Happy New Year !

This year has been full of surprises and a lot of work !

I have enjoyed everything 2010 has brought into my life, 

personal and professional.

One of the experiences I lived during this year was going to the PMC Conference at Purdue and meeting so many incredible people and artists.

I wish I can have images of all the wonderful people I met, I was so busy talking that I forgot about taking pictures!!! 

Love you all and thanks for this wonderful experience!

I want to wish you all a super wonderful new year. 

A new year full of health, new opportunities and lots of work.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY !!!!!!

Love,

Lorena

PMC Pro Fired Ring

The ring is finally out of the kiln and fired !!

The total firing time was 1 hour and 20 minutes.

The oxidation is not that bad, I thought it will be more. I did wait until the kiln was lower 180F to take it out. Taking the oxidation out was very easy, 

I brushed the ring with a stainless steal brush and I immediately 

saw the silver coloration.

I brushed the ring again with a soapy solution and a brass brush to have a more shiny look and I was pleased with how it looked at that point.

Sizing my ring 4 sizes bigger worked perfectly fine, 

as you can see in this picture.

My final size was a perfect 8.

I added LOS patina to the ring and VOILA !!!

Here it is !!

©2010 Lorena Angulo

©2010 Lorena Angulo

©2010 Lorena Angulo

In conclusion,

The clay said it was a stronger clay: YES IT IS.

 I really love the fact of the firing to be under 2 hours.

The total weight in my ring is 8.1 grams

Will I use this clay again ?   Yes, I may use it again. 

I think that in my personal opinion, the clay works very good for rings; at least some of my style of rings will be great for this new clay.

I will still make my rings with pure silver, 

I have had no problems with them at all !

I will keep playing with this clay, 

I want to make a simple band and later on solder a pmc3 piece on top.

I also make my own sterling bands or cuffs and just solder my PMC3 pieces on top. This is why I do not see this clay as something that will be very necessary. This does not mean I do not like it !!! :D

I like the clay, and if you are thinking about it; at least give the clay a chance and play with it to see what you think.

Love,

Lorena

PMC PRO

I finally had the time to play with the new PMC clay in the market, PMC Pro.

This new clay was introduce to the metal clay community during the PMC Conference 2010 at Perdue.
I was one of the people participating in the conference and to be totally honest, I was not curious about this new clay. 


I saw a lot of people very happy and eager to get the clay as soon as possible, I was not one of them.


This new clay is an alloy of 90% Silver and 10% Copper. The clay must be fired in activated carbon inside a stainless steel container. PMC Pro shrinks 15-20%.


After reading about the experience of working with this clay from wonderful artists like Lora Hart and Catherine Davies Paetz, I decided I have to give this clay a chance. 

I can not said I do not like something if I have not try it before!

So here I am !!!

I decided to make a ring, since this clay it is much stronger.

When I opened the package I noticed the clay had a different 

color than the PMC3.

The consistency is different too, the clay does not dry as fast as the other types of PMC.

I made a very long coil of clay to start forming my ring, because of the bigger shrinkage factor in this new clay, I went 4 sizes bigger.

When I made the coil I noticed the clay is not as smooth as PMC3 (this is usually what I use to make my work), it takes more time to make the coil but the clay does not dry as fast as PMC3. I was able to form the ring band with no problems of cracks in the clay.

I let the clay dry in my candle warmer to be able to continue with my next step.

While I was waiting for the band to dry I hand sculpted a rose that I will be adding later in the ring.

Hand forming the rose was easy, I did not have any problems at all.

When the clay was dry I started to carve it, most of my work has carving and I wanted to see how this clay works. I usually carve PMC3 and I really like how easy it is to do it. PMC Pro was also easy, I did notice the clay to be not as soft as PMC3 when I was carving it.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

After the carving I added the rose with fresh clay at the bottom and I hand formed little roses and added them fresh into the band.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

After this I let the ring dry again and I hand sculpted a bird. This bird was added to the ring with fresh clay.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

As I mention at the beginning, my ring is 4 sizes bigger.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

©2010 Lorena Angulo

Now my ring is firing in the kiln, full ramp to 1400F and hold for one hour. 

I will post the finish piece and my conclusion comments Tomorrow.

Love,

Lorena

Queen of Hearts Class at Adorn Me ! Houston.

I will be teaching next year at Adorn Me! Houston and I am very happy about this new experience.

Adorn Me! is a great art retreat that offers lots of classes and wonderful teachers during a whole week. All the classes take place in the same location and I am pretty sure you will have a great time.

My class's name is "Queen of Hearts" and it will be on March 5th, 2011. 

Some of my friends are calling me "queen of hearts" because of my BIG passion for creating them in my work.

