October Blog Giveaway result is here! And the winner is ...

Bethany!!!!

Congrats to Bethany who won! Thanks to everyone who has entered the giveaway. In the meantime please continue to admire our October featured artist Anna Siivonen's amazing creations here.

Kit and Caboodle Shop -- September Feature & Giveaway

It's September and Fall is here. Nature is in full force. Our September featured artist Gayle Dowell lives in the heart of the flint hills prairies of Kansas where she finds most of her inspirations from nature.

Why did you pick your shop name? 
When I first opened my Etsy shop, my two daughters were making and selling jewelry with me. All three of us had different styles and preferences in design when we started, so we named ourselves, Kit and Caboodle Shop, which comes from the phrase, "the whole kit and caboodle" which means a collection of things. It seemed to fit the fact that we were selling a little of everything. What started as a hobby for the three of us to share continued to a business minus the help from my daughters. I'm a one woman business now, but the name stuck so I've kept it. I also sell under my own name, Gayle Dowell, at www.gayledowell.com.

Peppergrass Textured Ring by KitandCaboodleShop

What inspires you?
I'm most inspired by organic textures and shapes. I live in the heart of the flint hills prairies of Kansas where I find most of my inspiration from the grasses and flowers of the prairie. I've heard that many people think that Kansas is flat and boring, but I think that is only true for those who have not taken the time to really stop, stoop down, and look closely at what the prairie is all about. I'm hoping that my prairie grass textured pieces will cause people to realize the wonderful beauty and diversity that this part of the US has to offer. Each prairie grass piece that I make comes with a card stating the name and a photo of the grass or flower that was used to make the textured piece.

When did you first become interested in Metal Clay? How long have you been designing jewelry using Metal Clay?
After my beginning beading phase in jewelry making, I was looking to expand my skills by taking a beginner's class in metalsmithing. From there I decided to incorporate metal clay to give me more design possibilities that could be incorporated with the metalsmithing. Metal clay for me, has become a way to add the textures of the prairie into metal pieces that will last. I've been working with metal clay since about 2010 and have enjoyed the journey.

Mixed Metal Flower Necklace by KitandCaboodleShop

What do you enjoy most about working in Metal Clay? 
I enjoy the flexibility and the unlimited design possibilities that metal clay gives me. Because I love organic textures and shapes, metal clay makes it easy for me to mold and shape pieces that reflect that inspiration, and because I can incorporate it into my metalsmithing, I have even more design opportunities.

Why did you design the giveaway piece? 
What is special about your giveaway piece? My daughter just got married a few days ago and I designed the bridal party jewelry using different grasses for each bridesmaid's pendant and then customizing it with the first initial of each person. I've been wanting to do custom work for some time, making each piece of the prairie a personal experience. I'm giving away a customized prairie grass piece similar to the one shown using the winner's choice of a first initial.

Sterling Silver Personalized Initial Pendant Necklace, Textured with Peppergrass, Prairie Grass from Kansas by KitandCaboodleShop

A lucky winner will win ONE (1) Peppergrass & Prairie Grass Textured Necklace. Here are the rules to enter the MCHs blog giveaway:

Every person is eligible to enter the blog giveaway with up to FOUR (4) entries. How can you get an entry? You can do any of the following and then let us know that by leaving a comment here so we can keep track.

1. Follow our blog = 1 entry
2. Check out featured artist and post favorite piece on the blog = 1 entry
3. Heart featured artist’s shop = 1 entry
4. Follow featured artist on Facebook = 1 entry
5. Make a purchase = 2 entries
6. Refer a friend = 1 entry
7. Tweet about the giveaway using key word metalclayheads = 1 entry
8. Share the Metal Clay Heads blog giveaway link on FB (Go to http://www.facebook.com/MetalClayHeadsTeam and click Share) = 1 entry
9. If you voted and commented on our last challenge = 1 entry

The giveaway will run for two weeks. We will announce the winner on September 25th. Good luck!

My inspiration? Creative process? Challenges? Ambitions?

August Featured Artist Lynn Cobb

Welcome to Metal Clay Heads Team Blog Feature and Giveaway! This time we have well-known and talented metal clay artist Lynn Cobb talking about her inspirations, her creative process, her challenges and ambitions on metal clay art. 

