March of the Mokume

This week's goal was to make a few ring bowls for Saturday's craft show. I selected two possible color schemes for a mokume gane stack, but decided to use bold shades of marsala, peacock, gold and white. In theory, making little jewelry dishes is a great idea IF you can find the right form.  This is today's "factory second".

Pretty contrasting colors, interesting fluting around the edge.  You can't see from the photo, but it has a nice shine to it. What's the problem, you ask?  Look very closely at the center of the dish and you can probably guess what I used as a form. After hunting around my house for over a week for a perfectly sized round, smooth object on which to bake a round of clay, I gave up and used a spare light bulb.  Alas, I neglected to run my finger over the logo to make sure it was perfectly smooth.  It was not, and all the micro mesh in the world can't fix it. 

Today was not a total wash, however. There was enough of the sheet to make some lovely (and smaller) domed pieces on my hollow bead form. Come to Handmade Market on Saturday to see the finished pieces!

If you're looking for a mokume gane tutorial, there are several at Sculpey.