2011 Metal Clay World Conference Presenter

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Conference Presenter – Robert Dancik

Robert Dancik holds a Masters degree in sculpture from Northern Illinois University, and a BA in fine art from Adelphi University. He has been an artist/teacher for more than 30 years and is presently an adjunct professor of education at Pace University. Robert has taught people from kindergarten to graduate school while exhibiting his jewelry and sculpture in museums and galleries across the US and in Europe, Japan, and Australia. He teaches workshops at art centers in the US and abroad including Penland, NC; Arrowmont, TN; Metalwerx, MA; Touchstone Center for Crafts, PA; Victoria College of Art, Australia; Brookfield Craft Center, CT; and Mid Cornwall School of Jewelry (UK) to name a few. His work is in numerous collections including the Wustum Museum of Art, Boeringer–Ingleheim International, Schamberger International, Mitsubishi International, Japan and the Gregg Museum of Art and Design. He has artwork published in many books including, in the Lark series, "500 Pendants", "500 handmade Books" and "1000 Rings". Other books his work is featured in are "PMC Decade", "Fine Art of the Tin Can", "The Art of Resin Jewelry," "Zilver Klei" (Denmark), and "Creative Metal Clay Jewelry". He has written articles and published his artwork in numerous magazines including "Niche", "Art Jewelry", "Lapidary Journal" and "Perspectives" among others. Robert is the originator of Faux Bone™, a new, wonderful material for artists involved in jewelry, artist’s books, sculpture, and many other artistic disciplines. His book "Amulets and Talismans: Techniques for Making Meaningful Jewelry" is published by Northlight Books. He lives in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, UK where he teaches, is an avid cook (I didn’t say good) and collector of toys, maps, and compasses.

Robert may be contacted at: www.robertdancik.com
www.fauxbone.com
Email – playcik@yahoo.com
Telephone : 203-599-1196

Conference Presentation Overview:
Cold Connections for Metal Clay:
Or how to love Your Work without having to carry a torch for it

The Scene: You are at your bench. You have an old potshard and you want to set this on top of a piece of metal clay you have textured with a seashell. You then want to perch that "unit" on a flat rectangle of driftwood. You also want to attach 7 small starfish you made in copper clay to the wood around the driftwood. Then you want a bronze frame around the whole wooden rectangle. Finally, you want to hang the entire piece from a bail attached to the wood so that the bail can twist on the wood as the piece dangles from its chain. You think for a moment&hellip NO PROBLEM!!! You know about cold connections and that knowledge will allow you to attach just about anything, to just about anything else &ndash without the use of heat.

Cold connections, those made without the use of a torch, allow the artist to add breadth and depth to her artistic voice by using exactly the materials she wants without hesitation as to how the piece will go together. These attachments can add greatly to the strength, durability, and expressive possibilities of a piece. There are numerous types of cold connections and within each type there are countless variations and combinations. In my presentation I will be showing several types or categories including: rivets, prongs or tabs, micro fasteners and others.

Pre-Conference Class Overview:
Faux Bone

In this very hands–on workshop, you will explore Faux Bone™, a new, friendly inexpensive and extremely versatile material. You’ll learn how it marries perfectly with all metal clays and most any other material including epoxy resins, traditional metal work, paper, and transfers. Faux Bone can be cut, and carved, sawn and sanded. It can be filed, hammered, polished, drilled, stamped, inlayed, dyed, and painted. It can look like ivory, have the patina of aged ceramic, or be polished to a pure white. It is so strong you can rivet on it, die form right into it, or hammer metal around it. It’s next to unbreakable and if used to mount your fired metal clay, allows you to use extremely thin sheets of metal clay (thus stretching your budget) without fear of breaking. You can attach your findings to the Faux Bone, which may or may not show in the final piece. You can heat and bend it with nothing more than a small embossing heat–gun and it can be easily embossed or carved to make unique texture plates for your metal clay.

Click here for more information on this pre-conference class!