Through a Lens

Hama Bead WCC

Jo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:36:21 +0000

Just found my old midi Hama beads and had a play at making a 2D Weighted Companion Cube.I made a dumb mistake at the bottom, but it’s recognisable. Ah, I’ve missed these things.

Mushroom Biscuits

Jo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:14:17 +0000

I ordered a mushroom mould for making little cupcake toppers out of icing or chocolate, but decided to give biscuits a go. I didn’t get a photo of them after baking, but they were cute!

Baked Doughnuts

Jo — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:55:50 +0000

I found a mini doughnut pan in the cupboard and decided to make some baked doughnuts. They were slightly more cakey than fried doughnuts and they were definitely at their best on the day I baked them. Still tasty though. One thing I learned from this is that it’s much easier to fill the doughnut pan with batter using an icing bag.

Book Box

Jo — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:54:06 +0000

A Papier-mâché stash book box I made for my Mum. Got the shell from HobbyCraft and painted it with PVA and then acrylics. Lined with black felt and gold embellishments. Fits in nicely on the bookshelf.

Test Bunny

Jo — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:09:58 +0000

Testing adding photo posts. This was a wild bunny who got trapped in our garden and lived there for a few months. No idea if he escaped back into the field or was eaten but one day he was gone and there was no sign of him being munched on.

A Fresh Start

Jo — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:39:00 +0000

I’ve been meaning to update this site for some time but the old host became a bit slow, I’ve taken a new approach this time.

The majority of my photographs will be on my Flickr account, but I will start linking them here.

I still only have the old 300D though and no money for decent glass…

PMC Pendant for Kev

Jo — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:16:34 +0000

For my second go with PMC I decided to make my friend a pendant for his birthday. He loves the military, all things Japanese and one of his catch-phrases is “maaaaaaaaybe” (usually said with a slightly maniacal grin). I rolled the clay nice and thin and cut into a sort of dog-tag shape. Once it had dried slightly I tried to carve in the word ‘maybe’ in Kanji. It didn’t go quite right, but the idea is still there!

First Adventures in PMC

Jo — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:12:06 +0000

I recently saw some Precious Metal Clay (PMC) on a website and thought it looked like fun, so I got myself some! PMC (and also Art Clay Silver) is a really nifty way to make use of the scrap silver dust leftover from making electronics, film stock, etc. The silver particles are mixed with an organic clay which means you can mould it like you would any other type of clay such as Fimo. Once it’s been moulded into a shape it needs to be dried out and then fired. Firing burns away the organic compound and leaves you with a pure silver piece. Because the clay is burned away the piece shrinks slightly, how much depends on the type of clay used.

For my first project I used a little rubber pendant mould. Took a small piece of PMC3 from the packet after coating the mould and the plastic rolling pin with a little Badger Balm, squidged it about for a bit and then pushed it into the mould and rolled it in flat. I left it to dry overnight and then filed any rough edges down. I fired it for a few minutes on a heatproof slab with my kitchen blow-torch. You want to get the temperature right, which is when it’s glowing peachy/salmony orange and keep it at that heat for about 5 minutes (depending on size – but you can’t fire for too long, so a bit longer than the times on the packet should be fine). Once it’s fired you can leave to cool or quench it in cold water.

The piece will now appear white and not silver, but this for me is the really fun part. Take a wire brush and scrub it and the silver will start to show. Once you’ve scrubbed the whole piece you can start going over it with polishing papers (think super, super-fine glass/sandpaper). Agate burnishers are great for getting an amazing shine, but I don’t have one… yet! Here’s an image showing the difference between the dried clay piece and after firing and polishing.

Now you may see that it has burst slightly after firing. Even though I left it for 24hrs to dry there must have been some moisture left inside that caused it to pop a little. I learned from this and all future pieces will be dried out on the AGA.

I liked my new shiny pendant a lot, but you couldn’t see the pattern from the mould very well when it was so shiny. I decided to tarnish it. I dropped a little Liver of Sulphur into warm water and plonked the silver into until it turned really dark, almost black. Beware, Liver of Sulphur stinks. I cannot emphasise this enough. It’s revolting. Do this outside or with windows open and use gloves because if you get it on your skin you’ll smell of rotten eggs for days. I only wanted it tarnished in the recesses so polished up all the highlights again. This made the pattern show up a lot more.