A new book from Lark Books is available for pre-order now on amazon! This is the first book out on bronze clay from a major publisher. I appreciate the affordable book prices from the major publishers.

Here’s the description from amazon:

Bronze metal clay is the natural next choice for the large silver metal clay market; it’s far less expensive, so crafters can expand their creativity creating larger-scale pieces. As a member of the Technical Support Team for Rio Grande (a huge online distributor of jewelry supplies), Yvonne Padilla is an expert at answering crafters’ questions about bronze. In addition to providing step-by-step instructions for 30 projects, she explains how bronze differs from silver clay, how to work with it, and how to attain the lovely verdigris patina that only bronze has. An inspirational gallery and a trouble shooting section complete the fantastic package.

How to review a book? As I work on reviewing more books, I’m learning from Angela of The Crafty Goat’s Notes, who includes in her reviews, “Who this book is good for.” I tend to mostly review books that I love and am really excited about. Angela’s example gives me a way to talk about useful books and help you figure out if it’s the right one for you.

Marketing and Selling your Handmade Jewelry: The Complete Guide to Turning Your Passion into Profit by Vicki Lareau is a recent (2006) book on breaking into selling jewelry, particularly beaded jewelry.

The slim volume gives a nice overview of the various options for selling, this book is perfect if you’re just starting out and want help understanding the issues involved in selling at shows, and other ways to sell.

She covers all the important issues: pricing, selling retail, selling wholesale and more, each chapter is relatively short, making this perfect for you if you don’t want to be overwhelmed with a tons of information and details right now.

The book does not cover online selling, though the information on pricing and press releases will still help you if you want to sell online.

So over all, it’s a thumbs up, a good beginner’s book on selling jewelry.

The feeling of being drained and doing too much seems to be going around, among my friends in real life as well as my cyber-friends in the metal clay world.

I was going to joke that I think this is a good book, but I didn’t have time to read it. I got this book from the library and what I managed to read before I turned it in, was good stuff.

She advocates things like getting a weekly massage. “Yeah, right,” I thought.

The cool thing about this book is that it is so extreme, that by the time you ramp it down 7 notches, it’ll be do-able, and you’ll still be doing more than you are now.

I’ve had a rough week, including a visit to the hospital with one of my kids, so as I relax this weekend, bake myself a pan of (wheat-free!) brownies, I decided “I think I’m ready for this book.” I just ordered a copy.

I’m posting this here because, well, there isn’t room in our lives for creativity if we’re drained. Yes, this is a book for women, but then, the majority of metal clay artists are women, so that seems reasonable for this blog.

Tomorrow, back to the metal clay. (Need a fix now? Good stuff in the Bronze Clay Flickr Pool, or check out some of the blogs listed on my Resources Page.)

How about you? How do you take care of yourself?

It’s that time of year, fall is here and time to think about the coming of El Dia de los Muertos. I’m already in that mode, since I just finished a shrine for my grandfather, which will be in the show at the Indianapolis Art Center.

This book, Day of the Dead Crafts, includes a number of jewelry projects, many of them polymer clay, so it’s relevant here!

The book starts with a history of El Dia de los Muertos, which is great, since you want to understand the meaning behind the day before making anything.

The chapters include: Offrendas (alters), Calaveras (skeletons with personality), Masks and Skulls, Jewelry and Home Decor.

Some of the jewelry projects are a little folksy, which is entirely appropriate, since it’s a folk-type holiday, but it’s hard to see a jewelry person doing them without sophisticat-ing things up a bit.

For me, I find the rest of the book more helpful and inspiring, and I’m more likely to do the other projects. If I did do the jewelry projects, I would take them as inspiration and do them a bit differently.

I do think the step by step instructions for the polymer clay projects are clear and helpful. They include forming a skull and forming a skeleton.

Overall I give the book a thumbs up. If you’re interested in doing something with Day of the Dead, but aren’t sure where to start, this book is perfect for you.

The chapters on printmaking and papel picado are also very good. The projects on papel picado show you how to cut them using an Exacto knife. If you’re looking for projects that can be done with scissors, the book, Mexican Papercutting: Simple Techniques for Creating Colorful Cut-Paper Projects has that covered.

If you’re in the Chicago area, be sure to visit the National Museum of Mexican Art’s Largest Annual Day of the Dead Exhibition in the Nation, details here: http://www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org.

Be sure to come back tomorrow to see Day of the Dead in metal clay!

