Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

White satin handmade beads, turquoise, ages old granite beads This week I finished the white satin bead necklace and thought it only fair to share the pictures with you.  If you missed seeing the design phase, please look at the previous post. The white satin beads could have been polished to a brighter silver color but I wanted this to look earthy and from an archeology dig! I wore it one day and found it comfortable and not heavy.  People noticed, asked questions and liked it!  The final design works for me.  What's your opinion?  I'd love to hear from you.

Polished beads with satin finish Designing beads with Hadar's White Satin Clay and then deciding how to use them in a necklace is my latest project.  I wanted my white satin beads to look old like I went on an archeology dig and found them buried in the sand.  There are holes and slits as you can see in the picture above. Each bead is formed on  Microsphere (Noble Clays)  wrapped with a single thickness of clay.  I received the Microsphere at a workshop a couple of years ago and made the forms for the beads with it.  The beads are dried and kiln fired.  When they are cool, the sand like particles of Microsphere come out of the centers leaving hollow beads.   Before firing in the kiln After firing - the beads on the left are just out of the kiln and the ones on the right have the first sanding. I tried several combinations of  beads to go with my 'ancient' beads.  I thought it would be fun to share the process wit...

Seedpods are a secret love of mine.  I collect them and many different kinds line my window sill.  I love to make them out of metal clay This bronze seedpod started out with bronze clay wrapped around a wax shape that was covered in saran wrap.   After the clay dried, I pulled out the wax through a hole I made for the bale.  The center seeds are thin steel circles that were placed over the bronze layer.  I painted veins on the sides and back with bronze slip (thinned bronze clay), sanded and let the piece dry.  The bronze clay was fired in activated charcoal in a 2 stage process and I always hold my breath when I remove a fired piece from the kiln several hours later.  Did the clay sinter (did it fuse into metal?)  or will I need to fire it again?  This time the clay did sinter except for one steel circle which got lost in the charcoal. After polishing my seedpod, I reviewed my choices.  I could leave th...