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 managed to squeeze a party of 4 into my workshop on Friday for a Silver Clay Beginner’s class, it certainly helped to make the workshop more cosy and what a talented bunch! I hope you had a lovely birthday Sally and you all wear your makes with pride. For those that haven’t come across it, silver clay (PMC or Art Clay) is clay with silver particles in it, you can mould it in many ways and once fired the binder burns off to leave pure silver. It is almost alchemy and wonderful stuff as you can see from some of the things the ladies made today.