My  challenge, overwhelming at times,  is to remain fresh and creative. I feel best about my work when it feels really authentic to me. Something that has welled up from within my psyche.

A question that artists often consider, "Is this original?" raises so many others. Most of us probably agree that since women started painting the walls of the caves at Lascaux over 17,000 years ago (yes, recently, archeologists have determined that the hands pressed on the walls were female) that there have been millions of men and women artists who may have designed just about anything and everything the human mind can imagine. And, so, by calling a piece of art an original design, an artist may be saying that the piece is their own interpretation of a style or representation that most probably has been interpreted by many others over the millennia.

Silver flower statement ring with gold accent by Lynn Cobb

My flower necklaces and rings are a good example of this. They are certainly not the first flowers created in metal and worn to adorn the body. And, yet for me, they felt very authentic in that they were a culmination of my use of simple leaves as design elements, my admiration of Georgia O'Keeffe and Judy Chicago as strong women artists and my own feminist sensibility.

Those flowers came together after I had accumulated a dozen or so leaves using metal clay paste. Just playing with them, unfired, I realized that I could make them into flowers. Oh, that all designing could be so organic!  Frequently, I find myself with an idea, and having a pen and paper at hand, I will often either just make a note or a very rough sketch so that I remember. At the bench, later, I may begin to build on that idea.

Taking an idea  into a solid piece of jewelry leads me to think about how to execute it. This inevitably brings me to the work of others, and how I want to emulate the skills that I admire in others' work.

• I see the production work of very successful metal clay artists and business women and men, and I admire their ability to see their creations as a job, a way to make a good living working with their hands and to be able to make more creative pieces during "off time."
• I see the work of others who make exquisite classic designs, fine jewelry, by anyone's standards. I admire their perfection in fabrication and stone setting.
• I see the work of still others, driven by culture, and other iconic symbols, to develop complex pieces from their own drawings, but that bring together those deep psychic connections that many find relevant.

These are just a few of the skills that I want to bring to my work, in equal parts:  Marketability, Perfection, Meaningfulness. And, add these:  beautiful, unusual, cost-effective, humorous, personal, prolific, dynamic...and a hundred other adjectives that I would like to apply to my work.  Such a mountain I have placed in front of myself!

Tribal shield silver necklace with purple and yellow enamel by Lynn Cobb

All of this brings me to today. STUCK! I am still jotting down ideas and sketches, but being drawn to the bench to execute those ideas is currently alluding me. I hope to pull all of this together, make an exciting piece, enter it in Saul Bell, or send it off for publication, but not sure of when, what, or how that inspiration will return.

I do enjoy using natural elements, leaves, shells, plants...molding them, sometimes adding stones, gold or enamel. These are not pieces that I consider particularly creative, but, they can be pretty, and others do seem to like them. And, I use abstract textures from my own polymer carvings to mold the clay. The immediacy of metal clay makes these kinds of pieces fairly easy to make and they aren't too costly.

One of the best things about metal clay is its universally accessible process. Although I love the silver the most, and it is expensive, it requires few tools to get started, keeping it available for many to try. It drew me in, and, like many, I didn't have a ton of money to invest in major equipment in order to begin. I was able to add tools, a kiln, more tools, oh, and more tools, and some more, over the years and I believe many of us who love metal clay have found this to be one of its greatest equalizers...we are able to make beautiful metal jewelry, sometimes from the very first day.

Tree of life pendant by Lynn Cobb

Which, brings me to my giveaway piece. This is a simple pendant, and, it is a copy of  the very first piece that I ever made! (It is a little thicker...that first one was not very evenly rolled. And, the patina is more interesting, took awhile to learn that variations in temperature and additions of salt and ammonia could ramp up the colors.)  The design is my own, a carving that I made in polymer clay and have executed in polymer both with texture and using mica shift, and in silver.  While trying to figure out a tag to use on etsy, I came up with "tree of life" which seems to fit it, although, this one is more wintery, having lost its leaves. And, it has a bit of feminine symbology as well. Over the years, it has been one of my most popular designs. I hope you like it.

