I recently attended the PMC Conference at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.  This was my first conference as I started working with the material just over a year ago.  I’ve attended classes and workshops, but the conference experience was quite different. For example, the conference features presentations and demonstrations, unlike a hands-on workshop.  The schedule offers lots of great opportunities for networking and making friends.  I picked up some good tips and a few techniques, and I purchased some interesting tools that I might not have sought out online.

There is a vendor hall that’s like nirvana for a metal clay artist with money in their pocket!  My favorite find was at the Naturescapes Studio booth with these awesome sets of graduated brass cutters.  I got every available set, so I have six sizes of circles, six squares, three rectangles and three hexagons.  Each set stacks onto a brass wire and a simple piece of cork holds the set together.  I’ve already started using these tiny cutters.  Pictured here is a greenware (not yet fired) set of earrings and pendant with tiny rectangles cut out.  I LOVE these cutters!  From the same vendor, I also picked up a cool elevated turntable, which should help my posture and make it easier to rotate a piece without having to pick it up.

The absolute highlight of the conference for me was meeting so many amazing metal clay artists.  Nearly everyday, I explain metal clay to someone, and am usually met with a puzzled look that says, “I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about”.  In the special bubble of the conference, absolutely everyone with a yellow badge shares the same passion.  Making friends is as easy as introducing yourself.  Every conversation is easy, with a shared lingo and a creative spirit that binds us together.  It really is a unique environment.

Many of us participated in the Charms for Charity raffle.  The community of metal clay artists donated enough charms to create nearly 40 finished bracelets.  And, we banded together to sell raffle tickets.  I was thrilled when one of the tickets I sold was pulled as a winner.  My friend, Sonja Marshall-Bone will soon claim this beautiful charm bracelet.  I want to thank all my friends and family members who generously bought raffle tickets from me.  I wish you ALL could have won!  In the final tally, the community raised over $6100 for the American Cancer Society and over $3600 for the Bone Marrow Foundation.

I went into the experience with limited expectations.  Not to say that I didn’t expect to have a fabulous time, just that I didn’t expect any particular variety of fabulousness.  I came away feeling very much enriched and far more connected to this amazing community of artists.  What more could a girl ask for?

I flew to Indianapolis this morning to attend the PMC Conference at Purdue University in Lafayette, IN.  For my non-metal clay friends, PMC is a brand name for precious metal clay.  Every other year hundreds of metal clay artists come together to get inspired, learn new skills and connect with friends.  This is my first conference, and to say I’m pretty jazzed up about it is an understatement!

The past 13 months since I first got my hands on silver clay have been a time of intense study, practice and progress.  It has been truly exhilarating to discover just how this material makes my creative spirit sing.  An unexpected bonus of working in metal clay is the vibrant community of artists who support each other on line, in print and out in the real world.  Through forums, blogs and Facebook, I’ve gotten to know many metal clay friends.  Today, I get to meet lots of them in person for the first time.  So excited!

This evening I’ll attend a  social event where many artists will swap charms.  The idea is that you make as many charms as you’d like to swap.  I made 10 charms, so by the end of the evening, I will have a treasure trove of 10 charms from different artists, while my charms will be in the collections of those 10 artists.  It’s a pretty cool way to get to know people and share a small piece of yourself with them.  My charms are in my fins and spheres style that’s based on the original Blue Fin piece.  You can read more about the inspiration for Blue Fin here.

Thanks to some great advice from Bill Struve and several other members of our metal clay community, I have successfully fired BRONZclay!  My  strategy was to focus on the two most likely problems, which were temperature and carbon.  I’ve suspected that my kiln might run a bit hot, so I backed off to 1500 for the hold temp.  I also switched to the coconut carbon that I’ve used to successfully fire COPPRclay.  These three test pieces are fully sintered with no blisters and not even the tiniest of cracks.  Wahoo!

My next test will be fired in a new batch of coal carbon, which should arrive later this week.  I really want to fire in coal carbon to get those amazing colors right out of the kiln.  I’m learning that the coal carbon is an inconsistent firing media.  From what I’m told, you might buy a batch from a source today that works perfectly, and buy another batch next month that doesn’t work.  I don’t think it reflects on the vendor when you get a bad batch.  It seems to be just the luck of the draw.

