When I last posted, I had sculpted, but not fired, my piece based on the Tlingit legend ‘Raven Steals the Moon’. Since then, I have fired, polished and patinaed. Although I have no new ideas or techniques concerning metal clay to post today, I thought I should share the finished piece.

As always, copper coming fresh out of the kiln is somewhat discolored. The piece, as it first came from the kiln, appears below.

After about four hours of tumbling, it was all shiny.

To finish the piece, I patinaed it. I have an invisible bail on the back. Getting such an assymetric piece to hang straight can be a challenge. I accomplished this by making a wide triangle of copped, rolling it over a soda straw, and then attaching it to the piece with the rolled end near the top. Since it goes from the back of the neck to the eye, the piece now hangs straight.

The coin is for scale.

I hope to explore sculptural techniques further, both in my own art in in later postings.