It’s another month… and we’re rushing to the “end of the month deadline.”
Another month means another ornament. Metalsmith Sarah Chapman and I have been doing this monthly ornament challenge for ten months now – only two more to go! She’s been making metal ornaments, and I of course have been using clay.

Sarah’s October entry is a curved brass ornament etched with an Art Nouveau feather design. I don’t know a lot about metalsmithing, but I’m pretty sure there was a hydraulic press in there somewhere. Beautiful…

For my October ornament, I started by texturing some thin slabs and then cut out some holiday pieces & parts.

I assembled the pieces so the star “floats” over the rounded backside of the ornament.
Score, slip, attach, smooth. Repeat. Score, slip, attach, smooth. Repeat.

I slip painted the back side of the ornaments… a couple different clay bodies and a couple different flashing slips.

So now they’re drying and ready to go into the bisque kiln. My plan is to fill in the texture pattern with temoku glaze and fire them in the soda kiln so the flashing slips on the backside can do their magic. After firing, I think I’m going to paint the inside of the star with a shiny gold paint before I string them with ribbon. One more month “done”… two more to go!