Tinkie A.D.

A bridge between the hands and the heart…

Trinket’s passing in August has inspired me to embark on the most fabulous of adventures into Metal Clay crafting!

I have designed a sweet little pendant urn that contains the ashes of my sweet girl. The process begins with a substance called Cork Clay in which I form into the shape of the bunny, putting a small amount of cremated ashes into the belly area of the form. Silver Clay is them applied in layers until the desired thickness is achieved and then it is fired in a kiln for two hours. The binders in the silver clay then burns off leaving .999 percent silver (Fine Silver) and the cork clay is burned off leaving only a small amount of ash along with the cremation ash in the hollow bunny.The resulting piece of jewelry is then durable and beautiful. This design does not have any kind of opening so there is never worry of the ashes spilling out and becoming lost. They are a permanent part of the jewelry.

This is the pendant I made for myself with Trinket’s Ashes. I wear it on a long silver chain so that it hangs at my heart

Memorial Bunny Urn Pendant

Fine Silver Memorial Pet Urn Pendant

This Metal Clay stuff may seem easy at first glance, but I’ve come to learn it’s not. So many places to go wrong, but there is always a chance to improve on whatever results I end up with

Well I have to admit, I have been a very bad blogger. So sorry for not having posted here in so many months. Since Trinket passed away in August I have been a bit emotinally messy at times, but now that Christmas is over and her bithday which was New Years, I feel ready to muscle down and get some stuff done.

So the latest is my adventure into Metal Clay. When Trinket died I really felt compelled to have her close even if it was just her ashes. Years ago when I first learned about Metal Clay I wanted to make a wearable urn to put the ashes of two of my bunnies, Minnie and B in. Well life usually gets in the way of such plans and it never came to be. Finally over the holidays I took the plung and bought a small manual glass kiln and invested in a wack of starter tools and a couple hundred dollars worth of clay to get me started. A wonderful friend from Bunspace donated her left over clay supplies and some wonderful gems for me to experiement with. This was great because initially I thought I would just work with the Art Clay 650 slow dry but I found that PMC standard is fabulous because of its large amount of shrinkage. So now I’ve come to realize its best to have a variety of clay types to work with depending on the project.

So my first project was a pair of earrings made from the left of supplies my friend gave me. First I had to reconsistitute the dried up clay by chopping it very fine with a tissue blade and then I mixed water and “Paste Maker” (in my reading I understand Lavender Oil will do the same thing) to the dried shavings. I then mashed it up with a pallet knife until it formed into a clay. Not ever even having felt what the clay should feel like, I just kept adding moisture until it felt easy to form and maintain its moisture.

When it came time to deal with the issue of a bezel to hold a beautiful topaz I wanted to use, I realized it wouldn’t be safe to fire the gem in place, but had to add a fine silver bezel. My first attempt was pushing the bezel into the clay and then fire. Well I’ll never bother doing this again. When the clay shrunk it created a huge gouge along the inside of the bezel and huge lump in the centre that held up the stone so I couldn’t set it. So hubby and I had the brainiac idea to use a dremel to drill out the centre. What ended up happening was that the dremel kicked out and took big gouge out my bezel. It was a blessing!! I ripped out the bezel and used a file to smooth out all the mess and I used some slip to attack a new bezel to the already fired base. No shrinkage and it resulted in a nice neat seam. I will always do it this way from now one. Live and learn. So here is my very first attempt at working with Metal Clay

They may not be perfect. I think my finishing needs work, but I am pleased with this first attempt. Metal Clay crafting is not fast but I thrilled with the possibilities.

These Topaz earring were made wth PMC standard Metal Clay