Welcome New Members to the EMC Team

The Etsy Metal Clay Team has welcomed four new members to the team. These new members are Lorena Angulo of Pueblo Folk Art, Carrie Benvenuti of Uranium Cafe, Mieko Takahashi of Shizen Designs and Lucia Gulino of Gulino Art Jewelry.

I first spotted Lorena's work through Flickr and have been a big fan ever since. Lorena's highly detailed, hand crafted pieces reflect her Mexican heritage. Her folk art jewelry style is inspired by the traditional jewelry wore by the native Indians in South Mexico, Chiapas and Oaxacaamerican. One of my favorites is the pendant listed below called Arbol De Vida

Lorena's "Arbol de Vida" Pendant

Carrie of Uranium Cafe considers New Mexico her home. She find the diverse culture and history of the southwest to be the driving inspirational force behind her jewelry. Carrie enjoys creating items composed of silver, leather, polymer clay and mixed metals. She has a website http://www.uraniumcafe.com/ that has virtual tours of the famous Route 66 and toys and collectibles from the 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's.

Carrie's Sun God Pendant

Mieko Takahashi of Shizen Designs was born in Tokyo, Japan and came to the United States in 1992 to study accounting at a Boston College. The name of her store Shizen is really a Japanese word meaning nature. Mieko launched Shizen Designs in 2006 and has been working on her jewelry as a full time endeavor since then. I love Mieko nature inspired/ minimalist designs. My favorite are her Lotus Flower Earrings listed below.

Mieko's Lotus Flower Earrings

Lucia Gulino of Gulino Art Jewelry was originally a photographer and a ceramic artist before she was introduced to metal clay. Lucia is interested in all arts that use chemical changes, particularly fire. Lucia loves the fact that metal clay has a tactile quality that was similar to her ceramic clay but she was able to form metal objects from her new medium metal clay. Below is Lucia's Alligator Skin Necklace.

Lucia's Alligator Skin Necklace

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