Serendipity

I have been booked to give a talk to the National AGM of the Embroiderers Guild in Nottingham in April, and as a result of this, looked up an exhibition that they will be visiting during the weekend. The centre the exhibition is at - the Harley Gallery, has artists workshops and amongst those is a silver jewelery maker who holds workshops. She had a workshop listed for 2 days later and had a space on it - just what I needed!!

This is the result of a wonderful day...

Precious Metal Clay

I then decided to investigate some of the silver precious metal clay, as I felt that this might be an easier option to achieve some of what I had in mind, perhaps combined with silver jewelery techniques. These earrings are the first try in this material. It definitely opens up the possibilities, much less in the way of tools required and the ones I had from a previous life working with clay are very useful in this medium. More work to be done.

Silver jewelery evening class

I came home fired with enthusiasm and looked for a local class.. I found one running from January not too far away, and this is the result of the 3 weeks I attended. More techniques and lots of practice at soldering. Most joints went well, just a couple were a problem, confidence is growing.

First steps at Denman

My introduction to silver jewelery techniques was at Denman college in Oxford, in December 2009. I had some ideas which I thought might work in the line of the MA course, and so wanted to learn some techniques. The ring was the first piece made and has a small opal stone set in it and the second the silver leaf brooch. A lot was learnt in this short introduction.