Silver Clay Workshop

I had a great day yesterday learning how to use silver clay.  I went with my friend Kate and her friend Carrie to the venue in Newick about 30 miles away.

It was a large shed in a lovely garden and I couldn't believe how well equipped it was.  Paula running the workshop had set it up with everything five people could possibly need to learn to use the stuff.  She has been using it for years so had hundreds of samples to show us and is a very good teacher.  If you want to try it go to www.learnsilverclay.co.uk

We were given a tiny 16g packet of the clay worth £40 but it's surprising how much you can squeeze out of that... It's like a fine porcelain which you can mould, emboss, cut and shape as you like before firing in a kiln or with a torch.  That eliminates the clay and you are left with 99% silver (a lot more pure than sterling silver).  You can polish the resulting piece or give it a matte finish using a wire brush.   Hours of fun!

       
       and there's still a little bit left.

Collected the fused glass

I picked up my fused glass this morning.  It's exciting to see how the dichroic glass colours look when melted into the base and the light catcher looks good with the light shining through from the window.  There are some dichroic pieces in it which only show with reflected light so it could be used as a table mat instead.

Glass Fusing Workshop

Yesterday I went on a one day workshop to learn how to fuse glass.  I had a great day making ten small pendant pieces, one circular light catcher and one curved glass rainbow shape to stand on the window sill.

It was a bit of a shame because I already know how to cut glass and wanted to learn about the fusing but we had to leave everything we'd made to be fused at a later date when there was space in the kiln.  So apart from the answers to the questions I asked I didn't really learn anything new.  Apparently the kiln has to be programmed to heat up at a certain speed, maintain the correct temperature for the correct time and cool down at the correct speed.  The position in the kiln and the length of firing time affects how much the glass will melt and how smooth the end result will be.

I'm looking forward to picking up the finished pieces in a couple of weeks.

Beaded Brooch

There are a couple of bead shops in Brighton full of shiny things and findings to make them into jewellery.  I went there today for a one hour class in how to make a brooch with beads wired together.  It was quite fiddly but not too difficult once you got the hang of it.  This is what I made

Another Key Rack

I have a friend who seems to like the things I make and now has several of my works of art(!) around her home.

She asked me to make a key hook rack to go in her porch and there wasn't a lot of space to make a horizontal one so I made a long thin one to hang vertically.  I used paint mixed with glitter and covered it with glass tiles, beads, bits of wood, shells and other bits and bobs.

I delivered it today and was very pleased that she really liked it.

Copperfoiling

I love working with glass in my mosaics and I did a course when I lived in Hove to learn several different methods of using it but that was ages ago and I wanted a refresher on copper foiling.  I know a lady who lives nearby who opens her house during the Adur Festival and shows really lovely stained glass work.  She said she'd be happy to give me some lessons, so I went three times to her little workshop in the garden right on the river and made this light catcher.  You have to be quite precise with cutting so that the pieces
will fit properly but I really enjoyed putting the copper foil round the edge of each piece and soldering it all together.  The finished light catcher goes well in my kitchen window.

Re-think and Open Morning

Because my home is up two flights of stairs and I can't park close to the front door, taking my heavy wares out to be sold at craft fairs is so much hard work that I came to the conclusion a while ago it was not the way to go.  I have had some success selling online via the web site Etsy but postage costs on large, heavy items means that the post office makes more profit than I do and the breakable nature of many pieces makes that even more impractical.

SO I decided that rather than going to them it would be a good idea to get people to come to my studio to see what I do - I am lucky to have a lovely bright space to work in and I have things displayed all over the walls anyway so an Open Morning seemed worth a try.

I went into a frenzy of making with a purpose (which made me very happy!) and I organised all the details like getting an invitation out to everyone I know and lots I didn't.   A couple of friends offered to help serve refreshments and I asked a friend who is a brilliant portrait artist and a lady who makes jewellery if they wanted to come along too.  On the day which was 11 November they came early and set up in my living room.  I was quite nervous that no one would turn up but then a trickle of bodies arrived which grew into a bit of a flood and soon lots of people milling about enthusing about my stuff and even buying!  I was thrilled to get such positive feedback especially as I have a kind of reticence to put myself out there and OK - I know most were friends but they did seem genuinely enthusiastic.

I also sold a lot of my greetings cards with photo's of local views which are always popular.  All in all it was a very enjoyable and successful event but even so the amount of time and effort involved meant that  it wouldn't really be worth repeating - especially as now those people who came and bought have already seen all the stuff I have left!

I've come to the conclusion that I need to try selling online again via a 'handmade' web site which gets a lot of traffic but I need to find something of potentially high value to make which is smaller and lighter to post.   What a good excuse to go and do some craft workshops!