Splash of Color Challenge - Gold and Polymer Entries

Jane Font of Daisy Jane Designs sent me this lovely Floral Pendant. Jane uses gemstones in most of her pieces so to challenge herself she added gold paste to accent her handmade flowers. The vines, leaves, and flowers were all done using a syringe. Once it was fired Jane applied the gold paste in two coats. Jane then fired the gold with a butane torch and then polished, applied a patina and polished again.

Jane's Gold Floral Pendant

Teresa Swanson of T's Studio Jewelry sent me her Banana Leaf Fine Silver ladybug ring. This fine silver leaf ring is adorned with a polymer clay ladybug. Teresa handcrafted the ring's leaf-like texture and shape.

Teresa's Ladybug Ring

Ruth Baillie of Bird Land Creations she sent me her "You Raise Me Up Pendant". This piece was Ruth's first attempt of incorporating liquid polymer into her silver jewelry. She found that liquid polymer peeled of the silver after it was cooked but when she added a thin layer of colorless resin the liquid polymer stuck to her silver balloon permanently. She felt that the liquid polymer gave her balloon a rubbery appearance she was trying to achieve. The idea of the necklace is that the wearer can remember those people in her life who have "raised her up".

Ruth's You Raise Me Up Pendant

So I, Christine Childress of Clever Endeavor, finally finished my first enamel piece last night. I achieved the simple star shapes by using photo polymer plates. I then added two layers of Prussian blue enamel using my ultra light kiln. I am pleased with my result for my first try.

Christine's Blue Enamel Star Pendant

Beverly Gallerani of Mango Tango Designs sent me her Bronzclay Seashell Arched Window Necklace and Earrings set. The bronzclay pieces were fired in the activated carbon and were held under a torched to bring out the very rich patina colors.

Beverly's Bronzclay Seashell Arched Window Earrings and Pendant

Penelope Dunham of Penelopes Passion sent me her 24K Gold Leaf Square Pendant. Penelope used the ancient Korean technique of Keum-boo, to bond the 24 Karat gold foil to the fine silver jewelry surface.

Penelope's 24K Gold Leaf Pendant

Splash of Color Challenge - Resin and Enamel Entries

This is the second set of entries for our Color Splash EMC Team Challenge. As you read on last Friday's blog, the Etsy MetalClay Team agreed to a friendly Team Challenge. The Challenge called Color Splash, encouraged the group to create piece of silver jewelry that incorporated color using gemstones, glass, resin, enamel, polymer, etc. I am very excited to see what everyone came up with. Last Friday we showcased all of the entries that utilized gemstones and glass. Today all of the items presented below incorporated color into their design by adding resin or enamel.

Teresa Boland of Teresa Boland Designs send me this wonderful resin piece called Blooming Catmint Pendant with resin. Teresa was able in capture a natural blooming catmint bud from her garden and seal it with resin inside this lovely silver pendant.

Teresa's Blooming Catmint Pendant

Beverly of Mango Tango Designs sent me this lovely enamel piece. The pendant features Bev's silver seashells with a transparent green enameled background.

Bev's Seashell and Green Enamel Pendant

Lora Hart of Lora Hart Jewels sent me this green enamel pendant. The pendant features a silver stamped pattern with a green enamel background, Lora finishes this necklace with a silk ribbon and a vintage button as a clasp.

Lora's Green Enamel Pendant

Janice Doner of Destinys Creations sent me this lovely Fire Fly pendant.This pendant features green and black enamel over silver that has been stamped with a organic texture design of a firefly and flowers.

Jaince's Fire Fly Pendant

Nicola Callow of Murano Silver sent me this colorful resin piece called "Thoth." Thoth is the Egyptian God associated with writing and learning and was Nicola's inspiration for creating this elaborate line drawing. From her lining drawings, Nicola was able to create a photo polymer plate. The color resins and dichroic cabochon make Thoth a big, bold, colorful pendant. Check out Nicola blog where she talks about creating this piece in detail. www.muranosilver.blogspot.com

Nicola's Thoth Pendant

Lori Magno of Moda di Magno sent me these cute silver heart. The silver heart has a small circle cutout that is filled with red Ferido epoxy resin.
Lori's Silver Heart Pendant

Linda Gielen of Clayology sent me her Green Leaves Medallion that features light green resin with her silver leaves design. Linda added easycast resin with green pearl ex powered pigments to the large recessed areas of the piece to make this medallion.

Linda Green Leaves Medallion

Cherylyn Bredemann of C-Lyn Studio sent me her Terra Cotta Dream Pool Pendant. This pendant is composed of several different materials. Cherylyn PMC pendant contains handmade mixed-media papers enveloped in resin and a blue paua shell.

