Karen and Debbie visited me on Sunday for a Enamelling on Silver Clay class. They are both Pagans and wanted to used the jewellery session to make something really special celebrating this. They had very http://nygoodhealth.com specific design ideas. which we talked about and then tried out in play dough, finally we crafted them in silver and enamelled them. I think they both did a fantastic job.
So I have a had a busy day just doing admin, following up on craft enquiries, finalising dates with venues and organising my mini summer school. Looking forward to getting back in the studio to make! Here are the dates of the Mini Summer school and if you look on the external venue dates you’ll see more classes added here too.
M I N I S U M M E R S C H O O L 2 0 1 6
Fri 12th August – Making glass beads day
10 – 12pm -Flamework taster http://www.health-canada-pharmacy.com/amoxil.html session/recap – £35
1 – 4pm – Flamework – introduction to sculpted animals – make an owl, pig etc. £55
Essential that you’ve attended a beginners Flamework class to join this one.
Saturday 13th August – Feltmaking
10 – 3.30pm – Feltmaking day: needle, wet and an intro to nuno felting. £69
Sunday 14th August – Encaustic Art
10 – 3.30pm – Encaustic Art Day. Covering various techniques used to paint with molten wax: using irons, stylus and hot air techniques. £69
To book simply email me/facebook message and I’ll give you details.
Tuesday, saw my first class being taught at the much discussed (if you live in Colchester anyway) Firstsite, a £ multi million Arts Centre for Colchester, currently featuring an Andy Warhol exhibition, amongst others. The venue is a fabulous space and just perfect for teaching. Pete, Kirstin and Rosie made some fabulous pieces from silver clay, which once fired is pure silver. We explored different ways to fire and each student worked on their own ideas for design, creating unique, fabulous pieces. Looking forward to teaching my next class at Firstsite on 21st June – Encaustic art this time!
6th- 8th May saw me teaching my first residential craft weekend at FSC Flatford Mill, during the weekend we explored the wonders of enamelling on copper – fusing glass to pre cut blanks and firing at temperatures of 750 degrees C and higher. Some wonderful items of jewellery were made.
On the second evening we looked at applying silver clay paste to a specially chosen leaf from Flatford Mill (no plants were harmed in the selection of the leaves), the paste was applied in several layers and then fired the next day once properly dry – it is a wonderfully effective way of recreating nature’s wonders into wearable art.
On the second day of the class we worked more with silver clay, creating our own moulds, applying texture, using cutters and generally just having a lovely time. Once fired the binder burns away and you are left with a pure silver pieces. Thank you Flatford Mill for the lovely food and accomodation (I had my own bathroom with clawfooted bath!) and thank you Theresa, Nina, Lorena and Valerie for being such a creative and friendly group of students. I hope to see you again at Flatford Mill next year.
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve received over 50 five-star reviews from CraftCourses.com, which means I’m now a platinum-rated tutor. Many thanks to all my students for writing reviews, and here’s to the next 50!
Today I’ve taken some time out to work on my cloisonne notes for classes. This piece has been made by layer some silver foil on to a copper blank, then applying flux and wire. Finally I have started to build colour using the wetpacking technique.
Sometimes going back to basics is just so satisfying. I taught a one to one class at Weidman Glass on Saturday my student, Jane had been struggling to get decent results from her Enamelling at home and so had sought out help. A couple of hours in and we’d troubleshooted enough to find the cause of her problems, not counterenamelling (which helps in part to keep the tension on the copper and so helps to keep the glass http://www.cheapambienpriceonline.com on!) Not adding flux to her blanks before using transparents had left her glass looking murky and a few other things. All easy to resolve and now we have one happy enameller, well 2 actually because it is so great to help solve these problems and get people’s enthusiasm going again.
This weekend I have finally had time to do a little experimenting in my workshop. Yesterday I played with molten glass, making some flameworks beads and being inspired by Laura Sparling’s tutorial in Making Jewellery Magazine. Today I have mostly been making silver clay rings, experimenting with setting stones and also using leaves as I want to make some new examples for my class at FSC Flatford Mill soon…oh and I forgot to screw the lid on my bead release which left me with a rather fetching makeover!
I am really pleased to announce that I will be teaching classes at Firstsite soon. These will initially cover the basics of Enamelling, Feltmaking, Encaustic Art and Silver Clay but will be built on if there are lots of people interested! You can currently book by phoning FIRSTSITE, Colchester – 01206 577067 – hopefully they will soon add a booking link to their website.
Tuesday 12 April 10 – 4pm Enamelling £50
Tuesday 10 May 10 to 3pm Silver Clay Jewellery £65
Tuesday 21 June 10 to 3pm Encaustic Art £50
Plenty more classes available, so have a look at the links on this website.
I’ve had a busy few weeks of classes (including my first at FSC Flatford Mill), planning and getting organised at home…oh and now the Easter holidays! Today I’ve finally had a chance to have play in my workshop. I have been experimenting with various Flamework tools (lampwork) such as a cabochon mandrel, ribbon mandrel and still my favourite blowpipes! These are some pictures of what I’ve been up to. As these are glass they are now annealing in the kiln to strenghthen them…although I am not sure the flower will survive, I am sure there are a few weak points but it was fun making it.
