An Inspiring Time

Last week I was in Yorkshire to attend a workshop taught by Terry Kovalcik who came over from the USA especially. I was fortunate to be able to stay with my good friend Lynne Glazzard who lives on the edge of the stunning North Yorkshire Moors. This is the view from the window of their house. Beautiful isn't it.

The workshop ran for 3 days. Terry was a great teacher and made us all work really hard!

Just look at that concentration. Above is Lynne Glazzard and Lesley Messam.

The workshop was at Craftworx in Yorkshire which is run by Tracey Spurgin. As well as being host she dived right into making as well though!

Jane James, Chu-Mei Ho and Anna Campbell were also there. I already knew everyone on the workshop so that was lovely. It was amazing how much mess we all managed to make in a very short time! (especially me!!)

Here is my box at the end of day one. Still a long way to go.

Ooh look, a bird, fancy me making one of those ;-)

It might of been hard work but we all laughed an awful lot as well. Terry has a great sense of humour. Just as well with us lot!

Finally, by lunchtime on day three the first batch of boxes were ready for firing.

The one below is mine (and the bird, of course).

Fresh out the kiln and cooling down. Boxes!! It was very exciting. We did some work on the boxes before we all waved goodbye and made our tired but happy way home.

I finished my box back at home. The final polishing and patinating.

I added a simple wire as the closure.

Inside the box is textured and there he is... my little birdie!

There is a little groove in the back of the box so the bird can hang outside below the box when being worn as an option.

Finally, the reverse of the box. I was going to add more detail and do some enamelling, but decided in the end to just leave it as it was from the workshop. The finish is not as perfect as I would like, but hey, this was about learning techniques.

I feel my batteries are recharged and I can't wait to start creating more pieces putting into practise all the things I learnt from Terry. If you get a chance to take a workshop with him, I highly recommend it. Pop over to his website to see more of his stunning work.