Friday 28 November 2014

Craft class - making copper beads

Months ago me and my lovely mum took a class at The Bead Shop Nottingham to make beads from Copper clay.  The photos have been languishing in a draft blog post and I've no idea why I haven't written a post and published it!  Well, today is the day!

Copper clay is like silver clay, other than it's copper, in that it starts life as a pliable clay and after firing becomes a precious metal.  I didn't really get on with the silver clay, finding it too hard to work, but this was much easier and I enjoyed it.



I made a large spiral which is to be a pendant and two smaller spiral beads.  These have been fired and the bead in the middle shows the fire scale.  I need to sand that down and then sand and polish all my beads.  They've been languishing unfinished, just like this post!  The bead on the right broke in the kiln but it might be OK to use, I'll see when I've cleaned them up.



I also made a set of three charms which I envision as a long pendent.  I cut two squares, then I cut a flower out of the larger one using a clay punch.  I used this punch to make impressions on the smaller square without cutting right through.  I used the cut out flower as the final charm which is why it only has one hanging hole.



Again, they need cleaning up.  I wonder if I was leaving this post until I'd made the final pieces of jewellery - I bought a few Swarovski crystals to go with the finished pieces.  How deluded am I?  I'm sure it'll be many months before this gets finished!

I enjoyed playing with copper clay, I'm starting to think I really do need a kiln....



Something New for 2014



Celtic Thistle Stitches  

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd never heard of copper clay, look forward to seeing what you do with them.

Rachel said...

It's the sanding down that I would be jibbing at. Looking forward to seeing these finished!

Jane said...

Even if you never do anything with them, these are interesting pieces

Christine Altmiller said...

These are too cool! I hope that broken spiral works out ~ it has a good, ancient vibe to it.
The pendant plan is one to definitely see through to the end...it is going to look fantastic!

margaret said...

you had best write to Father Christmas for your kiln! The copper pieces look good and hope to see them polished soon

Celtic Thistle said...

You certainly manage to find lots of interesting classes. I had never heard of copper clay either but glad to hear that it was easier to work with than the silver clay. I love the charms!
Thanks for linking up to New to Me too.

Sarah in Stitches said...

So interesting! Can't wait to see them cleaned up :D

CeLynn said...

I really enjoy reading about all of your adventures in crafting! Love how all of your copper pieces turned out,they look pretty good in the "rough"and will be beautiful once you clean them up a bit.