It is time to reveal the earrings that I made for the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge.
I enjoy making metal art so I decided to try copper washer earrings. I have lots of copper sheet and a copper punch so I got to work. I stamped words on the rings, patinaed them with Liver of Sulfur and added ear wires and charms. As you might expect, the earrings have a cat theme. I wanted to get inside the cat's mind and see what he or she was thinking.
Unfortunately, I was sick all last week with the winter bug. I got my flu shot so it wasn't as bad as it could have been but I didn't get into the studio. Actually, I did go in, only to sit and look at things and then go back to bed.
So I thought I would post a photo of some earrings that I made in Cindy Pankopf's Art Clay Teachers Certification Class about six months ago in Southern California.I made these fun earrings around a ball of cork clay. The cork clay is dried on a tooth pick and then covered with squiggles of fine silver clay from a syringe. When the fine silver is dry it is fired and the cork burns out. Then the beads were tumbled. The last step is to add a silver head pin and ear wires. I have had so many compliments on these earrings and I am very proud of them.
I first met Cindy in a class she taught at the Bead and Button Show last June in Milwaukee. I immediately fell in love with her teaching style and her innovative thinking. When she told me she taught Art Clay Certification classes at her store, Cindy Pankopf's Creative Place, in Fullerton, California, my mind started calculating how to get there.
If you can't travel to Southern California, Cindy has written a wonderful book, Making Metal Clay Jewelry. It is a fantastic book which I purchased even before taking her class in Milwaukee. I highly recommend it to any metal clay artist, not just beginners. I use it for a go-to book when I want to refresh myself on techniques.
She also teaches a class at Craftsy.com called Kiln-fired Silver Metal Clay which is very detailed. Check her out, you will be glad you did.
I will leave you now with another cat photo that I got from the internet. Unfortunately no photo credit was available.
Happy Day,
Julie Panusis
