A Book Review and a Faux Metal Epoxy Clay Pendant Necklace

I have a review of “Inspired Remnants, Curious Dreams Mixed-Media Projects in Epoxy Clay” by Kerin Gale up on Craft Test Dummies today.  I hope you’ll stop by and read the review. Its a fun book featuring a product that I’d never used before.

So let me tell you a story about how this piece came to be. I was reading the book and came across the technique “Creating a Faux Aged Finish” and the project “Vintage Gentleman” and I remembered a couple of pieces of metal I’d seen here in my studio a few times. They were left behind by the previous home owners and while I knew they went together I had NO IDEA what it used to be. I knew I wanted to keep it around though. You know, just in case.

So after a little hunting I remembered where I had put it in the last studio clean up and I went to the internet and searched the information printed on the front of the larger piece.

Finally, after 13 years of living here and periodically running across them I found that they were once part of a match holder. My pieces are the base/back and the bottom door.

So I broke out the Amazing Mold Putty that I wrote about in yesterday’s Toolbox Tuesday: Amazing Mold Putty post and created a mold for the door portion of my match holder.

Even though I washed the door and scrubbed it with a soft brush dirt still made it’s way into/on the mold. But it didn’t affect how the finished piece turned out.

Then I mixed Apoxie Sculpt according to directions and made a mold of the door.

Don’t ask me why I don’t have a photo of this part of the process but I don’t. Weird.

I (mostly) followed the instructions on page 19 of Curious Dreams to get the faux aged finish on the all white epoxy clay. Seriously, it looks a lot like the original match holder door. Only cleaner.

According to directions on the Apoxie Sculpt package you are supposed to be able to drill it when it’s cured and sure enough, I did. I drilled two holes at the top and five a long the bottom with my little hand held Fiskars Craft Drill.

I love that the edges aren’t perfect as it makes it look like this piece came off a much larger bit of metal. It gives it an air of mystery don’t you think?

I think I need to shorten the second and third chains as they are too close in length to the middle one, but other than that I really like it. The whole pendant measures 2 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches so it’s a good sized piece.

One little thing I learned while I was working on this is that heat softens the cured clay. So I’m guessing that if you wanted to make a cuff or even a ring you could mold the clay, cure it and then heat it up and wrap it around a form to get the shape you want. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but I’m thinking it could be done. Also, since the door to the match holder had a bend to it the heat flattened it out, which is a look I WASN’T going for. So I simply placed the heated clay back over the curved form and left it to cool. The cured piece took on the curve once again with no problems.

Ok, so now that I’m addicted to making molds and creating with Apoxie Sculpt I’m going to have to see what other mysterious objects I have lying around that can be turned into jewelry or mixed media pieces. Nothing is safe now! :)

Don’t forget to visit my full book review on Craft Test Dummies and if you are thinking of purchasing any of the products mentioned in this post I’d love it if you’d support this blog and all of its FREE tutorials and information by using my affiliate links:

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