In my class, the students will be making hearts !! Of course ! 

During the class, I will be teaching how to work with metal clay by making a pendant or necklace and earrings. It is a simple project but I am sure we will have great fun.

I still have spaces open and will love to meet all the wonderful people that have signed up for it.

Thanks to all of you !!

This is what we are going to be making !

The students will create these pieces and maybe make some changes in them to really represent their own style.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

©2010 Lorena Angulo

©2010 Lorena Angulo

Carving, texturing and hand sculpting will be cover during the class.

If you want to play metal clay with me, there are still spaces 

available in my class. 

See you next year in Houston !!

My Secret Santa Ring Swap is Here !

I just receive my "Secret Santa Ring Swap" and I am very excited 

to find out who my secret friend is.

My secret friend is Lesley Tinnaro !!!!

She is a very creative and talented artist I met through RAD (Ring a Day).

You can see her wonderful pieces for RAD here.

Do you want to see the ring she made for me ???

Here it is !!!!

Thank You, thank you Lesley !!!!!!

I LOVE THE RING !!!  

Looking forward to see your new creations for RAW next year!

Calder Jewelry: A great inspiring Artist

A couple of days ago I saw some pieces made by Alexander Calder and was amazed at how incredible wonderful his work is.
I went looking for books about him and his work, in special his jewelry pieces and I found an incredible book.

Immediately I told my husband this book will be a great Christmas present !!!

Finally today I got the book. I can tell you it is a beautiful and inspiring book. His work is breathtaking and has so much soul in it.


I could not avoid to get inspired and as soon as I finish looking at this amazing book, I ran to my studio and made my ring for today.

Thank you Jorge !!!!!  I LOVE THE BOOK !!!!!!

Love,

Lorena

Feliz Navidad !!

I want to wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season !!!

FELIZ NAVIDAD !

Merry Christmas !

Happy Holidays !

With all my love,

Lorena

Lark Books Giveaway WINNERS !

I am happy to announce the winners of my books giveaway.

The first name is ZOE NELSON !!!

Congrats Zoe, I hope you enjoy the book !!

The second name is CINDY LOUGEE !

Congrats Cindy, Enjoy the book !!!!

I wish I can have a lot of books so everybody who participated can have one !!!!

Thanks everybody !!

Secret Santa Ring Swap for RAD

The RAD group is getting into its final ring posts and we all are going to miss this group and the wonderful friends a lot.
This was one of the reason why Thomasin Durgin decided to form another group for next year called RAW (ring a week). We are very happy to be part of this project again and I look forward into seeing the beautiful creations from my friends at RAW.
Another wonderful member of RAD, Maria Apostolou, got the fantastic idea of organizing a ring swap between the members of RAD. I decided this was a great way to finish with this incredible journey.

This is the ring I am going to send to my secret RAD friend.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

©2010 Lorena Angulo

Pure Silver (pmc3)

Ready and pack to be send !!

Happy Holidays !!!!

Ring a day is almost over !

In the beginning of this year my good friend, Lora Hart,posted something about a project organized in Flickr.

This project was about getting a group of artists to make one ring a day for the whole year, the group's name is RAD .

I was not sure I will get into this group because I usually did not make rings in my jewelry work. Lora Hart told me this can be a great experience and I decided to get myself into it.

Thanks Lora !!!!!!!!! 

My journey at the beginning was not very easy. I was a little scare and overwhelmed to see such amazing great artists participating in this project, including Lora Hart. Little by little I started to get more comfortable with this and my rings started to come alive more easy.

Looking at all the rings the other artists were making was a great inspiration and motivation to keep on going. It is incredible to see how many different ideas can be made into a ring.

Sadly for me, I was not able to finish all the rings for the whole year. I have done 130 rings and will make more until this year is over.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

These are some of my rings I managed to make during this year.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

I never though I will make rings with food, like my "Papaya" ring.

Inspiration to create can be found in anything around me, this is one of the lessons I learned during this journey. Taking my time to look at my surroundings and creating without any limitations. 

Meeting so many talented artists from around the world was another incredible experience that I really enjoyed. I can not mention names because there are so many I admire and now can also call them my friends. 

Every one of this artists inspired me to keep on going with their wonderful support and comments.

Thanks to all of you !!!!!! You know who you are! :D

This journey also gave me great opportunities for my work. One of them was to be able to participate in an auction to help Haiti after the earthquake. This beautiful event was organized by someone I admire a lot, Thomasin Durgin.

A group of artists from RAD donated a ring to be sold to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. 

The other opportunities are being invited to participate in a RAD exhibition at SNAG next year and to have some of my rings be publish in an upcoming book about RAD by Lark Books.

