Blog Giveaway Reminder

Don't forget my first blog giveaway winner will be drawn on Sunday 1st November so leave a comment now to be in the draw for my unique Enamelled Accents Purple Heart Pendant.

If you don't want to leave a comment on the blog just email me on joy@joyfunnell.co.uk and I will add you into the pot!

Craft Fairs

Oops sorry I have been helping out with family so I have neglected my blog a bit this as my internet connection has been a bit iffy at my parents home.

This weekend sees the beginning of the Christmas Craft Fair season for me and we start off in style with 4 days on the run starting this Saturday.

Here is a list of all the fairs I am doing up until Christmas.

24th & 25th October 2009
Crafts at Lancing College

26th & 27th October 2009
Christmas Craft Fair
Sissinghurst Castle Garden

6th & 7th November 2009
Christmas Fair at Cooden Beach Hotel
East Sussex

14th & 15th November 2009
Michelham Priory

28th November 2009
Wealden Craftworkers
Memorial Hall, The Tye, Alfriston

29th November 2009
Christmas Fair at the Llama Park
Ashdown Forest

10th December 2009
Wealden Craftworkers
Memorial Hall, Battle

This Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th I am at Lancing College. It is a stunning venue and a really high quality Craft Fair. Everything is handmade. Do come and say hello if you are in the area. It is organised by Woodland Crafts who do a great job and are lovely people.

On Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th I am at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens. This is a new venue for me. It is a National Trust property so it should make a great day out.

If you live nearby do come and say hello.

Art Clay Charms

I have had quite a few requests for close up photos of my charms so here are some more photos.

I'll be posting all about my Paper Texture workshop I did with Lynne Glazzard next.

Don't forget to enter my blog giveaway below. Everyone is welcome.

My First Blog Giveaway

At the recent Art Clay conference in Jersey I taught my Enamelled Accents workshop. I really enjoyed it and hopefully so did everyone who took it. I had people from all over Europe, South Africa and of course the UK on it. As it was only a 3 hour workshop it was a bit of a rush (to say the least!) but we got there in the end and everyone made really good pieces. I could not have managed without my good friend Lynne grinding enamels and overseeing the enamelling in the kilns. Thanks Lynne.

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Anyway to celebrate the workshop going well and as I am in happy mood after my wins at the conference I thought I would have my first blog giveaway.

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This Purple Heart pendant was a piece I made as an example of the technique of Enamelled Accents. It measures 23mm across is hanging on a dainty 16" sterling silver snake chain. The photo above shows you the front and the back of it and you can wear it either way round.

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All you have to do is leave me a comment on this blog post. On Sunday 1st November I'll put the names in a hat and get hubby to draw one out and this lovely little pendant will be winging its way to the winner.

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Everyone is welcome to enter no matter where you are in the world so tell your friends. Only one entry each though :)

Art Clay Copper

So the really big news at the Art Clay Conference was the launch of Art Clay Copper. Unlike the two versions of copper metal clay which are currently on the market this one is really easy to fire. The existing ones have to be fired in a stainless steel container filled with charcoal to get a reducing atmosphere and the firing is fairly long and requires ramping the temperature up etc.

Art Clay Copper is so much easier. You just fire it at 970c on the open shelf in a kiln for 30mins and then quench in water immediately and pickle if required to remove the firestain.

I did one of the short workshops where we used the AC Copper and this is a picture of the flower pendant I made. First we made and fired the copper part of the flower and then we made the silver part around it and fired again. The two metals do not actually fuse together but the silver goes through a hole in the centre of the copper piece so as the silver shrinks it captures the copper piece. Clever eh.

I shall be playing this and testing it out in the next few weeks so check back for photos of new pieces and what tips I may come up with.

We expect it to be available to sell in a few weeks time and I shall be stocking it in my ebay shop ArtClayUK.

Beautiful Jersey

Here is a photo looking across St Aubins harbour in Jersey. The buildings on the waterfront are where most of the conference events were centered. How about that for a stunning location. Not that we had time to look out the windows much as we were all so busy. I took some great workshops and made some lovely new friends as well as catching up with existing ones. I'll be posting updates this week on all the things I learnt and photos of the pieces I made.

Watch this space....

Home Again

Ah..

just got back home to Hastings. Hopefully I have sorted out the photo in the last post which was not displaying properly.

Loads to tell you about the Art Clay conference etc.

Dinner and unpacking tonight - more blogging tomorrow.

Do I look pleased ..... ?

Here is a photo of me with Dice and Ryota from Japan after winning the trip to Japan. Aida, the makers of Art Clay sent them over to the conference to teach us workshops and to launch the new products. Aida also supplied all the Art Clay we used at the conference which was really generous of them. A big thanks to them from me for everthing.

You can tell I am chuffed with winning can't you!! Thanks for the photo Lynne.

By the way in case you are wondering I uploaded the photos of my competition entries in draft before I left for the conference and I see when I posted the entries on my blog they came out dated 30th Sept instead of 4th October! If you have not yet seen them just scroll down to the earlier entries.

Wow - That Was Fun!!

What a conference! Gosh!!!

Aida launched two fab new products -

Art Clay Copper which fires in just 30 minutes in the kiln without any charcoal or stainless steel box so is REALLY easy to use

Art Clay Lite (which has a percentage of glass so is lighter and great for large scale pieces)

AND.....

I WON A FREE TRIP TO JAPAN to see the Art Clay factory where Aida make the Art Clay plus we will be doing some workshops while we are there for the week.

I am so excited about it all .....

Photos and more info on it all to come ........