Friday, February 16, 2018

A Bit More Mokume Gane

I have a couple more pieces I made recently while on the mokume gane kick, and wanted to share them here.  This first set is made using a polymer clay stack of alternating colors, pressed with various objects, then sliced thin.  I really liked the sea blue-green color I custom-mixed and the way the design turned out.  I decided to leave the matte finish.  One of the polymer colors I used was the black glitter accents from Premo! and the sparkle and shine from that color contrasts really nicely with the matte of the blue-green and cream colors I mixed.

This second set was made a bit differently.  I rolled out the layers of clay so they were quite thin, then pressed a rubber stamp into the clay.  I only needed to shave off a thin layer of the clay to reveal the design from the stamp impression.  This method only produces one sheet of design, but it allows the user to make an impression that imitates the picture or design on a rubber stamp.  In this case, I wanted a high shine, so I covered the baked pieces with Magic Gloss for that extra depth and shine.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Mokume Gane Demo

I really, really like the effects one can achieve with the mokume gane technique.  Actually, there have been several different iterations of mokume gane in polymer, so I should, perhaps, refer to it as the mokume gane "concept." Recently, the Westerly Artist's Gallery held a demonstration of various art techniques, and I demonstrated mokume gane in polymer.

The first photo, to the right, shows the polymer stack from which the sheet slices came, and a pendant and earrings made from those slices.

The three piece pendant on the left  was also created with sheets from this stack.  I really like this new shape form I found, and the tiered look is fun.  I covered these pieces with Magic Gloss which adds another level of depth to the design.

The last photo shows another pair of earrings, and a brass cuff bracelet. This is a very versatile technique, and would look great covering handles or other objects.