35/52 - Bird a week - Peek a boo!

Look who I saw peaking out of her little hole in one of the olive trees today:

A sweet little bronze birdie called "peek-a-boo", coming out to say hello. 

As I've been working in steel clay for the last couple of weeks, I thought I should re-try bronze again.  The steel clay requires firing in charcoal - as does the bronze and copper clays.  I've had good success with the steel clay firings so figured I'd use the same set up for the bronze.  I made two little pieces - one will have to wait until next week!  They both fired well and easily. I was using fastfire bronzclay. The bronze was lovely to carve into - soft and sand-like. The firing was only 2 hours from start to finish.

I think she has taken up permanent residence in that tree and I'm going to leave her there and see if anyone else ever finds her!  Remember, if you ever come and visit - don't forget to look for peek-a-boo!

Gosh - week 35 of the year already and September starts tomorrow.  That means only 17 more birds to make this year for our year long challenge!

Check out the links below to see what others have been making for their weekly bird:

Bronze Cuff Bracelet

BY GUEST BLOGGER ANGIE from studio 28

I recently completed a cuff bracelet in FASTfire BRONZclay. I've wanted to do a cuff in bronze for about a year now after having unsuccessfully attempted one in traditional BRONZclay. Really what better time than the present? As I looked over and saw Marly diligently working away creating some beautiful pieces with Hadar's Quick-fire Bronze and Copper clay for our upcoming shows, I was inspired to use some FASTfire BRONZclay to finally realize my goal of making a bronze cuff. Working with the Fast Fire bronze was extremely satisfying...no warping, crinkling or cracking as it was drying! Such a different experience that that of a year ago with the traditional bronze.

The final product turned out looking like this...

HOORAY! I was especially thrilled since my first cuff attempt last year in traditional BRONZclay came out of a double kiln firing looking...like this...yes, VERY sad!

After its first full firing I patched some of the cracks which appeared, refired it and voilà-it cracked right down the centre! Frustrated to no end, I packed away the two halves and decided to try it again...someday!

Well, that day finally came and I am VERY pleased. Working with the FASTfire bronze was a truly joyful experience! It rolled, took texture, formed and dried beautifully. I carefully nested it in its bed of carbon, said a prayer, did a dance to the kiln gods, and waited...somewhat patiently! I did hold my breath as I took it out of the carbon after firing and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when I unburied it. Phew!

So, hats off to FASTfire BRONZclay...I am a groupie! Now, back to finishing off pieces for our shows..speaking of shows, I think I'll be wearing this bronze cuff to them!

What's our story?

Here's a chance for you to name and decide the story of these two little birdies.  What is their relationship? Have they just met or are they related?  What do they call each other?  What are they talking about here?

What do you think....any captions for the photos??? 

I have my own idea but I'd love to hear your version of their story.

Mondays with Marly - Birdland Creations and Studio 28 "International Conference"

BY GUEST BLOGGER MARLY

We had our own kind of metal clay conference here in Waterloo. Very small, just Ruth, Angie and I. It was such a treat to spend time together at a relaxed pace, share ideas and dreams, play with clay in the studio, meander up to Lake Huron and the cottage, and enjoy meals (and cocktails) together! Wonderful! We are so lucky to have such a great friend and mentor in Ruth. She always inspires us to keep growing in our life and business pursuits and her company is an absolute joy!

We decided to spend a day testing various kinds of bronze clay in the studio. Ruth brought some Prometheus bronze and some new Fast Fire Bronzclay from Metal Clay Adventures, and I mixed up some of Hadar's bronze and clay powders and off we went.

Angie and Ruth testing various Bronze Clays

Ruth has already published the results of our findings on a previous blog. Long story short, we all loved working with the new Fastfire Bronzclay. It almost felt, dare I say, similar to working with silver metal clay! Here are some beads I made with this clay. Notice the soft bronze colour and the detail of the texture. Also, the shrinkage was a lot less than the other two clays. Both Angie and I are excited to try more of this clay!

