I am the Site of the week at All Things Metal Clay.

I was selected to be the Site of the week at All Things Metal Clay .

Elaine Luther has a wonderful blog were she talks about metal clay and the jewelry business. She not only writes about metal clay but gives you a guide in a lot of topics that are very helpful for anyone in the art business.

She talks about techniques, selling online, about inspiration, information about contests and call for entries and much more.

Thank You Elaine for having me as your Site of the week!

Say Si Bronzclay class.

Thank You to Morgan, Amber, Ruby, Camille, Lou Lou and Luke !

I had a great time working with you all !

All the pieces from the workshop.

Ruby's Sacred Heart.



Morgan's Flower and Sacred Heart.

Morgan's Sacred Heart and Sun.

Bronzclay Workshop at Say Si.

A couple of weeks ago I got the wonderful opportunity to teach a workshop with metal clay at Say Si in San Antonio, Texas.


Say Si is an amazing organization that serves the youth with a year round non-profit multidisciplinary arts program that provides students ,from middle school and high school age, opportunities to develop artistic and social skills.


The workshop was focus on making pieces, sacred hearts, for their annual day of the dead festival exhibition. The third Annual Muertitos fest will take place in November 5, 6 and 7.


The students that were chosen to be part of the class were Camille, Morgan, Amber, Lou Lou, Ruby and Luke. They all are very talented and creative, each one of them designed their own pieces and did a great job.

All of my students were very curious to work with this new medium, they could not believe that the clay will convert into metal. For me the experience was very educational too. They were so natural and did not hesitate at all when creating their work. They took the medium without any fears and I think that is the best way to approach any challenge. The only tools I gave them were a pvc tube to roll the clay, a polymer clay heart to form the volume of their piece, a neddle tool, x-acto and a carving tool.

Altough we have some little problems , like breaking the pieces, I was there to help them recover the work and fixed the broken pieces. they were always in a good mood and ready to fix the problem.

At the end each of them make their two sacred hearts and because we have some clay left I told them they could make another piece. In our 11 hours class we manage to created almost 20 pieces in all.

Ruby's first Sacred Heart

Ruby's Virgen of Guadalupe

Amber's Sacred Heart

Amber's Sacred Heart

Lou Lou's Sacred doble crown heart

Lou Lou's Sun and Moon

Lou Lou's Sacred Heart

Camille's Sacred heart

Camille's Sacred Heart

Luke's Calavera

Luke's Sacred Heart

Luke's Sacred Heart

Luke's Calavera earrings.

PMC Guild Annual Exceptional Work in Metal Clay: 2009

I have submitted pictures of my work for two years to the PMC Guild Annual and I have been lucky to be admitted in the two years.

This year was full of surprises for me because this time I had the honor to be on the back cover with amazing artist : Julia Rai and Maggie Bergman.

The front cover piece is by another amazing artist, Donna Penoyer, her work is incredible too.

The book includes the work of 63 artists from eight countries and 25 states in the USA.

"Tree of Life"

Bronzclay, gesso and acrylics.

3.5 inches high

Photo by George Post

"Oaxaca Pot"

Bronzclay

1.5 inch diameter

Photo by George Post

Dia de Muertos

Mexico is a country with a lot of colors, with wonderful traditions and a culture that it is transmitted from generation to generation.
I have been out of my country for more than 10 years and my two kids were born in the USA.
I have always talked to them about my country and my traditions and we celebrate a lot of them here.
The Day of the dead, Dia de Muertos, is a celebration that brings me to my childhood in Chiapas, Mexico. I remember I was never scare of it because we learned to respect dead and celebrate the continuation of life every day.
We celebrate and remember the family members that pass away by honoring them with happiness about the wonderful life they had.

This wonderful tradition is very old in my country, when the Spanish came to my country they tried to convert the native indigenous to a new religion and new ways of living but they could not make them stop celebrating Dia de Muertos.

Originally Dia de Muertos was celebrated for a whole month in the end of July and beginning of August, when the Catholic priests saw they could not stop them from celebrating this day they decided to moved it to only two days to coincide with their own "All saints and all souls day" in November 1st and 2nd.

All this incredible memories have inspired me to make "Calaveras" in my work. I really enjoy designing them and then making them came alive in silver, bronze or copper.

I love to show my kids my Calaveras and they like them a lot.

They are my biggest fans ;-} and this creates an opportunity to talk to them about the day of the dead.

Keeping my tradition alive from generation to generation ! ;-}

2010 Metal Clay Calendar

I have been very fortunate this whole year with my work, my big passion in life is my family but the other big passion is making and creating my jewelry.

I got the wonderful news that I was going to be in another calendar with some of my Etsy Metal Clay team artists.

2010 Metal Clay Calendar by Marjorie Windman Oxman is a wonderful showcase of beautiful pieces of art and I am sure you will love them all.

The Art and Design of Metal Clay Jewelry.

I am very happy to have my pendant, Arbol de Vida, be part of the 2010 The Art and Design of Metal Clay calendar by Holly Gage.

The calendar is available for pre-order and features the work of some of the most innovative metal clay jewelry designers.

In the calendar you will also find information about jewelry conferences and competition deadlines.

There is a limited printing in this calendar so order yours now ! ;-}