Art in Metal Clay by Hadar Jacobson918 Ventura Ave, Berkeley, CA 94707-2123, (510) 528-4193hadar@pacbell.net • www. hadarjacobson .com

Five Pairs of Mirror-Image Bulls Eye Earrings

Materials: Quick-fire copperQuick-fire bronzeQuick-fire Steel XT, low- or high-shrinkage

1. Roll a layer of copper, 6 cards thick; bronze, 3 cards thick, steel, 1 card thick. Out of each layer cut 2 circles with a 2" diameter circle cutter. Stack the circles in the following order: copper, bronze, steel.

2. Place the die with the square hole in the cap of the extruder.

3. Place the stack in the barrel with the steel circle next to the die. This will be the clay that comes out of the hole first.

The diameter of the circle cutter can be a little less than 2".

Placing the stack in the 2" barrel as described in step 3 is the opposite way of placing it in a smaller extruder.

The reason is, that although the amount of steel is relatively small, the absolute amount is much bigger than in a smaller extruder, and will have a hard time sintering. Placing the stack the opposite way in the barrel breaks the total amount of steel used into small sections and avoids concentrations of large amounts of steel in one spot. That’s what allows it to sinter at a temperature lower than its ideal sintering temperature (mid-fire instead of high-fire).

The weight of this stack is 80 grams (including water).

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4. Extrude the stack. The extruded cane is now covered with a thin layer of steel clay. The length of the cane is 1¾".

5. If necessary, correct the shape of the cane with craft sticks or wooden blocks.

6. Optional: cut a thin slice from the beginning of the cane (the part that came out first, which consists mostly of steel).

7. Cut another slice, 3-4 mm wide. It should only be wide enough to have an embeddable inserted in it.

8. Cut another slice, identical in size. This is the first pair of earrings.

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9. The front of the earrings should be the cross sections that faced each other when they were sliced. This makes sure they are a mirror image of each other. As you can see in the photo on the right, their backs are not mirror image.

10. Continue slicing the rest of the cane. As you can see, the design changes slightly along the cane, but at every cross section the pair are a mirror image of each other.

11. This step is important: back each slice with a 2-card layer of copper clay. This will prevent the different metals from separating and force them to shrink at the same rate.

12. Insert a 22-gauge bronze wire eyelet or embeddable at the top of each earrings.

13. Fire at mid-fire schedule (see the Instruction Manual on my blog at www.hadarjacobson.com/blog.)

14. Finish the earrings following the finishing instructions in the document “Finishing Fired Metal Clay,” on my blog at www.hadarjacobson.com/blog.

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Variation: Make a Bracelet

This time use the same stack with the rectangular-hole (slotted) die.

The length of the extruded cane will be almost 2½".

Cut the whole cane into slices. The slices should be wide enough to drill a small hole in them for a beading wire or elastic cord.

In each slice stick two pins sideways, to start the hole. When the slices dry, pull out the pins and enlarge the holes.

(I haven’t had a chance to finish this bracelet yet. )☹