Retreat to an old friend

I still haven't made it back to working in clay. I don't know what's holding me back, but I do know that it's to do with losing Jasper. I had a couple of half-baked ideas sitting on my metals bench, so I retreated to that as my making medium. This photo isn't great, since you can't tell that the tube-set stone is a blue topaz. But you get the idea. It's a departure from my older work. . .more contemporary looking. 

I'm still a reliable metalsmith. I'm not such a reliable ceramicist. The throwing has improved vastly, and my hand building is something I can be proud of. But the glazing. . .that final opportunity to screw up. . . remains a nemesis. So back to what is easy. Known.

I had made a blank for this anticlastic cuff when I was thinking about a piece for the Citizens' Climate Lobby silent auction. I ended up donating 2 pieces of pottery instead, so this piece of copper sat on my bench for a few months. So back to it: Annealing, hammering, annealing, hammering, repeat. It is a known  process, if a little tough on the hands. I love the shadow in the first image, but the second gives a better ideal of who she is.

 

 

I also had some PMC that I've had since before we moved to Maine. It's at least 5 years old, but was so well packaged that it was still usable. For the unfamiliar, PMC is precious metal clay. It's fine silver that has been suspended in a Fimo-like base, so it can be worked like that plastic clay. But you fire it according to directions, and the base fires out, and you're left with fine silver, which is easy to solder, patina,etc. 

My photography setup isn't fabulous, but my little Nikon Coolpix does a decent job with these small items. Both of these are post earrings, fine silver and sterling, and on the right those are garnet cabochons. 

The garden continues, but we're down to tomatoes, beans, kale and raspberries for harvesting. Potatoes, pumpkins and apples will come at the end of September if all goes as it has so far. The summer seems shorter than usual this year. I'm thinking it's because we lost 6 weeks or so with Jasper being ill and then grieving for him. I still think of him many times every day. Mostly good thoughts.