Friday, February 17, 2012

Star of David

My sister complains that it is hard to find Judaica jewelry.  I decided to make her a Star of David with metal clay.  The picture doesn't do it justice.

I had made a stamp of this design for Rosh Hashanah.  I used the stamp to make a mold with Mega Mold.  It took me four tries to get it right!  I suggest letting it dry for another 15-20 minutes without the object being used for impression to make sure it's solid.

Then I used the mold with the clay.  After removing the clay, I used my tissue blade to cut away the excess.  I wanted to add a crystal in the middle, but they don't hold up under firing. I knew I'd have to glue it in later.  But the center impression was perfectly sized, and I knew it would shrink with firing.  So how to hold it open?   I had a jump ring that was the perfect size of the opening, so I stuck it in and fired it in place.  Of course, that meant it wouldn't come out, and the firing changed the color to black.  So to fix that, I painted oil paste over the top of the jump ring and re-fired it.  Now it was silver like the rest of the piece. Then I glued in the crystal.

The one thing I forgot to do was to use my acrylic block to press the design before drying to smooth it out somewhat.  So it ended up being a little rougher than I would have liked.  However, overall, I'm pleased.  and my sister loves it, so that's what matters!


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