The first issue of Metal Clay Artist Magazine has gone to press — here’s their website:

http://www.metalclayartistmag.com

Here’s what’s on my workbench: cheap beer and a box of not-galvanized nails.

Why? It’s for a patina I’m making. The recipe is in Japanese Patinas, a beautiful book on patinas for non-precious, non-ferrous metals. (what does that leave? copper, brass and bronze, mostly.) Now I just need some daikon…

I found these neat looking hole-making tools online and mentioned them here. Linda was kind enough to send me a set to try out.

Here they are out of the package and separated:

The next time I was working with metal clay, happened to be BronzClay, some clay that had gotten a bit dried out. So I was chopping it up, getting ready to rehydrate, I didn’t have the right blade handy, so I used a wavy blade. The shapes I was getting looked pretty cool! I stopped chopping to rehydrate and started making beads!

I used the Clay Punch to make holes in the beads, trying the two smaller sizes of the three. I knew that the smallest punch would be too small in BronzClay once the clay was fired and shrank, but used it anyway, figuring it would at least be a start for when I drilled the holes out larger after firing.

The middle sized tube is a good size after shrinkage.

The tool comes with a poker-outer tool to remove the excess clay, which is pretty handy, it works well.

The challenge with tiny tools like this is keeping track of them, so it’s thoughtfully designed, the way they all go back together like this and the cork keeps them from sliding off.

Even so, I think I’ll buy a little clear plastic flip top container for them. An Altoids tin would work too, for those of you looking for an excuse to buy more chocolate mints.

I like the Clay Punch, it gets a thumbs up. There aren’t many choices for a set of hole cutters — straws are unsatisfactory — and it’s very nice to have a set of graduated, slightly sharpened tubes to work with.

I should add that the pretty-dry BronzClay I was working with was pretty stiff — BronzClay is already stiffer than the silver metal clays. And the Clay Punch cut through it just fine.

Here are the beads fired, just out of the kiln and rinsed off:

I like them, I think I’ll make them again, with the holes going the other way.

You can find the Clay Punch online here: http://www.naturescapesstudio.com

My one quibble with the tool would have been that I wished there were more sizes. Visiting her site today, and see that there are more sizes! There’s now a set of three in larger sizes and a square set, cool!

I’ve often suggested that jewelry artists use blogging as a way to drive traffic to their websites or etsy shops.

Recently, a participant on an email list, in a conversation about blogging, asked the group,

“What would I say?”

If you’ve wondered that yourself, Making a Great Blog: A Guide for Creative People by Diane Gilleland has your answer to that, and much more.

I wish I’d had this ebook when I started blogging two years ago! It really would have shortened my learning curve.

This guide is like having a good friend, an experienced blogger, right by your side, explaining the basics of how to decide what to write about, how frequently to post, and the photography skills you’ll need to master.

It’s not overly technical, if focuses much more on thinking out process, and includes very helpful question and answer spots in the book, as well as the bonus worksheets. If you answer the questions and do the worksheets, you will have a huge headstart in blogging.

Once you’ve absorbed the lessons of the book, and you’re ready to get started, the online bonus section contains many helpful links.

I don’t agree with everything she says, but bloggers are an opinionated bunch, so that’s to be expected. For example, she writes that it’s okay to start out on a free blogging platform, while I feel strongly that you should start out on your own domain name, using self-hosted WordPress.

Despite that, the book is well thought out, clear and helpful to the aspiring or new blogger. Or even the not so new blogger, I’ve been at this for two years, and I found it helpful.

To see the table of contents and order the book, which is only $12.50, visit Diane’s website:
http://www.craftypod.com/making-a-great-blog-the-ebook.

The metal clay world has an embarrassment of riches, with two books on making metal clay beads coming our almost at the same time. Both are available for pre-order now.

The first PMC beads I made, I made using Barbara’s technique published in Lapidary Journal. Barbara’s book has 144 pages and 22 projects.

The book by Linda Kay Moses has 15 projects, including a bottle project, plus a gallery section with more inspiring images. 160 pages.

I look forward to seeing both books!

This is a good little book that you will enjoy more if you are in your 20’s. If you are over a certain age, and I’m not really sure what that age is, you may find it annoying.

It’s a realistic, helpful and inspiring how to and self-employment. My one quibble with it is that some of the people profiled have unusual situations, and it would have been nice to have a little more variety in the number and type of people profiled.