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Metal Clay Academy Newsletter
Spring has sprung!
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Greetings!
Hello! Well it seems like the winter has lasted forever, certainly here in the UK we have seen snow right up until now. When I look outside the window I can still see stubborn piles of the white stuff which seem impervious to the sunshine which has now finally arrived. I don't know about you, but I love Spring. The promise of Summer yet to come and the lighter evenings are now here. It certainly gives you a little boost when there's more light out there! This edition of our newsletter has lead us to speaking to two of the five finalists in the Saul Bell Design Awards, 2013. Both of these talented ladies have combined their metal clay with polymer clay, making colour the order of the day. So, Springtime and colour? Perfect reading material and we hope you enjoy. If you'd like to be part of the next newsletter, then drop me an email. We'd really like to hear your views, suggestions and opinions.
Emma Gordon |
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News
PMC Original
Mitsubishi announced the discontinuation of PMC Original / Standard in February, production will cease this month. The Original PMC was the first made by Mitsubishi and it was perfect for those projects benefiting from its high shrinkage rate. We know it will be missed.
Hadar's Clays
There have been a few announcements regarding Hadar's clays; so just in case you missed them:
- Hadar has announced a new accreditation for tutors in her clays. This is by invitation only and will commence in 2014. More information can be found here.
- Hadar is creating a new edition of her book Silver and Bronze - Movement and Mechanism and is called for submissions. Closing date is the end of June so there's still plenty of time to come up with some ideas and get them made! Click here for more information.
Noble Clays have released new information sheets for the firing of all their clays. Click here to download.
Showcase 500 Metal Clay Jewellery - call for submissions has been put back until next year and now there is plenty of time to get your thinking caps on and submit some of your work. The information can be found here.
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What's Your Inspiration?
Cindy Silas
By her own admission, Cindy has always been an artist; she enjoys exploring a broad variety of media such as drawing, painting, photography, and several of the textile and fibre arts. During the last few years, she has concentrated on polymer, metal clay, various silversmith skills, and creating art jewellery.So when I asked her to discuss her fantastic piece Floral Concerto which has recently been selected as a finalist in the Saul Bell Design Awards, she was more than happy to tell us about her inspiration and how she manages her creative process. This piece, she says is by far one of the most elaborate pieces she's made in recent months. Her time has been taken up by writing a Metal Clay book for Lark with the working title Clay Combinations, which features combining several different metal clays with polymer, showing numerous ways to connect the two mediums, plus fresh techniques and tools. The motivation to create a showpiece for this book was one of the primary reasons for creating her Floral Concerto piece.
 | | Cindy's Floral Concerto |
Floral Concerto was inspired by a look through an old out-of-print book of William Morris patterns. 'I've always been drawn to florals', Cindy says. 'In my earlier years, I sewed most of my clothes and remember being teased because 9 times out of 10, I chose to use a floral print.' When she designed this piece, she tells us that she spent a lot of time sketching out her design, which is an addictive process and always gives her direction to her ideas. Once Cindy had made the decision to go with a necklace design, the original idea went through 'an interesting parade of alterations'. One of the most interesting was deciding to do the continuing floral design which flows from bead to bead which gives the necklace the look of a continuous vine. As Cindy has always loved bas relief and mosaics she included both of these techniques within the piece as well. So which materials did Cindy use and why? Sterling silver PMC is the metal clay used in this piece, Cindy says she loves the clay's workability 'It was easy to sculpt and carve and fired beautifully!'. The piece also needed to contain polymer clay because it was intended for the book she was working on, but she wanted to ensure that this didn't dominate the necklace to exclude it from the Saul Bell's Design Award Metal Clay category.  | | Floral Concerto - Bas relief and mosaic detail |
Cindy says that before making jewellery her job was as a graphic designer. This influences her work, she believes and gives her work a graphic slant. Because of her love of florals and bas relief, she is often attracted to the Arts and Craft Movement and Art Nouveau eras and is in particular awe of René Lalique's body of work. But, she tells us '..my work is fuelled by the next internal challenge. I can be very competitive with myself!' To view more of Cindy's amazing work have a look at her website. The book Cindy is working is produced by Lark and will be published in Spring 2014.
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Did You Know....?
The Metal Clay Academy has lots of information to browse through and this section just highlights an area you may have missed or have not looked at for a while.
Photographing your jewellery can be a challenge. Tiny pieces can get lost, shiny pieces can have glare, then there's the lighting, the camera, not to mention photo enhancing software. The list goes on and it can be quite mind boggling if not a tiny bit depressing when you have a beautiful piece but can't quite show it off to it's fullest potential. Good pictures are essential for showing off your work, so if you want to do it yourself, then pop over to the Metal Clay Academy's extensive selection of videos and tutorials to help you get the most from your camera.
If you feel like taking your own photographs is a no-go, then check out the list of photographers we have.
One way or another, we are sure to have something to help you get the photograph your piece deserves!
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Featured Artist
Liz Potter-Hall
Liz Potter-Hall's work is very distinctive and even of you don't know her name, I am sure you can pinpoint her work at a glance. Elizabeth describes her style as modern with a tribal, organic twist, using mostly silver - both fine and sterling silver clay - and polymer clay inlay, her jewellery is colourful, beautiful , eyecatching and most definitely distinctive.
 | | Liz Potter Hall - Solstice Collection |
Liz started making jewellery when she was at The Maryland Institute of Art. She majored in Crafts, with the special focus being on jewellery and metal work. Her designs won scholarships and awards throughout her college career. She discovered PMC 9 years ago and this opened up a whole new area to her for her work and design. She tells us she loves using it and exploring it with other techniques in her repertoire. She received her PMC certification in 2006 and has not looked back.
In fact, Liz's work has been nominated for lots of awards over the past few years. She has been a Saul Bell finalist 3 times and her wonderful Bolo piece which was nominated in 2008,she tells us, is one of her all-time favourites. It was a piece created for a Challenge run in one of the Metal Clay Yahoo groups, but she modestly says, it just really worked on an aesthetic and mechanical level.
 | Liz's Favourite - Bolo
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Her studio is split over several areas of the farm she shares with her husband, Jeff. Liz says that she has her metal clay area in one part, her polymer in another and her fabricating tools and kiln in another area. To any outsider looking in, her spaces could be considered a chaotic pig sty, but to Liz it is a peaceful place where she can lose herself in the design and creative processes. So what is she working on now, in her creative haven? She is currently working on her Solstice collection which combines Sterling PMC with polymer clay and gemstone influenced with a solar theme.
Her favourite working tools by her own admission are pretty basic, but they are her 'must haves' and include
a Teflon roller with size bands, a clear polymer plate, which she uses for rolling out snakes, a razor blade, soft paint brush, non-stick work surfaces and a needle tool. With these simple tools, Liz makes wearable art and considers each piece she makes as such, striving to improve and develop her skills as a jewellery maker.
 | | Liz Potter Hall - Solstice Collection |
So does Liz ever get stuck for inspiration? Of course! Doesn't everyone? she says And when that happens, thankfully it's not for very long, she looks through work of artists she respects and looks at her past work to identify what she feels she did well and what could have been improved upon. Her main challenges she tells us is money and supplies. Her imagination can run away with her and pretty soon she needs a long list of supplies including clay and precious stones. But if she ever is lucky enough to win the lottery - the sky would be the limit. I for one, would love to see what she would come up with! Her work is quite simply part of her life and something she needs to do in fact, she doesn't consider it work at all. If you are interested in owning a little work of art, please have a look at Liz's Etsy shop here or connect with Liz on her Facebook page here
 | | Liz's Saul Bell Piece for 2013 |
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