A great workshop with Gordon!!

Last weekend I went to Corfe Castle to attend a wonderful 2 day workshop organised by Petra at Silverclay with Gordon Uyehara who had flown over from Hawaii especially to teach. I find Gordon's work to be so inspiring and am a big fan.

We were to make his brilliant bail linked bracelet. Above is the photo of Gordon's example bracelet. Good isn't it!!

There were 14 of us and we had a lovely time. Friendly people and enthusiasm make for a fun weekend.

I was on a table with Ann, Jane and Adela and they were really good company. We all had a laugh as well as working hard. The workshop was quite intensive but when fired bracelets started to emerge from the kilns there were smiles all round. We could not believe what we had managed to create.

We made lots of links and bails...

with Gordon giving us plenty of demos on what we should be doing while we all listened intently...

in between which we worked and giggled!! (Jane on the left and me on the right) ....

and then did more listening and watching - this is Adela concentrating! ...

finally we all breathed a big sigh of relief when our bracelets held together and made it into the kiln...

nearly melted my camera on this shot!! that is about 800c ....

Here are the bracelets the four of us made fresh out the kiln and awaiting finishing. Mine is the largest one at the bottom. No, that does not mean I have fat wrists!!!! I wanted it to fit and like bracelets to be loose anyway .....

So here is my finished bracelet....

and this is the reverse of it. You can see the bail link technique.

This technique definitely needs a lot of patience but is worth it in the end. It has really got me thinking about other designs.

And yes, it does fit, and I love it!

Thank you Gordon.