16. CERAMIC JEWELRY

Materials — 2 lbs. jewelry clay; glazes; findings

Tools — plaster bat 4" x 4"; wood tools; wire tools; pointed tool

Lapel pins, clips, earrings, buttons, and neck­laces can be made by the ceramic process. A special clay, a fine-textured white clay with a high flint content which intensifies the glaze col­ors is best for this purpose. Either gray or terra cotta pottery clay may be used. For jewelry, the gray clay will be more attractive if covered with colored clay slips and a transparent glaze, or if covered with opaque glazes. The terra cotta clay may be partially covered with colored clay slips, fired once and left unglazed, or painted with transparent glaze.

Jewelry should be fired to Cone 06,1800° F., in the first firing; the glaze firing need not be as high. Lower temperature (such as Cone 015,1430° F.) glazes, with an alkaline or boracic base, over the jewelry clay recommended in this book will give brilliant clear colors (including red) par­ticularly desirable and suitable for small objects. It will be necessary for you to experiment at first, as your results will depend on the clay in use, the slip colors available, the results desired, and whether you have a test kiln or must send the pieces to be fired elsewhere.

When the jewelry problems are completed, fired, and maybe glazed, metal or plastic pin-backs, clips, or ear-screws must be attached to the backs of the pieces with duco or other cement. They can be obtained from jewelry and ceramic sup­ply houses. A more secure attachment is guar­anteed if the pin-back, clip, or ear-screw is pressed into the back of the pin, clip, or earring to form a hollow while the clay is still damp. The metal or plastic will not withstand heat—do not fire.

As jewelry pieces are small in size, they require particular attention and consideration. Try each of the following in order, starting with the lapel pin because it is the largest and easiest to make.

LAPEL PIN. Make several designs for a pin about 2" in the largest dimension. Try a geometric de­sign, using overlapping rectangles, a triangle and square, a circle and triangle, or any other combination of shapes. Wedge the clay thor­oughly in your fingers. Pat a piece of clay on a plaster bat to about 2" square and ⅛" thick (Figure 1). Draw your design on it. Model your design, making one unit higher by adding extra clay, and the other slightly lower by adding less clay or cutting into the background (Fig­ure 2). Use your tools to smooth and shape sur­faces and edges. You will find the blade ends of the tools convenient for flat surfaces and the round ends practical for modeling curved sur­faces. Round off the edges. You can put a tex­ture on the background by stippling it with the pointed end of a tool (Figure 2). When leather hard, paint the two units of the design in differ­ent colored clay slips. When dry, fire in a test kiln to 1800° F., or have it fired. Paint the pin with a transparent glaze and fire a second time. All clay shrinks in drying; in jewelry allow about 10% for shrinkage.

Figure 1 —Pat a piece of clay to about 2" square.

Figure 2—Use a geometric motif in two or three levels.

Make a second lapel pin using an animal form (Figure 3). A horse head, a fish, a bird form, or a mask of a human head in profile or front view will make an interesting pin. Model in very low relief, using only shallow planes or incised lines about ¼" deep. Do not attempt to be realistic, but keep a feeling for decorative treatment. Eliminate details and work for a flat linear or plane design. When dry, fire in a test kiln to 1800° F., or have it fired. Apply one or more opaque glaze colors, any combination that suits you, and fire again.

Figure 3-Model in low relief.

Figures 4 & 5—Mm by Jean Cochran.

EARRINGS. In making earrings, begin with a sim­ple motif such as a circle or square about ⅜" in size. Make two identical ones at the same time or make one and cast it in plaster (see Project XIX). Model it in low relief. You can paint designs on with one or two colored clay slips in addition to or instead of the relief. In making the design, plan the ornament to harmonize with the shape of the earring. For example, paint concentric circles, or a dot or two, on a round earring; a rectangle, or crossed bands, on a square ear­ring. Fire when dry in a test kiln to 1800° F., or have them fired. Paint with transparent glaze and fire again. As an alternative, you can fire the earrings once and apply opaque glazes and fire a second time.

BUTTONS AND BEADS. Buttons can be made for wear. It is best to model one button in pottery clay, cast it, and then press as many as are needed. Wedge the clay thoroughly in your fin­gers. Pat a piece of clay on a plaster bat to ¼" in thickness. Describe a 1" circle, or a smaller or larger one if you wish. Round off the edges and incise a design with a sharp tool. A spiral or a simple conventionalized animal form will make a good design. Cast the button in plaster (see Proj­ect XIX). Press several buttons, as many as you wish, in the mold.

Do this by pressing clay into the mold with thumb or fingers, scrape off excess with metal pallet, turn over and tap mold lightly. If button does not fall out, touch a soft ball of clay to it and pull. If it still will not release, chances are that there are undercuts. Carefully remove clay from mold and carve away the plaster projections which are   holding  the  button   in  the  mold.  When leather-hard, paint with one or two colored clay slips. Instead of the incised design, you can di­vide the original circle into two or three simple, modeled forms, cast, reproduce, and paint the buttons with slip of a contrasting color and scratch a design through it. Make a small coil about ⅛" round and fix a loop on the back of each button with slip. This is used to fasten the button to the garment. Carefully smooth the loop so that it will not cut the thread. When dry fire in a test kiln to 1800° F., or have them fired. Paint with a transparent glaze and fire again.

A variety of beads can be made from pottery clay and strung together to form interesting neck­laces. A simple way is to devise two units which can be alternated or used in combination (Figure 7). Make two coils, one ¼" and the other ½" in diameter. Cut the smaller coil into ½" lengths, and the larger coil into ¼" lengths (Figure 6). When both are leather hard, pierce a hole through the center about 1/16" in diameter with a pointed tool, i.e., large enough to allow for shrinkage and to admit the thread. Paint the smaller units with one colored slip, and the larger with a different color; for example, blue and white, or terra cotta and white. Fire the beads in a test kiln, to cone 06, 1800° F. Other suggestions for pottery necklaces are balls of the same or various sizes, cubes, discs, or pel­lets squeezed in the fingers into irregular shapes. Necklaces can also be made with large units such as discs or squares about 1" or 1 ¼" in size. These can have sgraffito or other decoration made on them and be pierced in two places and strung together with metal links so as to lie flat on the neck.

Figure 6—Units for beads can be cut from a single coil.

FIRING NECKLACES. In the first fire (the biscuit fire), the beads—balls or other units to form the necklace—can all be fired together. They can be placed in a bowl or plate that also needs fir­ing. However, special precaution should be taken when they are glazed, as they will stick together if they touch.

One way is to construct with pieces of porous re­fractory bricks, a series of uprights, 2"-3" high.

1" thick, 2" wide, across which a high-tempered steel wire may be stretched and secured. How far apart, and how many units to each interval de­pends on the size and weight of the individual bead. String and space them apart so that they do not touch and be sure that the wire does not sag. Glaze should be scraped away from the area around the hole so that bead, wire, and glaze do not become fused together during firing.

Figure 7—Necklaces by Albert D. Jacobson.

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