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!