I will be holding workshops in the studio on the following dates

Enamelling for beginners
Day  -  £65.00
10.30 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.

Saturday 11th August - full
Saturday 8th September - full
Saturday 15th September 2012 - 3 spaces available
Saturday 29th September, 2012
Saturday 20th October 2012
Saturdaty 10th November 2012
Saturday 1st December 2012

Honeycombs Enamel Workshop

Fab day in the studio today, only second time in for 3 weeks as I haven't been well but great workshop with some lovely ladies.  A huge thank you to Linda who came along to give me a hand.
The workshop was for beginners and we used copper blanks to enamel onto.  The ladies made various pendants sifting the enamel colours onto the copper then firing in the kiln at temperatures around 750-800 deg C.  They used enamel threads to decorate and did some wire work, scragfitto and just had fun.

Jenny and Sarah

 Janet and Angela

 Everyone fired their first pieces really well

 Janet and Angela finding sifting the enamels very therapeutic

Sarah receiving a helping hand from Linda

The only thing I forgot to do was take photographs of the finished results but everyone said they enjoyed the day.

Another great day at the Guild of Enamellers, Region 4.  We had a superb day with Janet Notman making enamelled beads.  I loved every minute of it.  It took a while for us all to get used to working with 2 mandrels and having to rotate them while keeping an eye on the bead.  I'm used to doing it when making a glass bead but it was different rotating them for enamelled beads.  Here are a few pics taken at the workshop.

Me attempting my first bead with Linda looking on

 Linda- intense concentration as she starts to work on her first bead

 Janet showing us the ropes on how to de-enamel a bead if it had gone wrong, then taking a hammer to it to get the remainder of the enamel off.

 Maureen obviously having a great time - she's an expert at making beads out of copper shim

 Melissa, her first workshop and thoroughly enjoying the bead making

 Melissa mum Penny thinking it's not as easy as it looks but making a good job of her beads

 Melissa's sister Ella having a good time making one of the smaller beads

Linda concentrating on making her first bead - not sure why but the video doesn't seem to be working, however,it did workfor me when I clicked onto the hare or tortoise!!

A fab day at the regional meeting of the Guild of Enamellers. Maureen Carswell demonstrated torch firing and then we all had a go at doing it ourselves.  I loved it and even though my two pieces weren't brilliant I was pleased with my first attempts at torch firing.  A great day.

Maureen demonstrating torch firing

Adding colour

 Embossing

 My first pieces after adding white enamel and then firing

 Several transparent colours added and then torch fired

Jane torch firing her bowl

Garden Art

This is the first in some garden art enamel that I've created. I have stencilled green leaves onto a black background on one side and then the other side has been enamelled in black and then gold lustre has been added with grasses being flicked through. I'll be adding to my etsy store just as soon as I remember to take the measurements.

New creation

I've joined Kristens' Share Your Creations Party today, and although it's not the best of photographs this is the latest creation for my Etsy store. I'm going to see if I can get a better photograph to list on Etsy. I don't think I quite got the idea of the name either and put my own name but I'm no wizard on the computer and at least I got the link back to Kristen's page OK.

Silver Day

Had a fab day on Wednesday with my friend Linda. She's a brilliant silversmith and came along to give me some tips. I very rarely work with silver (unless it's art clay) as I usually melt things but it was grea to actually have some success. We made a lovely pair of small ear-rings but when I tried to take a pic I kept getting flash back so can't put pic here but I'll try again. Also made a pendant and enamelled it in shades of blue and turquoise blue. The colours were lovely. I could be doing more silver in the future so watch this space. Thanks for everything Linda, it was a fab day.