Concentric Circles Project

Like a kid eager to try out a new toy with her old playmates, I went back to the projects that I published in my books and tried to make them with bronze and copper clay. What better way to get accustomed to a new medium! When students first come to me to learn how to use bronze and copper clay, I tell them to make what they are most familiar with so they don’t have to deal with more than one challenge at a time. So if you’ve already made some of my projects, you may be interested in how I “translated” them to bronze and copper clay.

The first one is Concentric Circles, from book 1 The Handbook of Metal Clay: Textures and Forms, p. 26.

1. Follow exactly the same steps as in the book.

2. For the back layer, use copper clay.

3. For variety, cut the washers off center. As you can see, I also didn’t try to maintain a perfect circle.

4. For the inner circle, roll a layer of bronze clay and lay 2 “snakes” on it in the shape of an X.

5. Flatten the circle using a rolling pin, then cut it using the smallest circular cutter.

5. Finish as in part 2 of the project Necklace or Bracelet with Bronze and Copper Clay here on my blog. You can use Baldwin’s patina on the inner circles only, to highlight the lines.


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