Pendant
2.5in (high) x 2.5in (wide) x 0.5in (deep)

Inspiration
This piece is my ode to spring. After a long cold winter, I love the spring and countryside walks! I can’t wait to see the flowers bloom, the bees buzz and the butterflies arrive.

The pendant is an open lentil bead with a detailed hillside scene in the middle. Flowers, leaves, a bee and butterfly complete the springtime theme. I want the viewer to feel as if they are looking past the flowers to the scene beyond.

I like the idea of grabbing the viewers attention and then surprising them with more detail as their eye roves around the piece.

I am teaching my open lentil pendant workshop at SINTER 24 and this piece came about from my desire to see how far I could push the technique. I wanted to create a statement piece using the same techniques to show the extent to which the techniques can be used.

Techniques
The main frame is a huge lentil bead with the centre cut out. I make the lentil with the centre removed from the start so I don’t waste clay.

The back piece of the lentil has the cut out part off centre, so if seen from the side, the bottom of the pendant is thicker than the top. This gave me more room to create the scene.

The scene is modelled with wet lump clay over a papermache armature. The left hill has a fence line and texture carved in after the piece is dry. I also used paste to make the groups of trees that you see on the hills on the back and right sides.

I wanted the back to be finished nicely as well, so there are more trees and texture added to the back of the hills.

All the leaves, flowers, bees and butterfly are pieces made from commercial moulds. I layer the pieces to create a deeper 3D effect, often carve into them to get a better relief and shape them so the flowers are not flat or cut them up to make different shapes.

The butterfly was particularly tricky as I wanted it as delicate as I could make it. Commercial butterfly moulds are not delicate! So I moulded a butterfly then carved away some of the weight, which was very tricky on a tiny shape. The butterfly broke twice as it overhangs the centre so I backed it with a leaf for strength.

The bail is an integral part of the design with a single coiled strand of clay wrapping from one side around into two loops at the top and back down the other side.

The patina is Liver of Sulphur, the petrol blue is a beautiful, lucky finish that I find I’m able to achieve with XL Gel and hot tap water.

Materials

Fine silver clay

Juror’s Comments:

The excellent design concept and execution of this pendant clearly shows the modeling possibilities of metal clay. The sculptual quality of the landscape is compelling and effective with skillfully made embellishments. The patina color is a perfect contribution to the work.