Call for Entries

My fourth book is coming along pretty quickly and will hopefully be available late this summer. The title is: Patterns of Color in Metal Clay: Canes, Gradients, Mokume-Gane.

The techniques introduced in this book are inlay, bulls-eye canes, mokume-gane, wood grain (a specific instance of mokume-gane), stripes, gradient surfaces (in which one color gradually blends into the other), and mixing colors (to create rose gold colors and other golden hues). There is a partial overlap between bulls-eye canes and mokume-gane. The clays used are bronze, copper, White Bronze, and Pearl Grey Steel.

When I started exploring color patterns, my first instinct was to study polymer clay techniques and apply them to metal clay. I soon realized that in most cases it doesn’t work. The main reason is that metal clay is fired at a high temperature, and that causes some alloying between adjacent metals. Colors seen before firing may be very different from those seen after firing, to the point that the technique used does not accomplish its goal. The book offers alternative ways of achieving color patterns similar to those achieved with polymer clay as well as new ones.

This is mainly what I have been teaching in the past year in my ongoing classes, intensives, and travel-teaching workshops. Teaching this material hands-on in different parts of the world helps me realize what problems readers may encounter while reading the book, and what projects appeal to people most. This experience helps refine the projects, adjust them to readers’ needs and preferences, and answer potential questions.

So, if you have taken one of my workshops or intend to take one in the near future, you are welcome to submit your work to the book. There is still plenty of time, and I am usually able to add photos just before it goes to the printer (please don’t wait until the last minute, though). Please have a look at my Travel-Teaching-Schedule for workshops offered in the next few months. (The July intensive’s dates have been corrected: it’s July 2-6).

Here are some photos from the last intensive. (As usual, no names. Full credits will be published in the book.)

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 10:43 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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