Welcome Back Handthrown Pottery from PrairieCoastArt

In addition to my metal clay jewelry, I've brought back some great new pottery pieces just hot (LOL) out of the kiln!!  The stores are separated out on Etsy for the moment, here are links to the pottery:

Farmer's Market Eggs - Beautiful!!

Never before have I seen such beautiful eggs. From the local Farmer's Market!

Spring Blossoms and the Beginning of Lots of Fruit

New - Bezel Set Stones in Fine Silver Metal Clay

Brand new silver earrings with natural stones set in a fine silver bezel! Click off to the store to see more... Prairie Coast Art Etsy Shop

Guest Vendor at Stone Bluff Cellars Oklahoma Winery

Good Christmas Shopping here the Saturday after Black Friday! I will be Guest Vendor at their winery shop:

Earthquake!! in Oklahoma 5.6

OK, so it was not like the old 1974 movie, but it was strange. The surprise to me was the loud roar/rumble sound, then the house started shaking. Nothing fell off the shelves or walls, but we could feel the house moving. Please, please, don't tell me we will have to add this to the extreme heat, ice storms, and tornadoes, too?

New Copper Earrings Handcrafted from Copper Metal Clay

I love the look of copper. Well, I love silver and bronze, too! It's all good! When I was finishing these earrings, I was placing them on a mug and it really looked spectacular -- all of the bling together takes on a real Gypsy look. So fun. Still addicted to making earrings!

You can see what's new by clicking here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PrairieCoastArt?section_id=10581102

Planet Earth... no, Planet Mercury

Copper and Bronze Metal Clay Kiln Firing

Copper and Bronze clay require an oxygen free environment when firing in a kiln, so they need to be buried in carbon. A lot of instructors and websites sell stainless steel pans for this use. I've found that using a wine bottle glass mold and some kiln shelve pieces instead of the stainless steel works great!
I much prefer the molds to the stainless steel pan!
The Stainless Steel pan makes such a mess, I decided to try the wine bottle mold I had and kiln shelve pieces. The photo above was before covering with the carbon on top.
What a mess...this is what happens to steel at 1500 degrees! It flaked all over the kiln.
First firing was too hot and the pieces were a weird combination of burnt and were not sintering at all points. I had to fire three times lowering the temperature to get the adjustment right.
Crispy critters:

Even though it took some tests and trials, metal clay is such a great material to work with. It requires just a few tools and a kiln. Silver clay can be fired without a kiln by torch flame. So far I've worked with fast-fire bronze, copper and silver (PMC).
Here are some pieces that are dried, prepped and ready to be fired.
You can see successful :-) finished pieces in my Etsy shop by clicking here.

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow, SNOWWW

Record breaking snow this week and more to come:

Mother Nature may have a follow-up punch in store for Green Country – though a much lighter one than this week's record-breaking blizzard. News Link

My Studio and Metal Clay adventures

Here is a photo of the desk and storage space in my studio (taken about a month ago). The pottery wheel is also in this same room as well as storage shelves. It may never look as neat and tidy ever again! This morning it is full of everything scattered everywhere (no photos allowed)! Also a photo of my new adventure in metal clays. In this photo above are the bronze clay pieces that I have molded and cut prior to firing in the kiln -- the final stage is sanding and drilling holes in the clay before it becomes solid brass and too hard to manipulate. I hope to blog more about the metal clay process soon...