One of my holiday goals was to use up the open packet of bronze clay I had in the fridge. I opened it in mid 2008 and was rather pleased I had some success firing my first batch. I fired using the recommended firing schedule suggested by Rio Grande and fired in Coconut Shell-Based Activated Carbon.

This is something I made on my first attempt in 2008.

Another plan for the holidays was to concentrate on improving some skills rather than tinkering in 20 different areas so I decided to start working through Hadar Jacobson’s first book.  [I bought her first and second from her at a course I attended in Sydney a couple of months ago. More on that in another time].

This is what I made with the remainder of the packet.  These pieces are unfired.

Attaching a bail is what I find the hardest. Or perhaps it is creating secure joins. I am now wondering if some of my problems are because I am drying the clay too quickly. I am using the Convection Oven I have for Polymer Clay on a very low heat.  Here I show attaching a bail to a patchwork pendant.

Straight out of the kiln the colours were interesting.  Initially everything looked good.

The patchwork pendant had problems and a bit fell off when I picked it up.

The bail also had a gap.

On further inspection – well the picture says it all.

This piece was my favourite and I was disappointed the bail broke off.  The rest seems strong to I will attempt to fix it.  I gather enamel does not work well on bronze or perhaps resin.

I finished one of the round pendants and put it on a cord. I was reasonably happy with it. I took it on an short break last week. I lost it. More disappointment.

I’ll write about the earrings later when I work out what to do with them.

Lessons Learned

• An open packet of bronze clay will keep, in the fridge at least.
• Don’t heat bronze to dry it quickly.
• Use embeddables for bail and/or get better and joining pieces.
• Earrings must be a mirror image (d0h)