Beads Made with FastFire BronzClay

I have worked almost exclusively with Hadar's clays as I enjoy mixing the powders and making only what I need at the time. The one advantage to working with Hadar's clays is that it is easy to combine copper and bronze together. When I tried adding Hadar's copper clay to the other bronze clays, they did not sinter and broke apart. The beads below are made with Hadar's copper and bronze clay. They both sintered well together. I'll have to experiment more to see I can combine copper with the other clays.

Beads Made with Hadar's Copper and Bronze Powders

It was fun to try out and experiment with various bronze clays...next, its time to experiment with Hadar's White Bronze Clay....we'll keep you posted!

And exciting news!!! One of last week's highlights was to find out that Metal Clay Magic had featured Angie's Dream Box pendant after seeing it here on Ruth's blog! What a thrill! Way to go, Angie! It's always exciting to be recognized by others in the metal clay community. Thanks, Wendy!

Part 3 - Which bronze clay to use - Prometheus, Hadar's or FastFire Bronzclay?

Finishing up from Tuesday and Wednesday's posts about comparing the three types of bronze clay - Prometheus Bronze, Hadar's Bronze and FastFire Bronzclay.......

Each of the bronze clays had their own individual firing schedules.  We didn't want to do three - actually 4 separate firings (as Hadar's has two firings) so decided to fire Hadar's pieces on their own according to her schedule and then fire the Prometheus and FastFire Bronzclay together.

Hadar's clay was fired according to her instructions which includes phase I for half an hour  in carbon and then cool followed by phase II for 3 hours in carbon.   All Hadar's pieces fired and sintered fine on this schedule.

For the other two clays, we followed the FastFire Bronzeclay schedule where you fire in carbon for 2 hours with full ramp but we had read that some people found that they needed to increase the temperature from 1525 to 1550 degrees F - so we went for the higher temperature.  That is higher than the temperature recommended for Prometheus - but we thought it worth a try.  Again - all pieces fired and sintered fine and there was no blistering on the Prometheus despite it firing at a higher temperature.

(As an aside....On my "anyone" piece I tried adding a hat to the FastFire Bronzclay made from Hadar's copper clay, and Marly tried combining Hadar's copper too on some of her beads but the copper didn't sinter on any of the pieces. Obviously combining the two metals and brands needs a little more fiddling with!)

We used our usual techniques for finishing and found quite a few differences between the clays.  I found that with Hadar's, getting a smooth finish was not easy.  On my bird, it seemed that there were "pits" - that couldn't be sanded out. I'm thinking that may have something to do with unevenness in the mixing and the pits are where there was concentrated binder but not metal??? but Marly really shook the powder well to begin with and mixed thoroughly and carefully......Finishing looked fine with the textured pieces but for that plain finish I guess I would have to refill and refire etc to get the finish I like.

From left to right: Fastfire Bronzclay (FF), Hadar's (H) and (unfinished) Prometheus (P)

Prometheus didn't seem to sand to a smooth finish - I just couldn't get it to have that lovely satiny silky feel that I like in my pieces.   I gave up even trying to do my bird in Prometheus I'm afraid.

The Fastfire Bronzclay finished really nicely however.  As you can see from the photos, I got that satiny silky finish on the bird and anyone (without his hat!!!) and it also finished really well on the textured and carved pieces.

There were big differences in shrinkage between the clays too as the photos show.  The beads I didn't make in uniform length but they were all made with three card thickness.  The least shrinkage occurred with FastFire Bronzclay and the most with Prometheus.

FF, H, P.  You can see the difference in how the clays take texture

FF, H, P.  All beads were rolled 3 cards thick. This photo shows the differences in shrinkage.

So the conclusion of all this is that I actually enjoyed working with the FastFire Bronzclay.  It is a totally different clay from the Bronzclay released 2 years ago and they have made some great improvements.  It was easily my favorite amongst the three types in all categories - and both Marly and Angie also chose it as their favorite too. For once, I am excited to try bronze on some larger pieces and see how it goes - but first I'll give it a try on something small in my kiln and keep my fingers crossed it works like Angie and Marly's kiln!!!

But I reiterate - using these clays is a very personal experience  - both in our individual senses  of what feels good and how we use it.  We are lucky to have choices in our clays that can used for different applications.

 Keep watching and I hope to show you some bronze pieces in the not too distant future!

