Statement: Ceramic Earwear.

[Pink Haired Pirate]

as far as I know the tribes use whatever clay dirt is on the banks of the river... kinda gross to think about what's in that clay.

Anyway if it were me I'd go au' natural and use the red clay in the back yard (hoory NC red clay)

God made dirt and dirt don't hurt 3nodding  

[Aetherna]

Yay NC biggrin

Back to topic:

I don't know about using random clay, literally. @ @  

[phallumontis]

Aetherna

Yay NC biggrin

Back to topic:

I don't know about using random clay, literally. @ @

you have to sift and screen clay straight from the earth.

there's a lot of mud and other stuff that would blow up during the firing in it.
as well as rocky chunks that would if nothing else hurt like hell in an ear. xp  

[phallumontis]

so i was perusing the wide-open spaces of the interweb,
and i came across these:


(sorry the picture is a little huge, i didnt want to link, since there's quite a few graphic picures there...)

but anyway, they're clay olmec ear-wear.
it has been done. therefore it can be done again. biggrin


...but, i've refocused my energies at the moment. im trying to track down a local artisan to make me some plugs out of pipestone. which is a lovely, smooth red stone. incidentally, its ancient clay thats been pressed and heated for hundreds of thousands o years turning into a beautiful, easy to carve stone. it also has some lovely folklore too.  

[Aetherna]

That is such a wonderful breakthrough! I hope all works out and that we'll get to see the resulting jewelry. 3nodding  

[phallumontis]

so i finally made some plugs biggrin

a friend of mine gave me a chunk of pipestone yesterday,
and i spent about an hour today making some practice pieces.

they're really plain and simple. just cylinders. but i figured i'd see how this stuff feels in my ears before i spend hours and hours making intricate stuff.

all the same, im sooperhappy about them.

like i said, these are just an really simple easy design.
but here's a horrible picture i took.
the lighting is atrocious, and the quality is worse, but its a 50 dollar camera
and my bathroom has had the same fixtures since 1970.

i cant get the picture to be anything less than ginormous, so its just a link...

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b379/raggedyangy/faces007.jpg
 

[Aetherna]

A very belated congratulations biggrin  

[Lili Marlene]

First of all, congrats on the lovely plugs.

As to making them out of ceramics, my advice would be as follows - use a very fine clay with as little grit as possible. Also, even if you want an unglazed look, make sure that at the very least, the wearable area is glazed. As for your glazes - make sure all the pigments are safe. Lead and many other toxic chemicals are used in some glazes, so they wouldn't be safe (I made this mistake with a few bowls; they're now glorified candle holders).
Also, I'm really not sure how you plan to regulate the gaguing, especially since clay shrinks when it's dried, and even more once it's been fired.