Cherylyn Terra Cotta Dream Pool Pendant

Splash of Color Challenge - Gemstone Entries

With so many talented artists within the Etsy MetalClay Group, I thought it would be fun to incorporate a Monthly Challenge. Nothing too competitive mind you, more of a opportunity to learn new techniques and trying something new. The Challenge for this month was called "Splash of Color" All jewelry pieces had to incorporate color into the pieces via gemstones, enamel, resin, polymer. I had a huge response from the team (16 entries) so I will present our different Splash of Color Entries by category. This first set of entries utilized glass and gemstones to bring a pop of color to their silver pieces.

Lisel Crowley of Heart of the Fire sent me this dichroic glass butterfly with textured silver wings. I wonder if this beautiful butterfly is traveling with Lisel to the Philly Show this weekend?

Lisel's Dichroic Butterfly Pendant

Penelope Dunham of Penelopes Passion sent me her Silk Fire Pendant. This pendant also incorporates the use of dichroic glass and silver. I love how the glass seems to be bursting from the silver.

Penelope's Silk Fire Pendant

Alina of Silver Garden submitted her Artist Palette Pendant. This cute pendant is formed from Fine Silver with three cubic zirconia stones, a peridot and a lab grown blue spinel. The palette has leaf textured surface and is suspended off an 18" sterling silver snake chain.

Alina's Artist Palette Pendant

Oshrat Ben-Isaac of Terra Firma Studios sent me her Party of Five Pendant. This gemstone pendant contains five diffrent colored cubic zirconia.

Oshrat Party of Five Pendant

Catherine Witherell of Happy Day Art submitted her Amethyst Drop Flower Pendant. The PMC Flower pendant is decorated with three amethyst drops and fused fine silver connection rings.

Catherine's Amethyst Drop Flower Pendant

Karen West of Eggtooth Originals submitted her Night Forest Pendant. Karen's Pendant features a moonstone against her organic silver design.

Karen's Night Forest Pendant

You're Going Where to do What with Whom?

Hey it's me - Lori Magno, cross-posting from my personal blog. On Friday I will head to Philadelphia for the Buyers Market of American Craft wholesale show. This is a first for me and I am so fortunate to go on this adventure with four of the most talented, funniest, kindest and amazing artists from the Etsy Metal Clay Team. The EMC Team is a juried group of artists that host their shops on Etsy and when I look at their incredible work I kind of gasp and wonder aloud who accidentally clicked "accept" when my work was in front of the group. Nevertheless, the team was invited to apply for the Buyers Market and given a most favorable rate on a booth. (Buyers, come see us in booth #827!) I believe this is what author/adventurer Tilar Mazzeo was referring to when she gave my my new favorite phrase "The serendipity of brazenness." This event and weekend and entire hoopty do is my definition of that phrase.

I'll be traveling with, in alphabetical order, Dina Alexander (2008 Saul Bell Award winner Dina Alexander!) Lis-el Crowley - you should totally visit the Art & Soul Gallery in Windsor, Connecticut and take a class. Janice Doner of Destiny's Creations - a girl after my own heart with a blog and a day job and a passion for silver. The fifth member of our group is Christine Street of Chocolate and Steel (another blogging girl!)

We are totally off on a craft camp-pick up the tequila-where are my garterbelts-kind of long weekend as we show our wares to top jewelry and gift store buyers as well as gallery owners. Who knows what will happen (don't 'tase me bro!) this weekend - but one thing I know is that it will be fabulous to spend a weekend with artists that I admire so much.

Here are a few new designs I'm bringing with me to Philly - appearing in my Etsy shop soon!

The Om Heart Pendant

The India Dot Ring
Two Paisley Pendants
The India Earrings (freshly made - but on the site for a few weeks now!)
The Good Twin/Evil Twin two-sided pendant. You know who you are EVIL TWINS!
From my brand new Woof-Purr-Tweet collection; hand-carved designs made this week!

Welcome New Member to the Etsy MetalClay Team

Milica Fine Silver Bucket Pendant

Please give a warm welcome to our newest team member Milica Bubanja. Check out Milica shop Milica Bubanja Jewelry. Milica is living in Slovenia, with her husband and two children. She writes about her creative process in her native tough on her blog www.milicab.blogspot.com. I am so excited that our team is expanding internationally! Milica speaks four different languages Slovenian, Spanish, Italian and English.

I love Milica jewelry it is elegant and adorable at the same time. The Apple Ring below is my favorite from her shop.

Milica Apple Ring

In other news the Etsy MetalClay team has been super busy this Summer. I will have to write a huge post this weekend to summarize what everyone had been up to! But Jennifer Smith of Wearable By Design, Harley Chic Necklace has made it into the Etsy "Which Bike Item is on a roll Contest" Please check out the Etsy Contest here and vote for Jennifer. She is in the lead right now but the polls will close in about four days.

Also Teresa Swanson of Tztudio has also entered into the Etsy "A Handmade Moment Video Contest" Teresa Incorporated several of the Etsy MetalClay Team items into her video entry. Thanks Teresa. Please check out and vote for Teresa video here.