So here are the rules to enter the MCHs blog giveaway:

Every person is eligible to enter the blog giveaway with up to FOUR (4) entries. How can you get an entry? You can do any of the following and then let us know that by leaving a comment here so we can keep track.

1. Follow our blog = 1 entry
2. Check out featured artist and post favorite piece on the blog = 1 entry
3. Heart featured artist’s shop = 1 entry
4. Follow featured artist on Facebook = 1 entry
5. Make a purchase = 2 entries
6. Refer a friend = 1 entry
7. Tweet about the giveaway using key word metalclayheads = 1 entry
8. Share the Metal Clay Heads blog giveaway link on FB (Go to http://www.facebook.com/MetalClayHeadTeam and click Share) = 1 entry
9. If you voted and commented on our last challenge = 1 entry

The giveaway will run for two weeks. We will announce the winner on August 28th. Good luck!

Who won the Peas in a Pod Charm from Sue?

Drum roll! It's Katy! Congratulations!

Katy will receive the very adorable Peas in a Pod Silver Charm from Sue of SomethingXtraSpecial.

 

Thanks to Sue who support our team by doing this feature and giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered the blog giveaway!

Katy, please contact Sue or me directly with your address so Sue can keep in touch with you.

I just love playing with ‘pretty’ things! -- Sue

And metal clay art is serious fun for Sue of Somethingxtraspecial! She creates the very pretty and iconic peapod charms jewelry (or jewellery in British English). Sue fell in love with handmade jewelry when she received a handmade gift from her father at six - a deep ruby red glass ring! Sue was trained in traditional silversmithing but once discovered metal clay, there is no returning. Please enjoy the following feature on our very lovely British metalclayhead Sue from Southsea, England.

Peapod Ring by Somethingxtraspecial

 
Why did you pick the name Somethingxtraspecial ?
That's a silly one.. I was in a cafe with my boyfriend and was saying 'I want to call it something 'special' and he said well why not then call it somethingspecial, of course I went home and checked online and there were loads of entries like that, so tried with extra in still a few entries, so took out the 'e'. And that was where that name came from. If I had my time over I would certainly not have anything quite so long, people remember it but then spell it wrong or whatever, so I'd like something like blii or plo or one of those silly 4 letter names that mean nothing. When you look at the biggies like ebay, etsy, google, yahoo, moo none of them mean anything but they are all really easy to remember.

What inspires you?
Generally staring into space or being too busy, that is when all my best ideas seem to come. I'll be looking at something, while in the middle of something else and think 'I wonder if that would work in...'

Half Moon Cuff Links in Silver with Gold Accent by Somethingxtraspecial

What are the major challenges when creating metal clay jewellery?
Well I know I should say time or being quick or something like that, but to be completely honest I'd say the cost. When I first started using clay, it was a bit of a luxury but it was a totally acceptable cost, then the huge price hike of 240% of last year hit, that took some getting used to. Being from the UK our costs are already high so trying to compete in an international market place is really not so easy when you compare costs and what our cousins can sell for compared to what we over here can charge. Therefore you are always conscious of this when making something new, and for me I feel quite stymied by this. I see all the amazing huge things that the 'stars' make and wonder who can afford a -- to buy it and b -- to make stuff like this, and then I just go green with envy!

What do you enjoy most about working in Metal Clay?
I trained as a silversmith, I left it on the back burner for many years, then when I discovered clay I found that I could do some of the things that would take forever and probably need some very expensive tools or chemicals to do in sheet metal, in clay quite easily. I love that.

Padlock Hoop Earrings in Silver by Somethingxtraspecial

What is the biggest mistake you've ever made? What did you learn from it?
When I started I believed what the makers said about firing and finishing without realising that it was probably just a marketing tool. I then discovered that precious metal clay (silver) needs firing for a minimum of 2 hours in a kiln and then work hardened to make it as strong as it could be. Since I discovered this (from the adorable Kate McKinnon) I have found I can now make things that just would not have worked before (and refired all of the stuff I still had from before).

Sue is going to giveaway a peapod charm for a lucky winner. If you leave a comment on why you love the peapod charm, you're in for the giveaway.

