Here are a couple of really easy pendants you can make that would be good Christmas or holiday gifts this year.  I used CopprClay, but you could use any other metal clay you wanted, or even polymer clay.  Since these end up looking somewhat like fossils, it would be interesting to experiment with some of the “granite ” colored polymer clays, or to mix your own faux stone.

Instructions for CopprClay pendants
General instructions for working with CopprClay

Aida Chemicals, the folks who brough us silver Art Clay, have thrown their collective hats into the ring, introducing a new copper clay with a simpler firing schedule, less shrinkage, and NO MESSY CARBON NEEDED for firing!!

I am thrilled to hear it.  I love the CopprClay that I’ve worked with, but it will be lovely to have one that’s a bit easier to fire.  Even as we speak, artists in the UK are testing it out and tweaking the instructions for its use.  They’re also experimenting with torch firing, something that is impossible with CopprClay.  One downside is that it …read more

Using the CopprClay pendant that we made last week, I want to show you what I ended up doing with it.  It was tempting to simply hang it from a plain black cord, but I wanted a bit more shine and contrast.   And something a bit more interesting too!
Materials and Tools:
Large jump ring
Sliding tube bail
2 pieces of beading wire, 24 in each
22 assorted beads
40 size 1 crimp tubes
4 size 3 crimp tubes
Toggle and bar set
(Sources: Vintaj, Auntie’s Beads, SoftFlex)
Step by step instructions

I love messing around with both positive and negative molds: sometimes the exact look you want to achieve can only be had by going through a few extra steps, and that’s what I did for this pendant. This week, I’m going to cover how to make the CopprClay pendant, and next week we’ll look at one possibility for stringing it into a finished necklace.
Materials & Tools:
CopprClay (Rio Grande)
Olive oil
Waxed paper or parchment paper
Objects to make molds
Polymer clay
Kiln, firing pan, and activated charcoal
Exacto knife, file, polish
Patina solution
Step by step instructions

Make Art Monday!
I’ve got another CopprClay project for you to try!  I’m going to break it down into two tutorials: first we’ll look at how to use CopprClay with a mold, and then the following week, we’ll go through step-by-step one possible way to use a pendant like this in a finished necklace.
If you haven’t had a chance to mess around with CopprClay yet, you can look through the general directions that I’ve posted about working with it.  If you don’t have any metal clay of any type, you could also do a similar project to this one using all …read more

Technique Tuesday!
In the first part of our tutorial, we looked at how to create the CopprClay focal discs. Now we’re going to look at one possible way to use them in a finished necklace.

I decided to mix my metals up a bit: I really like the rustic look of bronze, copper, and antique brass together, but you can stick with all one metal if you prefer. Here’s what I used:
Materials & Tools:
5 focal copper discs
5 vintage rhinestone buttons in bronze setting
10″ of raw brass chain
18 raw brass jump rings, 7.25 mm
9 copper jump rings, 6 mm
10 mm copper drop
5″ copper …read more

Technique Tuesday!
The first stage in creating a CopprClay necklace with disc-shaped focals is to roll out, texture, fire, and finish the focals themselves.

Start with small balls of CopprClay, about 3/8 inch across.  Keep all of them under plastic wrap except for the one you’re working with at the time.  Follow the general instructions found at this tutorial for handling your clay.
Step by step instructions for creating discs focals

A few of the tools used with CopprClay

I’m really pleased with the way this necklace turned out.  Even more, I am pleased overall with the workability and user-friendliness of CopprClay in general.

Tomorrow and next week, I’m going to give you the step-by-steps for making a necklace similar to this one.  We’ll be starting with making the focal discs themselves, and then looking at how to assemble the whole necklace.  In the meantime, you can brush up on the basic details of working with CopprClay:
General instructions for working with CopprClay

Technique Tuesday!
These three pictures show the process of taking CopprClay from raw to finished. It can take several days for the clay to dry out, or you can hasten the process by warming it in your oven at about 200 F. Even after allowing my pieces to sit out and dry naturally for a few days, I still took this added precaution to ensure they were all completely dry.
Step by step instruction

Firing the clay is a bit more work than silver. Copper and Bronze must both be kept from too much oxidation or you’ll just end up with a black burnt-looking surface. Therefore, these clays must be kiln fired. I used the recommended coconut shell-based granulated activated charcoal and a steel firing pan. (All tools can be found on Rio Grande’s website.)

I fired my first set of pieces all in one run, ramping up my kiln to 1700 F and holding for 3 hours. I didn’t use any special schedule for ramping up, and actually the temperature ended up going a …read more