The Precious Metal Clay (PMC) Process: Bronze

I used Hadar's Clay which is bronze in powder form (also available in copper).

Just out of the kiln.


Scrubbed with a metal brush.

Filed, burnished, patinated and polished. Finished off with copper jump ring and chocolate-colored silicone cord.

More sheep, more chocolate-makers

A few months ago, I started working with precious metal clay (PMC) and, at the same time, learning metalsmithing. While working with metal sheet seemed difficult because of the drilling, sawing and soldering involved, I was finding PMC more challenging because it would dry out before I was satisfied with the result.

So, I started working with polymer clay, testing designs on it before trying them on PMC. Unfortunately, polymer by itself is not very interesting and -- not wanting to just discard the tests -- I thought of finishing them just like Tamara of blockpartypress had been showing on her blog.

Silver, copper and bronze clay pendants headed for the kiln.


Pieces in polymer inspired by Tamara's work. However, I only do fine-fleeced friends and chocolate-makers.


Here's a clay rendition of another of my dad's drawing of the chocolate-maker.

JumpSheep pendants make it to knitty.com

See under Cool Stuff! here.

My dad's drawing

The drawing was done in the 1980s for me to make an ex libris rubber stamp. My name used to be underneath the frame. I reduced the size to 1" x 1.5" and had the rubber stamp made to make silver pendants using Precious Metal Clay. Here is the result. It's a woman in a Philippine 1800s dress frothing Spanish-style chocolate in a tsokolatera with what we call a batidor. The chocolate is served in demitasses because it's thick.

Handmade Mart, Silver Spring, MD last Sunday

Strip-Cut Construction in Glass

Layout on paper.

Pattern bars surrounded with strips of glass in pink striker color. The piece is dammed and fired in the kiln.

The strips of glass strikes into a deep cranberry color.

I'm a vendor at Handmade Mart, Silver Spring, MD

The outdoor market will take place on May 31, Sunday. Q&A with JumpSheep at the Handmade Mart blog here.What is your craft all about?
I make glass jewelry and plates for fiber lovers. I also produce wool batts and bumps for spinning and felting, as well as handspun yarn and handdyed yarn for knitting.
What inspires you to make what you make?
For my jewelry, I draw inspiration from the passion of fiber lovers; that's why I choose to work with images (in silver or copper) of furry animals. For my plates, I look to the works of quilters; I translate their quilt design into glass.
What is your favorite piece/product you will have with you at the Handmade Mart?
Glass and silver pendants with the sheep's silhouette. I have the Black Sheep made of glass and copper, and the Sheep in Pasture made of glass and silver.
Where can folks find your craft outside the Handmade Mart?
My etsy store: jumpsheep.etsy.com.
Find me at booth #30!

Pattern Bars

Strip-Cut Construction at Vitrum Studio. The pattern bars (left) are piles of glass scrap melted together to form a serendipitous design; they are later cut and polished to be used as inserts in a bigger piece, such as a plate (right and bottom). The rest of the plate is made up of 3/8-inch strips that are made to stand on its side to form a flat construction.

Coming Soon: Sheep in Pasture Pendants

I got very encouraging feedback from people who saw my pendants (like the one I'm wearing here next to Ysolda) at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Right now I'm out of stock, but I'll be firing them up in the kiln very soon. So, if you'd like to order, please email me. Alternatively, you can watch out for it at my etsy shop, JumpSheep. They should be available on etsy by June 1st at the latest.


As door prizes at Guido's MSWF After Party. (Photos by Woolarina)

Back in DC: Lexi (a.k.a. pluckyfluff)

It was so nice to again see Lexi whose class I took back in the Fall of 2005. Organized by Angela and Reenie of MaterialWhirled, her students then included Natasha of Luxe, Jacey of insubordiknit, and Heidi of mypapercrane.

Lexi came to A Tangled Skein this evening after a two-day camp in Hyattsville for a signing of her second book, Intertwined. The camp was organized by Steph of Loop and Carissa of Treadle to the Metal.

It was great to hear an update on her upcoming projects and they are all so exciting! There's a book, collaboration with a manufacturer on a new wheel for her brand of yarn, a teaching stint in Tokyo in the Fall, a new house,... and it looks like the pluckyfluff camp will be an annual event in the Maryland area around the Sheep and Wool Festival weekend. Yay!

