Touching Art

PMC Intensive

May 2-4 I was in Scarborough, Maine, taking a certification course in Precious Metal Clay, hosted at Warg Enamel and Tool. It was a three day intensive covering a range of techniques, tools, projects, and finishes, as well bucket loads of peripheral lore and advice from the other students and teacher, Tim McCreight. Tim is a consultant with Mitsubishi, who invented PMC, and he was behind the development of the PMC certificate program sponsored by Rio Grande Suppliers. I feel very fortunate that he lives in Maine and it was so easy for me to attend this course in my own neighborhood, practically. Appreciation to Pauline Warg and her husband Gary, who hosted the class. I loved the intense process of making and learning over the workshop time.

That wasn't enough for me however. I did not complete two of the pieces for my certification, so as I finished them the following week, I had a brainstorm. Why not redo the whole workshop at home, to make sure I learned it! Yes, a brilliant idea, to be sure. I wore myself out, trying to get all the work done in another three or four days, keeping to a self-imposed deadline.

Here is some of what I learned: how to repair a hole I poked in a bead while carving; how to mend a slip joint that keeps breaking; how to redo a design a dozen times till I like it; how to take an ugly disaster  of a project that I really screwed up and make it into something else completely different and rather interesting; how to patina with liver of sulpher, and unpatina with a torch; how to let go, because one project was just awful and I have no idea what went wrong!

The photographs at the right show a two sided lentil shaped bead about one inch in diameter. The bead has an earth landscape on one side and a galaxy on the other. The top pictures are the finished unfired bead. The middle pictures the the bead after firing and with a quick polish with the brass brush. The bottom two pictures show the hand polished and patinaed bead. By the way, this is the bead I poked a hole through.

My big challenge will be rings. I have a lot of trouble with rings! Now I want to keep making rings till I get it right.
Do I sound like I am having fun? I am ecstatically engaged in a creative learning process that is thrilling me to righteous joy! Can't wait to show you what I am making now, if it  turns out ok. I am trying something new, and what I learned last week is that anything can happen.

Silver Mermaids

Remember the dull beige PMC pendants I showed you a couple of days ago? Yes, these pieces:

I promised that in a couple of days, you'd see them fired and polished.

Through the fire, and massaged by brush and burnisher, they transform into beautiful Silver Mermaids and Lovers. 99.9% Silver, also called Fine Silver, which does not tarnish, and neither moth nor dust can corrupt.

Now I am going to bed. I spent three nights up till 3 am making porcelain and PMC buttons and pendants. The firing was very successful, and I am exhausted. This weekend we do the Long Dance, then I start over for three more intense days of creating before a road trip to visit family down South. Zoned in the Zone! I love it.

Tart Queen and Silver Clay

It is already tomorrow, and too late for a long story and the cast of characters.
Here's what I made  Sunday:

Pear Tart, with organic pears from Hope Orchard.

And here is what I made Monday:

Precious Metal Clay Pendants. Right now they are in progress, and are a pasty sticky goop. In a couple days, I'll show you what they look like finished. You'll be amazed!

Goodnight!

Porcelain and Silver

On my birthday one month ago, I made my first work with Precious Metal Clay. I used PMC3. Most of those first pieces were, well, rough-- except for one, which is so beautiful and compelling it stops traffic. My most shocking discovery was that even though PMC is plastic and carvable, it does not handle like porcelain at all. Even in its clay form, it is metal, and the energy and how I respond to it is very different. My next experiment was combining porcelain and precious metal clay. The technical and aesthetic challenges are exhilarating, and I will be busy with this marriage of material for some time. I am literally making this up as I go along, so if anyone reading has some experience and would like to share, please email me! If you'd like to read more about my process, I'll be happy to post about it. For now, enjoy the pictures.