800 Steps to 800 Magnets!

My friend, Gayle Tustin and I have completed our wedding project of making over 800 clay magnets with Terra Sigillata and patinas. What an amazing adventure this was. We have rolled out clay, added texture, cut them out, let them dry, applied Terra Sigillata, fired them, applied patinas, fired them, adhered magnets to the backing and ta-dahhh... 800 magnets! If you have ever worked with magnets, you know they can be very tricky! They stick to everything and fly all over the place. We had many hilarious moments with the magnets moving, sticking to everything and frustrating us. At the end of the day the process and the final product was worth it. We are happy to have these done and are looking forward to giving them out on May 14th!

After being fired once, the patinas are applied and wiped off.

 

This is what they look like after they were fired again with the patina.

These crazy magnets were applied to the back of the clay with hot glue.

Applying pressure as the glue dried.

Many many steps later...  they were complete!

Happy Wedding Day - Jarrie and Justin - May 14, 2011

Get Inspired!

Over the past three weeks I have had the pleasure to assist my good friend Gayle Tustin in her art studio. We are making clay magnets as the gift for her daughter's wedding guests in May of this year. We have been rolling out slabs of clay, applying terra-sig and firing these cute little guys! We will add patinas and a magnet on the back next week. Each guest receives four magnets each... so at this point we have made over 800 magnets! Take a look below to see some of the process. 

Unfired clay cutouts with texture

White Terra Sigillata applied on the unfired clay

 This shows about 250 future magnets!

 Examples of what the magnets will look like 

after being fired and applying different color patina

We chose our color palette from these test tiles

Final Decision: light blue, cream, white and green