Bird a Month 6/12 - Twit Twoo

Twit Twoo!! My cute little solid silver owl sculpture is my Bird a Month for June. I am very excited about this one as my step by step tutorial for making him is the the newest issue of Metal Clay Artist Magazine which is just coming out. It is the third anniversary edition of MCAM Vol 3 Issue 3 and it includes some wonderful projects including Lesley Messam and Gordon Uyehara, and a great article about Wanaree Tanner who is producing some fantastic work at the moment! 

Even better - I also have a feature piece in it about undertaking challenges!! If you do not already subscribe you can buy an issue via the website and here in the UK it will be available in W H Smith soon :) 

Above is another piece I have made for the Guild of Enamellers exhibition in Whitby in July - I have called him Tropical Tree Frog :)

I just seem to keep enamelling rainbows at the moment and the set below, Swirling Rainbows, are also for the exhibition.

Tomorrow I shall be at the Riverdell Country Fair at Burwash in East Sussex. It should be a great day.

Maybe I will see you there?

June Four a Month - Feeling Jubilant!

Having watched all the celebrations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this month it seemed natural to use the red, white & blue as a theme for my Four a Month Challenge pieces.

There is no theme in the style, just the colour!

All the pieces are made using fine silver (Art Clay Silver ) with enamel. The piece above is called Jubilation. The pendant is made using silver clay and enamel, and it has a small lab sapphire cabochon set in the centre. I made a chain to go with it using traditional methods. This piece is one of my pieces for an Guild of Enamellers exhibition in Whitby, but more on that soon :)

The earrings below are a style I have made in various colours before, and I called them Nouveau Jubilee.

Another style I have made more of recently are the stone set pendant and earrings set below. Called Jubilee Swirls they have lab rubies set into the centre of them.

I have called the whole Four a Month set

Feeling Jubilant!

Bright and cheery - I hope they make you smile ;-)

In Print!

I was excited to receive the latest edition of Art Jewelry magazine in the post this morning. My pendant is featured on the back cover in the Fire Mountain Gems advert!

The pendant is called That Anglo Saxon Feeling and is made using Art Clay silver and enamel. It is a really heavy weight and has a small garnet set on the textured reverse so it can be worn either way around. 

BTW this piece is available in my website shop ;-)

Bird a Month 5/12 - Medieval Bird Locket

OK, so if you have been reading my blog recently my Bird a Month for May will not be too much of a surprise to you!

Here he is, my tiny little bird in the Medieval Bird Locket.

He sits inside the closed locket as a hidden secret for you to reveal...

... or he flies free under the locket when it is being worn, depending on how the mood takes you :)

I have started work on another hinged locket.

This one will be enamelled as well, so watch this space... ;-)

Enamelling Rainbows

I have been having fun this week making some new pieces. These include a new style which is set with a lovely sparkly stone and has enamel around it. These pieces are waiting to be made into pendants and earrings and then they will be off to London next week.

I was asked last week if I ever made seahorses, and since I never had I decided to make one. This is the result below. I could not decide what colour to enamel him so guess what... he ended up rainbow colour. No surprise there then!

He is really quite cute as you can see...

...and the back has a simple texture and my Joy logo. I think you could even wear him with this side facing out for days when you were in a less colourful mood :)

I shall be making more of these in various colours to list on my website and in my Etsy shop. If you have a request just email me ;-)

Teaching Away from Home

I often get asked if I ever teach away from my base in Hastings. Being right down on the South coast of the UK I realise it is not always convenient to travel here for a workshop.

I am pleased to tell you about two opportunities coming up.

On August 11th and 12th I will be teaching a two day Masterclass at Craftworx in Yorkshire. You can see all the details of this workshop over on the Craftworx website. This workshop is booking up fast so if you want to come get in touch with Tracey soon. It will be a great couple of days for you to make colourful enamelled pieces.

In September this year there is an Art Clay Festival in Switzerland. I am very excited about this as I have been invited to teach two one day pre festival workshops. The dates of the festival are 28th - 30th. I shall be covering different techniques each day so you can take both workshops and learn different things about enamelling!! My workshops will be taught in English but I already have a volunteer - thank you Susanne - to translate into German. I will also be demonstrating everything so I am sure any language problems will be easily dealt with!

All the details are on the Festival website, and there are Early Bird discounts if you register by the end of May.

As with all my workshops, I like to run things in a relaxed way. Creating should be fun!!

I would love to meet you at any of these ;-)

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.