Crafting at Firstsite

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IMG_20160510_113803531 IMG_20160510_144332375 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!

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Craft at FSC Flatford

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Flatford mill sml

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.
Enamelling flatford mill 16 sml

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.

silver leaf sml
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.

silver clayflatfordsml

Another satisfied Enameller!

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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.IMG_20160416_120738380_HDR

Bead release face pack

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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!

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Firstsite classes with Curly Girly Crafts

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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.

Busy days and flamework fun.

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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.

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21st Birthday fun

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IMG_20160304_144547971I 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.

Encaustic art with the Brownies

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Tonight I will be teaching 1st Prettygate Brownies the wonder of Encaustic art – that is painting with an iron! I know the girls will love it and I cannot wait to see what they paint, I just hope they aren’t as messy as the last lot of Brownies I taught. We’ll be making Mother’s day cards from our artwork, so look away now if you don’t want a spoiler for Sunday! 😉

Enamelling fun at the Old Bank

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Today I ran a very busy class in Harwich teaching 7.5 ladies (the half was the proprietor Bev who had to pop in and out of class whilst she made us a scrumptious lunch) the art of Enamelling. As you can see from the photo many techniques were covered including swirling, wet packing, applying glass media, adding silver foil, pixie dust and more! A fabulous session, thanks for joining my class ladies.

Enamelling and half term fun

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IMG_20160219_154440019 This week has mostly seen me having creative adventures with my daugters: drawing on Walton beach, making creatures from toilet rolls, and generally having fun. However there was still time to squeeze in another class with Deborah, before she goes back to work. Today we looked at Enamelling, http://www.mindanews.com/buy-celebrex/ which it the fusion of glass; in powder form, to metal; in this case copper, using extreme heat. Deborah created 3 lovely pieces in this day class using a mixture of techniques including swirling and applying glass media. Wear them with pride Deborah, you did a great job.