Learning The Ropes

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Instructions

I am a beginner, but will do my best to describe how I made this piece. I created a mold of a shell using mega mold by first encasing the textured part of the shell in mold then encasing the inside part of the shell in the mold and creating a small stem.I placed a spot of PMC in the finished mold and press it in. Once the PMC was dry enough to manipulate, I removed it from the mold, touched up cracked areas with a bit of slip and stuck it in a toaster oven to get it to completely dry. Then I fired it in my kiln at 1650 for 2 hours. I cleaned the piece, applied a patina, and polished it in a tumbler with some steel shot for 20 minutes.Next, I made a Chain using 16 gauge wire by wrapping the wire around a size 10 (6mm) knitting needle and snipping wire to make jump rings. I flattened them and gave a bit of texture using a chasing hammer and steel block. I applied a patina and polished each jump ring. Then I used a pair of chain nose pliers to create a chain by connecting the jump rings to each other. The lower half of the necklace is my attempt at chain mail, made by attaching two chains to each other by applying a jump ring every other link. Last I used a small stainless steel jump ring (gauge and material unknown) to attach the shell to the chain. Finally I added a small clasp to the chain. I am a beginner, but will do my best to describe how I made this piece. I created a mold of a shell using mega mold by first encasing the textured part of the shell in mold then encasing the inside part of the shell in the mold and creating a small stem.I placed a spot of PMC in the finished mold and press it in. Once the PMC was dry enough to manipulate, I removed it from the mold, touched up ...
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Difficulty:

Category: Jewelry

Type of item: Accessory

For: Women

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Materials

For the Shell: 1 Sea Shell PMC Plus Mega Mold Sanding/Filing Tools Kiln For the Chain: 4 Feet of 16 Gauge Fine Silver Dead Soft Wire Flush Cutters Size 10 (6 mm) knitting needles Chasing hammer Steel Bench Block Pliers Clasp Jump ring small enough to fit in shell hole. For Finishing: Patina Gel Rock Tumbler Steel Shot Dawn Polishing Pads

What was your inspiration?

This is a happy accident. The beach and my attempt to gather the skills I want to create another piece. The shell was so beautiful, I wanted to make something out of it and had some extra clay leftover from my PMC ring class so I decided to make a shell. The chain came out this way because I was trying to make chain mail and I ran out of wire. The chain is also my first attempt at making my own jump rings.

What are you most proud of?

I'm really excited about how the whole piece turned out. The entire thing was a learning experience for me.

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

Begin at your own risk? I'm a complete beginner so describing how I completed my work is difficult for me. You should have familiarity/know how for working with PMC + before beginning this project as I did not explain the entire process for filing and handling the clay.

The shell I used was so complete that it had a natural whole in it; so when I pressed the clay into the mold - the whole was also transferred into the clay. I have since started using a hand drill to drill a hole in the dry clay large enough to allow me to insert a jump ring into.