Mom and I worked at the VPA for over seven hours on Saturday.
I think this is the best weekend I have had in a long time.
The time just seemed to fly by as I sawed, filed and enameled.
Mom worked on cutting out and filing pieces so that I could enamel them.
I cut out and filed two leaf pendants and than enameled them.
Mom and I also filed down two leaf bowls.
Mom pounded the bowls into shape, and I enameled them.
I also enameled a bowl that we have had cut, filed, and pounded into shape months ago.
Both mom and I love not making regular bowls. We like to make organic shapes or bowls that resemble a common item and give it a bit of a twist. I think with the red leaf bowl mom is going to wrap sterling silver wire on the twig, and I will make a glass bead to add to the wire. On the red leaf bowl, I used five different colors to give the bowl more depth. I used orient red, sunset orange, marigold yellow, and two different transparent browns.
On the brown leaf bowl I used four different browns and two transparent yellows. I am very happy with how the inside of the bowl came out. On the full leaf pendant I used the same colors as I did for the bowl. On the cut out leaf pendant, I used various shades of purple and pink enamels.
The organic shaped small bowl (ThumBOWLina) I just used clear coats of enamel.
It is fun to use just the clear enamel because you never know what color the object will turn out due to the shading of the copper or the heat of the kiln melting the clear enamel.
While I waited for the pieces to cool down between coats of enamel I worked on sawing out other pieces.
Mom worked on cutting out another bowl in the shape of a flower. She pounded the bowl into shape. She drilled holes into the ends of the petals and in the middle of the bowl. She will incorporate Pyrex drop pendants in the shape of raindrops to hang from the holes in the bowl. In the base, she will use sterling silver head pins in different lengths to stick in the holes. I am really looking forward to find out what colors she wants me to use to enamel this bowl.
Mom and I are going to try to go to the VPA every Saturday and work on bowls and pendants. Hopefully we can get quite a few things made up for the 2009 Fall craft fairs. As you see in the seven hours at the VPA, mom and I only got three bowls done and two pendants. It doesn’t seem like it, but every piece is very time consuming. Depending on the piece, there could only be a few piercings or a lot of detailed piercing to saw out. Then you have to file and sand down the piece until it is smooth and burr free. You have to decide what colors you want to use to enamel the piece. Sometimes there are only two layers of enamel on the piece, but sometimes there can be up to four layers on the piece. And don’t forget, you have to do both sides. You have to let the piece cool down after taking it out of the kiln before you can add another enamel layer. This is why it takes so long to complete a piece is waiting for it to cool down. You definitely have to be patient. Which is why I think mom likes me to do the enameling most of the time.
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