I'd love to hear your experiences with any or all of these clays.  Do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Part 2 - Which bronze clay to use? Prometheus, Hadar's or FastFire Bronzclay?

Following on from yesterday's post about our testing out the three types of bronze clay.....

I began with Hadar's bronze clay and made a round tube textured bead, a square tube plain bead, a little songbird and a wing for carving.  The clay took and kept the texture just fine on the round bead.  When it came to the square bead, there was some cracking in the clay, but after it dried, it was easy enough to fill in the cracks and sand it down - although when filling you do lose some of the texture.  The bird was easy to shape and the wings joined relatively easily.  When it came to carving the wing, it was quite difficult to carve - even after I had moistened the surface a little. I also tried carving the square bead but it wasn't easy.

Hadar's Bronze Clay

Next up was Prometheus and I made the same pieces as above.  The Prometheus clay did not seem to hold it's shape or texture.  The texture on the round bead reduced considerably and the shape of the bird slumped so that the base of the bird was just flat where it sat.  It just couldn't hold it's shape.  Making the square bead, there was a lot of cracking and these didn't seem to fill very easily.  Joining was OK both on the seams and the bird however I found I couldn't make a small bird like I could in the other clays - it just didn't seem easy to manipulate in small scale.  Carving, like Hadar's, was difficult and not enjoyable.

I do want to make a comment here about Prometheus.  I tried Prometheus when it first came on the market and it was a joy to work with. I liked it.  Recently I got two more packets and the clay is totally different in every way from my initial packet. I don't know if they have changed the formula or changes occurred as they ramped up production but these last two packets just don't seem to "work" like the first one.  I emailed the manufacturer/supplier after I had tried this new batch a few weeks ago, expressing my disappointment, but they never responded.

Prometheus Bronze clay

Finally - I managed to wrestle the FastFire Bronzclay from Marly to try that.  Wow!  No wonder she didn't want to let it go.  It is a joy to work with.  It takes and keeps texture well and the seams on the beads joined very easily.  There was no cracking on the square bead and the songbird was just as easy as anything. I embedded some bronze wire into the bird too.  The wing was a delight to carve - like running the carver through butter.  What a difference to the other two.  There was no need to moisten the surface or anything.  Just a dream.  I was so enjoying this, I decided to try it out on an "anyone" figure too and he worked just fine.

Fastfire Bronzclay

 You'll have to wait until tomorrow for me to tell you about firing and finishing the three clays.

Which bronze clay to use? - Prometheus, Hadar's or Fast Fire Bronzclay

While I was with Angie and Marly last week, instead of doing a collaboration project together we decided to do an investigation instead!  Angie and Marly do a lot of work in bronze and copper - using Hadar's powder clays.  While I've tried the variety of bronze clays, I've never found one that suits my needs.  But, as there is a new FastFire Bronzclay on the market, I took a packet of that to Ontario and some Prometheus bronze and they made up a batch of Hadar's bronze clay and the experiment began!

We wrote out a list of characteristics that we could rate each of the products on, including:

• general feel, 
• ability to take and retain texture, 
• cracking, 
• ease of joining, 
• ease of sanding, 
• firing, 
• finishing 

and then began our testing!
I'll share my comments and findings over a couple of blog posts - but please note that it is all personal. What I like doesn't mean that everyone will like it - and most importantly,  the clays that I like best are going to be those that work for sculptural pieces, as that it what I do.  Just because one might not be good for making an "anyone" figure, doesn't mean it won't be excellent for flat textured purposes.

The look and feel of each one was really quite different.  I find Hadar's always feels dry initially but after a couple of rolls, that quickly disappears and it has a nice feel to it. The Bronzclay had a different sort of wet sand feel to it.  The Prometheus didn't feel good - a bit gritty and dry.

From left to right....FastFire Bronzclay, Hadar's, Prometheus

I decided to try the same pieces with each clay so as to be able to compare them directly.  I made a round tube bead, a square tube bead, one of my little songbirds, and a wing to try carving on (and for one of the clays I also tried making an "anyone" figure).

I'll tell you more about the "wet" working stage tomorrow.

Which have you tried and which did you like?