Slaying! Nope, not the dragon!

A wonderful clay buddy of mine from Albany WA once termed silver claying as 'slaying' and it stuck. I've been in slaying heaven for the last three days. I wanted to combine gems (which can't be fired) with silver clay so I fired a pre-made bezel cup into a hole (made with 'it' as the cutting tool) learned from Hadar Jacobsons first book 'The Handbook of Metal Clay". Great book and well worth the purchase. Pity I stuffed up the part where the stone falls nicely into place...it didn't, it went in on a slight angle and got stuck, I couldn't pull it out. So Ms Impatience decided 'oh stuff it' and pushed it as far as it could go, still on an ever so slight angle...which ofcourse made fitting the bezel snugly around it nice and neat an impossible task. Lesson learned. Next time I'll be placing dental floss underneath the stone till I know it's sitting right. Live n learn.
I've had success with applying gold to silver...adding paste (or better yet, acs overlay paste!) directly after it's cooled from firing, then two/three layers of gold paste or aura 22, drying before each next coat, torch fire and burnish gold while still hot...a tip I got from Jen at Metal Clay Australia
I also made Curt a kombi pendant...there's been a shift in our relationship and I felt the urge to make something precious for him. It HAD to be a kombi didn't it! He loves it.
All in all, a very satisfying few days. I'm so glad to be settled back in.
Off to another art trail exhibition/promotion at Hammer and Hand this evening...talking art and drinking red wine, both of which are right up there in the top ten of favourite things...