Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

  As often happens, the picture in my head is more difficult to construct in real life than to create in my mind.  In the previous post I left you thinking I would just make a replacement steel bead for the one that collapsed in the kiln.  I tried!  The replacement was much more ragged than the first one and unusable for this project.  I think I'll be able to create an interesting bead using it but not for this post.  Rather than go through the process of making a third bead, I decided to try to reshape the original.  A long metal rod was inserted and I hammered and after several tries it worked!   Time to decide what beads I would use with the steel ones I made.  I started with the ones in the picture.  And I added and rearranged and added and played with the shapes and colors.  When I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to use I started stringing.   At some point I realized I needed to make the center dangle/focal part or the necklace first.  The dangle had t

  A necklace design with components made from steel clay has been in my mind for quite a while now.  This week I decided to make a sketch so I could move the project along.  I want to use the long orange bead with a Middle Eastern theme as a focal (purchased it at the last Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.) Prima in Saran after pulling it out of the tube  I also want to use some of the basic techniques I learned in Hadar Jacobson’s class.  I bought a large block of Prima (a professional grade plastilina) that has wax and is great for forming a shape, wrapping it in saran and in this design, wrapping steel textured clay around it.  Then when the bead is dry, I will carefully pull out the saran with the Prima in it.  Works great as long as the ends are open enough for the Prima to exit.  I broke one tube doing this.  You also don't want to get the Prima warm as the wax will melt and there will be a mess! Sanding the tube I mix up Hadar’s steel clay, roll it out, texture

It’s been a while since my last post and while I missed writing them, I hope you also missed sharing my adventures!  Between a road trip to Berkeley and having painful (very painful) shoulder tendonitis my activities really slowed down.  Now I’M BACK!  Ready to explore new techniques and have fun. When I see a good tutorial about something new that catches my fancy, I buy it and eventually the day comes when I just have to try it.  Staci Louise Smith wrote a tutorial “Gold Rush: The Rustic Crackle Technique” for Craft Art Edu.  I loved the pictures of her necklaces and wanted to see what I could do.  If you like the crackle effect  on my pieces or want to try something new, check out her tutorial on   www.CraftArtEdu.com    They have good classes on many subjects. When I started following tutorials, I expected my pieces to look like the instructors.  That just did not happen and it is not the fault of the tutorial or the instructor.  It is that my mind and hands take the