I should add that Lexi is very excited about going to the festival tomorrow. "It's my first time," she chirped.

In the photo above Lexi is signing the copy her publisher sent me for having contributed to Intertwined (it's the felted shoe laces on a pair of boots). She's wearing a glass pendant with a black sheep that I gave her.

And here's Carissa, also wearing my pendant, a silver sheep on green glass. She's my first-ever customer for the pendants. I'm so excited!

Another Quilt-Inspired Plate

If it weren't so darn time-consuming, I'd probably quilt. But it is, so I will just translate into glass.


Size: 8" X 8"
Materials: Bullseye Glass in French Vanilla Curious and petal pink, deep red and orange opaque on a transparent sheet.
Kiln: Paragon
Technique: Slumped

Sheep in Pasture

Here are the pendants mentioned in the previous blog.

Combining Fused Glass with Soldered Silver

After weekends at Judith Conway's Vitrum Studio for fused glass classes, I'm now at The Art League for silver jewelry with Tina Chisena for the next two months. I hope to execute the designs in the photos below, but for this weekend, I'd like to do pendants to take to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival next weekend. The pendants - intended for wool lovers, spinners, weavers and knitters - are made of glass with silver foil inclusion in the image of a sheep's silhouette. The prototype will be worn by the Fluff and Nonsense group participating in the MSWF's Sheep-to-Shawl competition on Sunday, May 3.

Rough designs...

With more detail...

The glass fairy cometh

Laurence Pocztar of lainezinzin has always been my sole inspiration in fiber spinning. Having gotten into glass arts, I didn't expect to ever find my glass fairy, since -- looking at all the books that has come out in the US and Japan, and surfing on the web -- I didn't find any that really blew me away (Corina Tettinger of Passing the Flame came very close) until I saw the freeform glass beads of Sarah Hornik of Tel Aviv.

Sarah has come out with two ebooks: Sarah's 12 Favorite Color Schemes and Think Pink. I just love the colors and the asymetry of her glass beads. They look so sumptuous that gazing at them simply brings such delight!

What I did last weekend

Learned Venetian glass beadmaking from Marilyn Nugent at the Glen Echo Park Art Glass Studio.

My First Fused Glass Project

Size: 8" X 8"
Materials: Bullseye Glass in white opaque and assorted opaque and transparent sheets, topped with rod bits
Kiln: Paragon
Technique: Slumped
Inspiration: Log Cabin Quilt

Finding a new direction

Today I attended a class in kiln-formed glass. Wow! One more class tomorrow. Yay!

It was held at Vitrum Studios from 10am to 4pm. Not knowing I would take this class a few days back, I signed up for a book signing and reception at the Alliance Française with Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb (Fear and Trembling) which was scheduled at 3pm. After the class, I took a chance and drove to the Alliance just the same.

I arrived two hours late and the event was over. The author was having a tête-à-tête with the organizers and about ready to leave, but when she saw me at the door of the salon with my stack of her books, she motioned me to come over and she went back to sit behind a table and signed my books. "Et votre prénom?" she asked politely. When she finished she said, "Merci d'être venue, Thérèse."

Amélie Nothomb was so sweet. It's almost incongruous with her reputation as an eccentric and her penchant for black ensembles. Yes, today, she was wearing her trademark Mad Hatter's hat and dark red lipstick, just like in this photo.

Babes in Mali

Sidiki Ouattara, who is the director of the government agency on handicrafts in Mali and my contact for the project Charkhas for Africa, just sent this photo. He writes that the women are from Nonsombougou and that they are beneficiaries of our spinning wheel project. Mr. Ouattara reports that he will be going to Nonsombougou next week to deliver the third Babe spinning wheel.

Lace Reader

If you like novels and you spin and knit, you should be reading -- or listening to -- this book by Brunonia Barry.

Embroidery by Takashi Iwasaki

The artist is a Canadian of Japanese descent. More of his works here. He is featured in the current issue of Selvedge. Amazing work. And it sort of updates Constance Howard's medium of choice by throwing in images reminiscent of Alexander Calder's sculptures and mobiles while using Iwasaki's own palette of colors. Wow!