My Metal Clay Creative Process

Making jewelry really is a process.... of imagination and digging deep.  I try to be in the moment but it doesn't hurt to look to the past for inspiration.  I've shown a similar process before but I thought I'd share it again.... 

Twenty years ago, in a college printmaking class, I drew a design on a tar covered zinc plate and etched it in acid.  The finished plate was then printed on paper with black ink (see below).

Then recently I decided to have a rubber stamp made of the design to possible use in jewelry making.  I photocopied the print, reduced the size and sent it in to the rubber stamp company (here's how I found the idea!). I ended up using the matrix that creates the rubber stamp to mold the clay.  Below you will see the raw clay after pressed into the mold and cut out, then the finished product after firing and polishing.  I have ended up creating two pieces from the original design (so far)...

I have found that this process is much easier than carving into very small pieces of clay and I can achieve  a more three dimensional look.  Hope this helps!

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.  

~Georgia O'Keeffe