Doodle Designs

I have been playing around with doodle designs and drawing them onto ceramic clay.  I use a dull pencil to do this.  This becomes my mold or texture for making my pendant.

Here is my original doodle:

Here it is drawn into the clay and fired:

I rolled the ceramic clay into a 1/4" thick piece and pressed it onto the mold and cut it into a rectangle pendant.  I added holes at the top corners.  After it dried, I cleaned all the rough edges and fired it into bisque.  Then I glazed it in shiny ice blue and fired it in my kiln on special racks for the second time.

Ready to use pendant:

I wanted to keep this necklace simple, so I used 22g silver wire to make connectors to the chain.  I accented the pendant with 5mm silver spacer beads and Czech glass.  The chain is 18" and is finsihed with a small silver toggle clasp.

I have a bunch of ideas brewing for more designs.  This is really a lot of fun, and if you need some ideas, Pinterest has endless doodles you can try.  You could also do this technique with polymer clay and other mold making materials.

Michelle McCarthy
Firefly Design Studio

Ravens

Over the last few months I have had more and more request for Ravens! So finally here we are! I have created a series of Ephemera pendants for you to use in your jewelry creations that include these fabulous Ravens! These are in an unfinished stage, I have a lot left to do on these to make them listing ready, but this week is magic week! The week where things happen!

I could not resist these awesome images! I worked with Ella of Calico Collage to get this idea together. She makes about 75% of the images I use to create my charms and pendants. These of course I wanted to have in time for Halloween! I will be listing them in the next couple of days.

I want to remind you of all the wonderful ways you can use these. To start, I sell them un-drilled. This allows you to use your creative imagination to it's full potential! Some of you will choose to use them as they are and just add a magnet to the back or even add them to your scrapbooking pages! Very versatile!

My favorite way to use them is with Vintaj filigree! This adds a certain "je ne sais quois" to the pieces of jewelry I create. It gives a touch of romance and mystery! Perfect for these Ravens! The dark laciness of it...I love it! 

I have even seen some of you wrap them in wire! What a creative use of these small pieces! 

At anytime of course you can have them custom drilled at no extra cost to you. There is the simple top drill. Just look at the image to see if that is where you want the hole. You can also top and bottom drill to add dangles! What about each corner for a bracelet maybe? Or a little lower on the sides... I can even do three strand bracelet drill for some of these! 

One of the most used drilling options is the two top corners and bottom center. This makes the piece a focal with the possibility of endless dangles!

So many ways to use these! So look for them in the Skye Jewels Supply shop this week...

Thanks so much for another fun visit!

Marie

**Speaking of Vintaj, October's challenge just happens to be "Radiant Raven" what a coincidence! Maybe some of you will want to use these in your design?**