers who have supported me in this year as I make this journey.  The book cover featured a "Rockin" jewish star charm and the back cover the same charm, but the backside!