Art Clay Silver certification and more...

Last weekend Sadaf and I completed the requirements for the Art Clay certification.  It was cool and we made all 7 pieces, some are definitely our favourites, some not so much but was good learning experience overall.  I never did make a piece completely using syringe and it was challenging but now I know:)

At home, decided to give "plique a jour" enameling method a try and was proud when I actually succeeded in it in the first try (well, first try that actually went into the kiln).  It took a couple of tries, a peek into one of the best enamel books by Linda Darty and a deep breath to get the enamel to stick on the syringe pendant I made for certification (which has no backing).

Ordered a macro lens finally so waiting for it to arrive next week so I can take pictures and start posting the projects I have been working on, including the latest bronze pieces!!

color...color and oh yeah color.....

I have been designing and making jewelry for 7 years now.  Maybe its the 7 year itch but suddenly I became a full time student....For the past few months, I have been learning about enameling, different techniques of using Metal Clay, different types of metal clay....Yesterday I dabbed the day in playing with Glass Clay...I have to say I am not a big fan of Glass clay although I absolutely love Glass work. 




Enameling on the other hand, stole my heart.  It brought back all the childhood "wishes"....I used to have this beautiful little gold pendant as far as I can remember with two peacocks which are enameled and I always used to admire and wonder how they do it.....and to be able to learn that now is just absolutely amazing....Here's the first piece I ever enameled...

And I usually like my pendants to be beautiful on both sides especially the flat ones....and in enameling, its advisable to do counter enameling (enamel the back side too), its only natural to make the other side as beautiful as the front...


As I get more pieces ready with enameling I will post them here and soon will start blogging about how some of these can be done...

Sterling Silver class by Patrik Kusek

Took an intense weekend class to learn all about Sterling Silver Clay offered by Patrik Kusek....And decided to do both the projects he was offering...a pendant and a ring:)  This is my first time working with Sterling Silver and also my first ever ring I made.  It was awesome learning new techniques and had lots of fun with all the other 'students'.  Patrik is a great teacher (Thanks Pat for referring him to us) and hoping to take more in the future.

We not only learn how to work with Sterling Silver, but also how to incorporate UV resin with Silver to make a beautiful center.  I never thought I will use UV resin into Silver but learnt how elegant it can be!

Here's the pendant I made in the class.  This pendant has a hole in the center to let light through.  And I loved the SteamPunk theme Patrik had in the example and decided to adopt that. I used Lisa Pavelka's steampunk collection of gears in the pendant.  I also incorported a piece of paper from pre-1920's printing along with a couple of pieces of gold and copper foil for color.

To test out resin, Patrik made us do a sample in a bottle cap.  This came out sooo good, I turned it into a magnet for my little one who absolutely loved it.

Science and Art or Art and Science

As people who are familiar with me knows I LOVE Science....especially all the fun experiments you get to do in the name of science:)  I do a few Science shows in schools and a lot more experiments at home with our little one.

This weekend I am having a Jewelry show and decided to mix it up a little with Science...Maybe create a bit of Instant Snow for the guests while they are sipping wine or tea to get them into the winter holiday mood or let the kid in everyone's heart come out while playing with the amazing Chinese bowl that sprays water to refresh.... and a few others... 

Will post some pictures after the show and I am excited to mix up Science and Art.  Along with Jewelry, I am also making a few of these adorable gifts with live succulents in it which are easy to take care of and liven up any work place (and ofcourse home)..

@The SantaCruz Heritage Fair unveiling Childrens artwork jewelry line

So ofcourse I didn't stop at just entering the competition.  I have been working on this new line to customize jewelry with childrens' artwork.  I wish I was more ready than I am by this time of the year but atleast I still managed to unveil it at the SantaCruz Heritage Fair well before Christmas.

The idea is simple:  With just 3 steps, you can get your child's artwork turned into a family heirloom that you can enjoy daily and keep it for ever.

(a) Pick a drawing (or more if you want).  This is the hardest part
(b) Send us a copy of the drawing or a good scanned image.
(c) Select the product you want in the shape you want, in the size you want

And we will miniaturize the drawing, make it into a stamp, imprint it onto Fine Silver, antique it (or not depending on your preference) and send it to you.  And if that's not enough, I add a nice design on the back of the pendant (or keychain) so you can use it reversible. It is also possible for a little extra charge to put two drawings on each side or the name of the child and the year they drew the picture so even after a decade or two, you can always look at it and tell exactly when they drew it.

The products to choose:

(a) Pendant only  (b) Pendant with chain  (c) designer necklace  (d) bracelet (e) key ring (f) charm necklace or bracelet (sizes will be between 0.5in to 0.75 inches each).

Sizes:  (a)  approx. 1 inch  (b)  approx 2 inches

Shape:  (a) Circle (b) Oval (c) Square (d) Rectangle (e) Triangle (f) Flower

Pattern to choose if you want to for the backside (free of charge)

A couple of examples....

Celebrating Childrens artwork

Along with the relaunch, I am bringing out a new line of products in Kuukivi.  I have to say my little son is the inspiration behind this entire line.  He draws the cutest cars and stick figures and ofcourse gives them to us.  While I do save them, I dont get to enjoy them as often as I would like because they are always inside a box for protection.  That's when I got the idea to look into how to save them and still enjoy them whenever I want to.  That's when I encountered Metal Clay Silver, pure silver in powder form with organic binding thus making it look and feel like clay and once the design is done, just firing it up in a kiln burns off the binding leaving pure silver piece behind.

As luck would have it, found a great teacher Pat Evans and started taking classes and expanding my horizons.  Recently there was a competition for metal clay Silver with a requirement to have a hinge in the piece created.  That gave me an idea to create a miniature scrapbook made with Silver with my little one's drawings and a couple of my favorite textures added.  Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful memorybook I created.....I made this to look like a scrapbook found after a century or so - really antique with bumps and dents and.... Then I included my little one's first ring (gift from a friend when he was born) onto the hinge and his picture on the front set in resin.....

Kuukivi reborn again....

2years, 8 months and a week after the last post, Kuukivi is reborn again.  We came back to North California a few months ago and I decided to relaunch Kuukivi again.  Only this time, adding a new innovative product line and focusing more on that but ofcourse will always have new original design line as well.


It has been a very interesting 3 years with me starting a science museum in Tampere, Finland which I was working on even while I was working on Kuukivi here.  Unfortunately the financial model didnt work out in Finland and had to close the science museum there although children absolutely loved the place and got me the nickname of Science Lady (which my son makes sure it stays).


I just wanted to stop procrastinating and start posting Kuukivi blog again...will add the details about the new line and post pictures very soon...  I do have a FaceBook page for Kuukivi and did post a few pictures in the last few days which I need to get them here as well....

Apart from my original designs, I started learning and using MetalClay Silver for added flexibility in designs etc and its Fine Silver....I love working with Metal Clay for another reason too.  I wanted to make Kuukivi as green as possible and MetalClay gives me that option as the Metal Clay Silver is completely made from recylced Silver..