Of course, I’m just trying to piece together all of the information that’s flowing in.  I’ll post again after the next test.  Many thanks to you all!

After famously trying hundreds (maybe thousands) of materials for a light bulb filament, Thomas Edison claimed he had not failed.  He had simply found 1000 ways not to invent a light bulb.  Likewise, I really try to treasure the learning process when things are not going quite right.  My favorite saying when I make yet another mistake is, “learning… so much learning!”  So, let me reassure you that yesterday’s post was not my final word on BRONZclay.  My intention is to document my learning process, so the community can help me, and my experience can hopefully help the community.

I’m just thrilled that these base metal clays became available right as I was getting into metal clay.  COPPRclay has provided me the opportunity to create with a sense of freedom that’s not always possible for me with the more expensive silver clay.  And during the 2009 holiday shopping season, about half of my sales were from my copper pieces.

Last night I fired  4 pieces with a variety of handling techniques, making careful notes so I would know what was what.  I slowed down the ramp to 225 per hour and boosted the 3.5 hour hold temp to 1530.  Results were mixed.  Two pieces split like the previous firing.  One piece blistered.  One piece came out perfect.

Bill Struve, the creator of the material, reached out and offered to help me work through the problems.  I’ll touch base with him this week.  Lots of folks from the community have offered suggestions.  I knew going into this experiment that it might be rough at first, but I’m not about to give up. I’m sure I’ll get there soon.

I went to the kiln this morning, hoping to “ooh” and “aah” over my BRONZclay pieces that fired last night.  Instead, this is what I fished out of the carbon.  Eight pieces, all cracked and split open.

I’ve only worked with this material one time before, in a workshop setting about a year ago. My piece didn’t sinter properly and crumbled in my hands. After that experience, I trained my focus on COPPRclay, and of course, the ever-reliable silver clay. I found a firing schedule for COPPRclay that works well for me every time and at any thickness. But, I really wanted to create in bronze and I had 200 grams of BRONZclay on hand. The variety of firing schedules on the web was a bit overwhelming, so I reached out to two metal clay friends who work in this material and asked them what firing schedule they use. Their answers were very similar, so I figured I was on the right track.

Here’s what I did:

• Conditioned the clay according to the info on Margaret Schindel’s BRONZclay Squidoo Lens
• Rolled to 6 cards, then rolled over my texture plate at 4 cards
• Clay was totally dry as it had been in greenware stage for over 24 hours
• Buried in coal carbon in stainless steel firing pan (carbon purchased from WLW and never used before)
• Ramped at 250 per hour to 1516, held for 3.5 hours
• Firing pan pulled out of the kiln when still hot and allowed to cool at room temperature (kiln was not red-hot, but still quite warm – I didn’t note the temperature)
• Kiln is a Paragon SC2

I have a few ideas for what might have gone wrong:

• Maybe I needed to let the pan cool in the kiln, rather than pulling it out
• The lid on my stainless steel firing pan is so warped that it barely connects with the pan.  It’s almost like having the pan uncovered.  this hasn’t been a problem with firing COPPRclay, in fact I have stopped using the lid altogether for that purpose, but maybe the BRONZclay is more particular about oxygen exposure.
• I used SLIK as a release agent, rather than olive oil
• For the holes that split open, I probably need to leave a wider strip of clay on the skinny side of the donut

I think it’s significant that the pieces appear to be fully sintered.  I whacked on them with a hammer, and flattened out some of the domed pieces.  They are quite strong and even marred the face of my hammer (darn it).  To me, this points to a temperature shock from pulling the pan out of the kiln too fast.

Perhaps someone out there can provide some advice. I’ll also shoot this out to the MC forum for more insight.  I really want to create in bronze and I’m looking forward to trying Hadar’s formula and Bill’s new Fast Fire formula, which is coming out later this month.  Hopefully, I can figure out how to make something beautiful from the clay I have on hand.  I’ll keep trying based on what I learn from this experience.