Other ways to enter are:
1. Follow our blog = 1 entry
2. Check out featured artist and post favorite piece on the blog = 1 entry
3. Heart featured artist’s shop = 1 entry
4. Follow featured artist on Facebook = 1 entry
5. Make a purchase = 2 entries
6. Refer a friend = 1 entry
7. Tweet about the giveaway using key word metalclayheads = 1 entry
8. Share the Metal Clay Heads blog giveaway link on FB (Go to http://www.facebook.com/MetalClayHeadTeam and click Share) = 1 entry

But you must post a comment to let us know or you will miss out! Winner will be announced December 7th. Enter now!

Peas in a Pod Silver Charm by Somethingxtraspecial

The possibilities with Metal Clay are endless - Harriet

Our blog feature artist for September is Harriet from HGWjewelrydesigns. Harriet enjoys working with a variety of materials, including gemstones, pearls, wire, copper and brass. She uses fine and sterling silver to create her unique jewelry. Harriet is interested in making bold pieces with sophisticated and natural shapes. Her preferred medium is metal clay, with its endless possibilities!

Black and Yellow Geometric Design Enamel Pendant by Harriet

When did you first become interested in Metal Clay? How long have you been designing jewelry using Metal Clay?

When I was laid off from my position as curator of American art at our local museum, I wanted to find something I could do that would still be art related. I began taking classes in metalsmithing and Metal Clay. I do both, but prefer Metal Clay, because the possibilities with this medium are endless. I have been designing Metal Clay jewelry for three years.

What was your first piece of Metal Clay jewelry?

The first piece I created in Metal Clay was a simple pendant with a hole in the top for a jump ring. There were no stones or other intricate work, just easy so we could see how the medium worked.

Double Teardrop Silver Enamel Pendant with Large Dichoric Glass Stone by Harriet

 
What inspires you?

I am inspired by my background as an art historian. I love all periods of art. I take inspiration from classical and abstract art. I know this sounds like opposite ends of the spectrum, but you would be surprised how much abstraction is in classical art.

What are the major challenges when creating Metal Clay jewelry?

Making rings is my most challenging Metal Clay activity. Because of the shrinkage I am never certain the size I want will be the size I obtain even though I use inserts and follow instructions. Sometimes I create the ring flat and fire it in the kiln or with a torch and then mold it to the size I want. This process works very well with band rings.

PMC Silver Dichroic Glass Cabochon Pendant by Harriet

 What do you enjoy most about working in Metal Clay?

I enjoy the manipulation of the clay. The freedom it gives me to make changes, additions and corrections. I can actually explore the design while creating it, along with changing and reinventing as I go along.

What is the biggest mistake you ever made? What did you learn from it?

I have made this mistake several times before realizing what I was doing wrong. I was setting dichroic glass into my Metal Clay pendants, firing them at the correct lower temperature and ending up with a very nice pendant. But when I used a flexshaft on the silver to polish it I cracked the glass. The first time I thought the glass cracked in the kiln, but the second time I was very careful to check the glass and only noticed the crack after using the shaft. I learned not to use a flexshaft anywhere near dichroic glass jewelry. The vibrations can cause the glass to crack.

Harriet is giving away a Scalloped PMC Pendant with an intricate pattern adorned with a 3mm CZ in the middle. The pendant is generous in size of 1 1/4 inches in diameter! Talk about bold!

To enter our blog giveaway please follow these rules:

Every person is eligible to enter the blog giveaway with up to FOUR (4) entries. How can you get an entry? You can do any of the following and then let us know that by leaving a comment under this feature so we can keep track.

1. Follow our blog = 1 entry
2. Check out featured artist and post favorite piece on the blog = 1 entry
3. Heart featured artist’s shop = 1 entry
4. Follow featured artist on Facebook = 1 entry
5. Make a purchase = 2 entries
6. Refer a friend = 1 entry
7. Tweet about the giveaway using key word metalclayheads = 1 entry
8. Share the Metal Clay Heads blog giveaway link on FB (Go to http://www.facebook.com/MetalClayHeadTeam and click Share) = 1 entry
9. If you voted and commented on our last challenge = 1 entry

The giveaway will run for two weeks. We will announce the winner on October 2nd. Good luck!