What's in the works?

Well...let me tell you....crowns, two crowns, to be exact. These crowns are more than likely going to be my entries for this year's PMC Annual, so they have to be finished by the end of the month. I'm feeling confident that I can get them done in that time frame, but I've got a lot of work between now and then.

The first already has a home. I'm trading this crown with a women in Sweden and I'll share the wonderful thing I'm trading for, when it gets here. For now you'll have to be happy with the crown.

Here's the original sketch

As you can see I'm calling this crown Wind Swept and it's more asymmetrical than my usual work. I was really happy with how this drawing came out. The thing I liked best was the variation in line thickness and I really worried about keeping that look in the execution of the crown.

Here's the first phase of building the crown

And this is the current state of the crown

So far I'm really happy. The look is very close to the original and the feeling is right on. I need to add the texture to the surface of the crown. When it's fired and formed I'll start to add the stones or gems. I'm still debating with myself about 3mm cabs or 3mm gems. I want to wait and see the crown in it's true form, then I can see if it wants adornment or sparkle.

I'm using the new PMC pro for this so I'm a tiny bit worried about all the bending, hammering and soldering yet to come. But I've heard good things about the formula, so I'm hoping for the best.

The second crown, Queen of Hearts, is all for me and my new little lady. It's also going to be made from PMC pro and I ended up deviating from the original sketch quite a bit.

Here's the original sketch

I really wanted to keep the crown as delicate at the sketch so the "snakes" of metal clay that I'm using are between 2 and 3 cards thick, or maybe I should say thin. And I feel like I'm getting the right feel.

Here's my first stab at the crown.

I was pretty happy until I realized that I had gotten one side far shorter and more "cramped" than the other side. So I had to take the exacto knife to the crown. And hence I needed to take a second stab at the crown.

This is how it looked for three days while I got over being super mad at myself for not stopping the second I realized I was getting a little off.

But the PMC pro really was flexible and forgiving and I was able to correct my error and not have to start completely over. I'm very happy about that. I'm not sure I could've made the same major fixes with PMC+, which is what I usually use. The PMC pro really showed it's strength in this phase of the process. And...

Here's the final design.

The Queen of Hearts also awaits it's final texture. When it's fired and formed I plan to hang crystals, and maybe pearls, all over the crown. Really filling the open spaces with elegant sparkle.

And these crowns aren't the only things I've been working on...to be continued...