** Ringu **

It's taken a long time to get to this, 

I have finally bitten the bullet,

taken the plunge, 

stepped from the frying pan and into the fire.

Yes. 

I've made a ring!

I knew it would be a challenge, and of course I wasn't going to start off simple.

No.

Simple would be too..... 

Um... simple.

Where's the challenge in simple?

So I bit off more than I could chew and chewed, and chewed, and chewed.

It isn't perfect, but I'm very happy with what I have achieved.

 

This one is called "Courage".

Courage to bite off more than I can chew, personally, professionaly and creatively.

xo K

Shrinkage

When creating a piece from Precious Metal Clay you need to keep in mind the shrinkage which will occur when firing your creation. 

Shrinkage occurs because the organic material in the clay burns off during the firing process to leave the pure silver. I use PMC 3 which shrinks around 10-12% during the firing process.

Don't get me wrong shrinkage is not a bad thing ;)

When a piece with an etched design shrinks the detail becomes finer. So depending on the effect you are looking forward the shrinking can be used to your advantage to create the kind of super fine detail you would otherwise not be able create with a non-shrinking clay. By the way all versions of PMC shrink when fired. The original version in excess of 20%!

This picture shows the cutter I used to cut each shape. As you can see the orignal size is clearly larger than the fired piece. These bits are fresh out of the oven today. 

xoK

Lucky Cat

Yay to the Lucky Cat!

My good friend Gay bought him back from Sydney after a recent trip for work.

She knew I've been wanting one of these for ages. I love the waving arm.

He now has pride of place on my workbench, waving and watching...

Little bit freaky really, but I heart him.

xoK

Coming Soon * This is the new stuff *

I was feeling a bit cranky on the way home from work today... 

I knowwwww... 

Finished work for the day! 

How is it possible to be cranky?! 

Sometimes the best thing is to think about something else. 

So when I got home I headed straight for the workbench, unpacked the goodies and started making...

Coming soon to a online store near you... more Krisi's Kreations!

Birdies, Koi fishies and some shapey shapes.

xoK

New Creations * Graphic Pieces *

Look what just came out of my workshop. 

I feel so productive and creative right now. Maybe it's because the weather is warming up and the workshop in the garage seems slightly more inviting than it has these past few months.

xoK

The caiotic inspiration wall

This is only part of it. Lots of pretty pics to ponder when I need an idea or twenty. Also covers the ugly chunk o' gyprock that is hiding the uglier brick wall.

xoK :-)

Rearranged workspace

I spent a bit of time last week rearranging my workspace. I was hoping I had a long enough chunk of wood (ie. left over from the kitchen reno) to extend the shelf the entire length of the bench but the bits are either too long or too short. Sigh. So it looks like I'll actually have to use one of the extensive range of tools in my 'man kit' to saw something. Later.

So even with a small amount of shuffling of the stuff I've managed to create a bit more space to work on.

I even got my inspiration wall sorted. Well what I call organised ciaos. There's a pic of that in my next post.

xoK :)

Music for my ears

I found these fabo wee speakers for my iPhone the other day. They can

be folded flat so I could take them anywhere. Best thing about them is

they have pictures of my favourite things on them. Shoes!!!

They are now on the shelf in my freshly rearranged workspace, ready to
blast out some tunes.

xoK :-)

New Creations * Hearts with Love

These are some of the new things I've been working on. They are quietly

drying away in a cozy spot on the workbench away from kitty paws.

I can't wait to get them fired and polished.

This pic was sent from my phone direct so the orientation isn't right...sorry 'bout that...

Will post more pics when they are baked :) xx K

Messy Workshop and Prometheus in Bake Mode

I made some pendants over the weekend, finished them yesterday so tonight was firing night.

Here's a pic of Promey cooking up a storm and the organised ciaos on my bench.