Thank You !!!  Gracias !!!

Even though I am sad this wonderful experience will be over very soon, a couple of days ago I found out about something. Thomasin Durgin ( MetalRiot) is organizing another ring group in Flick. This time is going to be for making a ring a week for the whole year. The group's name is RAW ( Ring a week) and already has 51 artists singed in to participate. I am IN !!!!

I think this can be another great experience and also will keep me in touch with all this wonderful artists.

You can join us !!!!! I am sure you will love this project !!

Love,

Lorena

My love for books

A couple of days ago I found a box at my doorstep from Lark Books. Inside the box were some books for review and I was very excited to take a look at them.
I had always have a big passion for books and Lark has been one of my favorite publishers for craft and art related books ( as you can see in my picture above.)


From the books Lark sent me were two books that had been part of my collection already and I really like them.

The first one I already have is Making Metal Beads by Pauline Warg. Since I got this book I was so happy to see  the gorgeous images and wonderful work by different invited artists throughout the book. I am a texture passionate and this book has incredible beads with intriguing textures and layers.
The book is well written and simple to understand.  Every topic is clearly explain and with the help of images, makes the learning much better.
The projects are easy to follow and the step by step is also supported by beautiful pictures.
This is definitely a book that needs to be in your own collection.
Lots of inspiring pieces in this book !!

The second book I already owned is The Art & Craft of Making Jewelry by Joanna Gollberg. 
I LOVE, LOVE this book ! Did I said I LOVE this book ? 
This is one of those books that every time you read them, you find something new to learn. As you can read in the cover, this books it is a complete guide to essential techniques. Every section of this book is very well written and easy to understand. 
I like the step by step images that reinforced the techniques being covered.
Although some of the projects are for intermediate or advance jewelers, I think they are still very easy to understand.
Superb images throughout the book from invited artists.
Believe me, you will like this book a lot !

The complete Book of Glass Beadmaking by Kimberly Adams.
Although I am not a glass bead maker I found this book very interesting.
The step by step pictures are very helpful and it is very well written.
Beautiful and inspiring beads throughout the book.
This book has very good reviews by people that work with glass.
You will like to own this book if you work with this medium and maybe if you are thinking in learning, this can also be a great book to have.

Ceramic Bead Jewelry by Jennifer Heynen.
This is a beautiful book with five chapters and projects.
Some of the information covered in this book  is bisque firing and glaze firing, decorating beads, making greenware beads and techniques for jewelry making.
Very nice projects and images.


Contemporary Bead & Wire Jewelry by Nathalie Mornu and Suzanne J.E. Tourtillott.
This is another great book with incredible images and projects.
The first section of the book is focus on the basic information to create wire jewelry. 
They talk about different types of wire, tools and wire techniques.

The projects are very eye catching and everyone will enjoy making them.
You do not have to worry about soldering since all the pieces in this books are made with just wire, beads and the best tool of all, your hands !


All these books are great additions for anyone interested in jewelry making.


Since I own the first two books in this review, I think Lark will be okay with me having a giveaway of these two books.


If you want to win Making Metal Beads by Pauline Warg or  The Art & Craft of Making Jewelry by Joanna Gollberg.
 The only think you have to do is comment in my post and for extra points you can post this review in your Facebook, blog or Twitter.
Let me know if you repost it.


I will pick up two names on December 22 and announce the winners in my blog.


Thanks for reading and participating !!!!! 


Love,
Lorena

New ideas and projects

I have been asked a lot about selling my images in posters or greeting cards.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

In one of my last shows one person wanted to buy my banner !!! : )

He wanted the tree of life to hang it in his living room !

This made me think about doing something with my images.

I am going to start with greeting cards and see how that goes.

©2010 Lorena Angulo

©2010 Lorena Angulo

©2010 Lorena Angulo

I have a lot of new ideas and projects for this new year that is coming, I am very excited about one in particular.

I will tell more about this on a later post.

Love,
Lorena

Art.i.copia 2010

Southwest School of Art organized the 2010 Art.i.copia on Saturday, December 11.
I was one of the invited artist to this wonderful event and I was very happy to see my friends during the show.


The San Antonio community is very lucky to have such fantastic place to visit and admire the art made my very talented artists.


Some of the invited artists were: Kari Stringer from Fat Cat Jewelry Studio, Priscilla Martinez from Joyarte, Diana Kersey, Jane Bishop, Mary Fischer, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, J L. Collier, and me.

Thank You to Clare Watters (Gallery Shop Buyer-Manager at SSA) and Barbara Hill (Director of Programs at SSA) and to all the staff at the Gallery Shop and the SSA. You all made a great job and were always helping and friendly to all the artists.