wavey mezuzah

I love the way this one turned out. I textured the slab of clay and then let in dry on the dowel I made from a rolled up magazine with saran wrap wrapped around it. I just estimated the thickness because the PMC will shrink when fired. It really came out great!

another failure

Well, only one of the mezuzah's survived. The rectangle one with the crackle finish is not a keeper. I was not crazy about how the crackle texture turned out. The piece was way too busy, and the construction, with the slanted roofs, was not sturdy enough and did not survive the brushing and hammering. It is my fault for not making sure the joints were strong during the building process. I have to admit that my heart was not in this piece. I don't think I loved the texture from the start and therefore did not take the care and patience required to finish this piece. I just wanted to make a diffferent version of the mezuzah. It shows in the finished project which I will not post, but instead send to the refinery to reclaim the silver.
The rounded wavey texture mezuzah came out perfect. It is a beauty. I will post it when I am done polishing.

right out of the oven

Here are two more mezuzahs I am working on. This is how they look when they come out of the kiln. They are a white silver color and are a bit misshaped. Next step is brushing and work hardening the silver. Then I will oxidize, polish, and tumble them. Stay turned to see how they come out.

another mezuzah

This one has square "windows". I think it kind of looks like a stone tower.

making thank yous

Abigail, Tamara and I are working on Abby's Bat Mitzvah thank you notes. Everyone is different. We are stamping, pasteing, drawing and even using sealing wax. We have a lot to make, but it's a lot of fun!

how it should look

I just made this mezzuzah in silver. Now this is how it's suppose to look!

didn't work

Bronze clay is a bust again. I think the whole firing process makes it unstable. I'm taking a break.

another attempt

I worked all day today trying to make a mezzuzah out of bronze clay. I have come up with this, which, in it's present state looks pretty good, but I have to say I am not confident. It's not that the bronze clay is difficult (OK it is, the shrinking and the cracks), but I think that the face that a mezzuzah is long and narrow to fit a scroll, makes it difficult to build in this medium.

I will let it dry and fire it tomorrow. I show you what happens, but even with the advice from many books and Kate McKinnon, I just don't know. I do love the bronze, the color and the weight. But I also wish I could make a couple of mezzuzot in silver, which I know works well. It's just that without knowing for sure I can sell them, I can't justify spending all that money. Do you know anyone who will buy a mezzuzah from an unknown artist for $200?

etsy shop

I've decided to open an etsy shop. Maybe I can sell some of these cool jewish stars I'm making. Perhaps I will soon be successful with the bronze mezzuzahs and I can sell them. Meanwhile I fired 4 more stars today and 2 hearts. I'll post them soon. My shop is called rachel's things. I had to think of a name fast and I admit it's not very creative, but it's better than just my name. Plus I didn't want it to have jewelry in the title because it's not JUST jewelry. Plus, I didn't really want it to have Miller in the title. I think I just like my first name.
www.rachelsthings.etsy.com

Bronze clay experiment

I love working with Silver PMC , but it's very expensive,so I decided to try my hand at the new bronze clay. I read a lot of articles and blogs about working with the clay so I could prepare myself for it's unique properties.

The clay is very messy and sticky in it's raw state, but the information I got from the Cooltools website was helpful. If you keep your hands and work area well lubricated with oil or balm (I used claymate) the clay does not stick badly to your hands. I also kneaded the clay as suggested. The first reel challenge with bronze clay is that it shrinks as it dries and then it cracks. I want to try to make my "house" mezuzzahs out of the clay. They are built with slabs. I have made them very successfully in silver PMC, but because they take so much material that are costly.I found that in bronze it is very hard to built these shapes.

First of all, it is much harder to attach slabs together with bronze clay. You have to make a lot of slip, and even then you have to reinforce the slabs with the snake of fresh clay. Also there is a lot of trouble when firing the piece in the kiln. The "house" I made bowed and slumped after firing.

I am not real happy with the results. My kiln is a mess, the piece slumped and cracked, and the clay was a bit messy to work with. I think I would rather invest more in silver clay right now. I think that the bronze clay can be interesting and looks great in small pieces and paired with silver components. But, I don't think the bronze clay will work for my purposes.

oxidation

Today I oxidized the stars and some other pieces in the liver of sulfur. Here is what they look like before the final polish.

moo cards

mine arrives last week. What are they? They are super cute half size calling cards in which you can have printed with multiply images. Lots of artists have them. They make great hang tags too. You can order some too at moo.com

shining stars

Here are the stars out of the kiln. They have a white powdery appearence to them. It is quite different for the oxidized finished necklace.

Here they are after brushing them a bit with a brass wire brush. They are beginning to look more like the silver they are. I think I may leave some bright silver and only oxidize some. I have an aweful cold today so this is all I will acomplish.

making stars

Today I decided to make silver jewish stars. First I roll out and texture the PMC silver clay. After I texture them I cut them into triangle shape. Then I build them into 3 dimentional forms so that I can add chain later and make them into necklaces. I've made 5 examples tonight. I'll fire them in the kiln tomorrow and let you see how they came out.

rolling papers

I am working on the "greenery" for the centerpieces. There are made of rolled up magazine and catalog pages. We have tried to choose pages that have alot of green color around the edges so they look more like stems or leaves when they are rolled up. They are just tightly rolled and secured with a bit of glue from a glue stick. Abby and I are both working on the leaves. We are about 60 done and need 150 in total. This is done pretty fast, we get about 20 or more done a day.

please vote

Here are the cookies the girls and I made for our election party tonight. There are R, D, O, M and USAs. They stand for Republican, Democrate, Obama, McCann, etc. Abby did the decorating, I think she may have spent more time on the Os and Ds :).

Halloween

Here is how Tamara looked in her Colonial girl costume. It's made from Grandma and Grandpa's bed linens circa 1970's. Isn't it perfect!

my work space is not working out

I have begun work on my PMC Mezzazah project. It's coming along very slowly. I have a lot of challenges working with this clay. But lately my biggest frustration has been with my work space. Many years ago a purchased an old wooden drafting table at a yard sale. It is full of character and patina, but alas I must confess it has never been a good table for me. It is off square, wobbly, and it slopes downward so that my tool always roll off the table. I have tried to fix the problem but nothing is working for me. I think that I need to re think the whole studio work space and redesign it. I spent most of yesterday losing bits of clay and tools. I think I may have to swipe the kid's computer desk/table and use a card table for the computer. I refuse to buy anything new right now. I will dismantle the drafting table once again and put it away. If any one wants a old drafting table with plenty of character, and nothing else, let me know.

Here's the mezzuzah so far. I'm still building it, but I may fire it today. It is nothing like I envisioned in the beginning, which I guess is how things go with silver clay.

Andrew Raftery

If you are in New York city this month, take time to visit the Mary Ryan Gallery at 527 West 26th street. There is a show featuring the works of master engraver and artist Andrew Raftery. Now only are Andrew's engraving technical perfection, but this unique perspective on modern life is both fascinating and refreshingly humorous. Andrew takes a traditional media and makes it relevant today, they are true originals.
I am glad to know Andrew personally, and count him as a good friend. He continually inspires me whenever we speak. Thanks Andrew, I wish I could be there in person!

300 origami lilies

I have finished making all the 300 lilies,enough for at least 15 centerpieces. The next step is to add the 22 floral wire stem. I have decided to wrap the stem with floral tape where it attaches to the flower. I find that the flowers tear easily and the tape reinforces them. This process won't take as long, it only takes about 30 seconds to complete this step.