Trying something new with my sandblaster
Recently, I tried to sandblast a blank ceramic mold, you know, just to see what would happen. The results were much better than expected! Below is a necklace using this sandblasted ceramics process that was published in Belle Armoire Jewelry Winter 2016. I just love the rough-cut edges the sandblasting created and how the glaze pools in the crevices. Here is a short tutorial.
Here are my steps.
For the image, I used part of a recently drawn tree of life design.
Image transferred to vellum
Film being exposed in a lightbox
Developing film by washing out
Drying film in a dehydrator
Centering the film on a ceramic mold
Sandblasting the ceramic mold in a sandblast cabinet
The ceramic mold, after being sandblasted
After sandblasting, I then tried to use the mold as a stamp for clay.
Using the sandblasted stamp creates high and low-relief patterns that I love. I plan on using this technique in many more designs.
UPDATE: I now use this process with precious metal clay to get my raised textural patterns. Here is a close-up of the results.
Thank you for stopping by!