Thursday, June 27, 2013

Kamloops Button Now in a Pendant

Our "Kamloops" button has been extremely popular and by far our best selling button.  We discovered that many people who were purchasing the original button were buying them as souvenirs and gifts for their friends.  Dave suggested I create a pendant using the same design and so now there are some available for sale at Heather's Fabric Shelf in North Shore Kamloops.



For those of you who are not familiar with the area, Kamloops is a beautiful city built around two rivers (North and South Thompson) that come together.  The main area is in a sort of "bowl" with the unique hills surrounding it.



I created the pendant in a similar manner as making the buttons.  I wanted to capture an image that represents Kamloops the best which includes the river and the semi-arid and dry looking hills.  These hills are  beautiful shades of green in the spring but as it gets hot in the summer, they slowly turn to a reddish brown and will stay that way for the rest of the year.


To create the scene, I used a stacked clay "mokume gane"  technique similar to what I learned from Julie Picarello.  (For those who have taken Julie's workshop or purchased her book, would have already recognized it, I'm sure.)


To create my scenes, I made my own shaped cutters for the hill and the river.  For my stacks of clay, I used 2 different color mixes, one for the summer and the other for winter.  I then impressed the clay stacks with  my handmade cutters to create the pattern.  I then sliced my clay stack to reveal different color and design variations so that each piece comes out totally unique and one of a kind.

2 comments:

Christine said...

They look beautiful! Kamloops looks like a beautiful part of the world.

Sometimes we don't always appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. Where I live in the South Wales valleys we too are surrounded by mountains and at the moment they are such a beautiful lush green in colour,come September the ferns on them will turn a reddish brown.

I think that Julie Picarillo's influence is very recognisable and distinct.I too find her work very inspiring,I purchased her book a few months ago and was so pleased with it.

2 Good Claymates said...

Thanks Christine, It is very beautiful here and is cool how we have traveled to other areas in the world and there are many similarities.

It was a great to have the opportunity to take a workshop from Julie and I love her book as well. I find her work very inspiring.