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.

Workshop Examples - work in progress!

Oh dear, so sorry - I didn't realise how long it was since I last posted!

I have been busy teaching and time just slips away doesn't it.

Anyway, I promised some more examples for the Art Clay UK Conference in September. I wasn't going to post these until they were finished but as I have not got that far yet and I want to show you I have been doing something (!) here is some work in progress.

These pieces have background textures using my good friend and co teacher at the conference Lynne Glazzard's paper texture technique. Then I have added some Enamelled Accents. This piece will be patinated with Liver of Sulphur to bring up the textures.

The reverse below is decorated as well. (OK hands up - is it just me who thinks Mickey Mouse every time I look at this shape or do you agree?  :) !! )

The second piece is again using a paper texture on the front. As well as the Enamelled Accents this time I have also added some gold fused to the surface using the Keum Boo technique but with a twist.

You will see the gold is slightly patchy at the mo but actually I am really pleased as this was just torch fired on and burnished. I have been experimenting with torch firing the gold and was surprised just how easily it took. I scrubbed the piece really well after to see if the gold was really fused and most of it was. I shall reapply to cover the patchy areas and experiment further.

Below is the reverse of this piece and again it is also awaiting being patinated.

I'll post the finished pieces soon....

Something Fishy!

The Art Clay World Guild UK Conference 2010 will be held in York on 16th - 19th September. My good friend Lynne Glazzard and I will be teaching the Enamelling workshop together. This is going to be a fun workshop!!

We have both been working on pieces as examples of the techniques we are teaching. This is my main example and I have another simpler piece nearly finished which I will post here later this week. 

I have called this piece Something Fishy (for obvious reasons :-) )

Pop over to Lynne's blog and you can see her first example piece.

We will be teaching a combination of creating textures and recesses for enamelling on your pieces using Lynne's great paper texture technique (like the water splash on the pendant above and the fish on the reverse below) and then adding extra colour with my Enamelled Accents technique (like the fish above). For good measure we will also be covering decorating the back of your piece. How exciting is all that!!

This piece has a fishy texture on the reverse (sorry it has not photographed too well. Not the best light today for photos!) and a decorative bail and syringe set Aquamarine CZs.

If you use Silver Clay you really should come to the Conference. Booking is now open and there is a fantastic line up of workshops so if you don't want to do enamelling you will find loads of other exciting things to do. We have a Master Instructor from Japan coming over especially to teach a masterclass and workshops. So don't miss out!! Book Now!

Down the Drain!

Yes, yes, I know, this was the opening picture in my last blog post, but I wanted to tell you something sort of funny and nice about it.

Just before I posted about this piece on here I was on the phone talking to my good friend Lynne Glazzard and emailed the picture through to her to look at. Her reaction? Oh a drain cover!!! Now you may think that was a bit unflattering about it but I was delighted as it had not occurred to me.

Lynne was one of the people I went to Japan with recently and while there we kept seeing these wonderful drain covers. This is the one she was thinking of. We found it on a path through all the lovely blossom trees and sprinkled with petals that were blowing gently around.

We saw quite a few of them and probably walked over others without noticing as we were so busy looking at all the lovely things around us.

Here are some more of the ones I did spot. There is such fantastic attention to detail in Japan. I can't imagine us taking the time to do this here.

I am just off to start Hastings Hot Houses so if you are coming to Hastings please do come by and say hello.

Puck of Pook's Hill and me

What are you talking about I hear you ask.

Well this weekend I doing a craft fair at Batemans, Burwash, East Sussex. It was the home of Rudyard Kipling and he wrote Puck of Pook's Hill as well of lots of other things including the all time famous poem If... while he lived there. It is now a National Trust Property and it makes a great day out. The house and grounds are stunning.

I belong to the East Sussex Guild of Craftworkers and this is one of our two regular annual shows. We will be in a lovely marquee at the side of the beautiful gardens. Do come and say Hi if you are in the area. We are there from 11am - 5pm Saturday and Sunday. Fingers crossed it is not too wet!

Mask update... Enamelling In Progress - oops sorry - that's my friend Lynne's blog!! :)