The Joy of Metal Clay: November Copper Poppy Brooch

Here is part two of the poppy I started last week. When we left of,f it had come out of the kiln and needed pickling and polishing.

After pickling and polishing the poppy I decided it needed some colour.

I enjoy using Pebeo paints for glass to add a bit of colour. I am always surprised at how well it turns out. Usually, anyway.....

I had to paint this poppy several times. The first attempt was a big failure, the colour changed significantly when I was heat setting the paint.

I used my toaster oven, which isn't always the most reliable for heat and I heated the piece at a higher temperature than I usually do. I usually heat set it at 200F...but I read the bottle and it suggested a higher temperature....Won't do that again.

Once the paint is set the challenge was removing the paint, I tried paint stripper with some success but still had a few spots that seemed to be darkened by the paint. I was almost going to give up when I noticed a bottle of GOOF OFF in my studio area (which is shared with our workshop area). Hmmm...I put a bit on a paper towel and VOILA it came off!!!

I repainted that piece and cured it at 200F this time and below is the result!!!

Finally after curing the paint, I added the brooch finding. I used a two part epoxy resin that I had in my workshop, rather than mixing up my other jewelry resin. This resin set in two hours rather than my jewelry resin plus I only mixed what I needed.