jennybuttons

My shop started after witnessing more than one customers in a yarn store buying skeins and skeins of glorious cashmere to knit a sweater - at great cost. Added to that was my trip to the ‘very best’ button store in Dallas, where the proprietor kept on steering me to plastic buttons in the exact shade of my yarn. I wanted something more, something with a soul to it - just like the garment I had painstakingly knit. I had travelled to the very end of the Isle of Skye to get that yarn....and it deserved more than a green plastic button.

From buttons, I progressed to other round flat objects ;). Cufflinks, medallions, and ever onwards onto more and more adventure and fun in metal work.

I make my pieces from precious metal clay. This is an amazing material which molds like clay, but upon firing at tremendously high heat (up to 1750 F for some varieties!) fuses into solid objects of silver, bronze, copper or steel. This enables me to make varied textures and sizes, add monograms, design on the fly...there is no need for a wax model and casting. It is a great way to create a single piece, or a small production run. In addition, I can create or adapt art and make a photopolymer stamp which is then used to imprint the wet clay. Custom designs become doable at a competitive cost this way.

I am the whole shebang. I design, make my items, photograph them, maintain my shop, prepare items for shipping - all of it. My sweet husband is my shipping department though, as he drops off my packages at the post office for me.

More things about me:

Online class:
I teach an online course in Beginning PMC silver clay at Craftsy.com. They flew me to Denver for a week, and we filmed a dozen half hour lessons. I love the Craftsy platform - it’s not free, but it’s very well priced and worth every penny. Once you purchase a class you have unlimited access - no expiration date. I check in most every day and answer questions that students have posted. I have thousands of students, and am so happy that I can help them discover the magic squishy stuff that is metal clay!

You can find the class at https://www.craftsy.com/jewelry/classes/torch-fired-precious-metal-clay/35610

I do a lot of custom work - I’m having a great time doing coats of arms and family crests. My favorite one so far has two bunnies rampant. Who even knew bunnies COULD be rampant?

It's projects like that which make it fun to get up in the morning. I have the best job in the world...I get to make beautiful things that make people happy. Let me make something to make you happy, too.