Joy of Metal Clay

 This week was primarily taken up with making a dog tag for our new dog Boston.  The boys voted for a dog bone shape which we had drew onto the clay.  The best way to make your own shape is to create a template and then trace it onto the clay but we used the free form approach.

We used Art Clay Copper.  One thing I would do differently  next time is to roll the piece much thicker.  We used six card thickness (approximately 1.5 mm) but to me the finished piece does not feel as solid as I want it to.  Although our new canine family member is already ten years old making him a senior, he still loves to run and play.  In the long run he needs a more solid tag.  Next time I think we will make the piece 2.5 mm thick.  Art Clay Copper loses some thickness through skrinkage and a bit more through oxidization.

We struggled to remove the fire scale.  This could be in part due the possibility that my pickle is too weak.  Of course rather add more pickle., I stubbornly fought and scrapped off a large part o the fire scale. I forgot the frustrations removing firescale can cause.

Anyway here is the result.  (for some reason when I uploaded the picture to the post it rotated and I wasn't able to figure out how to fix it), sorry.

We decided to add green on the inside of the letters to match his new collar; this was done using Pebeo paints.  I think next time I may try and add some polymer clay into the indentation for colour (but I need to research this technique)

My model was tired out and wouldn't pose very well.

Boston in action!