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Needle Ice and Good Friends

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Pam and Linda photo by Ken Barr It was a cold sunny Prescott day and good friends were in town.  A day to share stories and memories and to explore new places.  We decided to explore the trail in the Granite Dells across from the Phippen Museum here in Prescott. It was an easy trail and with 3 Nikon cameras and a cell phone we knew there would be lots of picture taking! A piece of the plane at the crash site Each of us noticed the same and different aspects on the walk.   We looked at the site of the U.S. Constellation crash that  occurred  several years ago  while we took a few pictures.   We took the left fork for a short distance before deciding we should have taken the path on the right.   There were a lot more giant patterned boulders along the other path!     Before we turned back we found patches of ice.   And we found needle ice formations.   Of course, we did not know they were called ‘Needle Ice’ until we got home and researched.   What an amazing find.   We a

How a Series of Seed Pods Came to BE

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                When I took the original picture of the white seed pod, I had no idea it would be the beginning of a series.  First there was the challenge of making a translucent polymer seed pod, then came the seed pod jewelry.  Now the seed pod made of sterling silver metal clay.   I think this is the last of the series.  It was fun to take the idea from photo to translucent to solid forms.   I've  learned a lot about forming and joining shapes in different mediums and about patience and experimenting!  So here is the  procession  of the 2013 Seed Pod!

A Sterling Silver Seed Pod

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I've been stuck in seed pods this fall! This is my sterling silver piece.  I thought it might be difficult to mold the silver clay into the correct shape and of course I tried several forms to accomplish the support. Among some of the solutions were egg cartons (they were not quite the right shape), paper (it did not hold its shape) and microsphere clay (it was too crumbly or I did not have the expertise to use it). Finally I rolled the clay to 4 cards thickness and used my paper pattern to cut 4 sections of the pod.  This is the same pattern I used to make the translucent polymer pod.  Then I used big bead of air dry clay as supports for the sections.   I also used a special form I made to be sure the 4 sections would fit together correctly and dried them separately.  Once dry, I knew I could sand and glue them together with water and clay and they would keep their shape.  The same texture plate was used as in the previous polymer seed pods and love the way