Metalwork 2:1 and the Paua of Charms
Last Wednesday was the first lesson of Stage II Metalwork. It's a mixed-experience class, so I got to phut around practising soldering on jumprings whilst Farrah gave the beginners the induction talk & tour of the workshop.
It's another 100% female class - the subject obviously isn't popular with the Testosterone Set. It surprised me again just how few (i.e. one) of the women had done any jewellery making before, even just basic bead stringing. I guess I'm so used to hanging out with medieval re-enactors who make absolutely everything, I forget most people never do crafts or make things once they leave school.
Once the tour was over Farrah started to teach us how to do etching. There's a fume cupboard in the workshop so we can do acid etching, something I'd never do at home, even outdoors in summer. Too much of a hassle disposing of the chemicals properly! We cut up inch squares of brass (in my case) or copper, then coated it with the thick tarry resist. "Like painting on nailpolish," said Farrah, and indeed it was. I coated a couple of squares and as I'm not sure what type of definition we'll be able to get, designed three options - one for blurry, poor definition, one for mediocre definition and one for high definition. Hopefully Farrah will have some samples to show us this week, so I can get a better notion.
After we finished that I went back to my jump rings, flattened them and forged them into little rippled circles. I made some of these before Christmas also, added some pearls & Swarovski crystals and gave them out as pendants. Jenny wore hers on a necklace to work and says she received lots of compliments, which is flattering (though how much of that is due to the trendiness appeal of the crystal I couldn't say).
This weekend I whipped together a bunch of charms for a Charm Exchange I'm participating in for Art E-Zine. Basically you make 25 charms of 1"x1.5" or less, send them in to the co-ordinator, and receive 25 different charms in exchange. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what people come up with.
I used some paua (abalone) shell pieces I picked up on my last visit home to New Zealand (paua is a native shellfish and the only abalone which displays that beautiful deep blue-green colour) and put words on the back, Dream and Joy! (OK, a little sappy, but then when was the last time you saw a Zen-deep charm?). This was written in silver ink on paper, then varnished over which made the paper transparent on most of the shells. I tried using black words but they just looked bad, so I went for something more subtle. I think it probably turned out a little too subtle, but never mind. I wound green and blue enamelled wire around the shell and finished them off with dangles of irredescent French beads and freshwater pearls. They're rather misshapen ones I've had lying around untouched for ages, so it was good to get some use out of them. I think they provide a nice contrast to the asymetrical shell pieces though.
It's another 100% female class - the subject obviously isn't popular with the Testosterone Set. It surprised me again just how few (i.e. one) of the women had done any jewellery making before, even just basic bead stringing. I guess I'm so used to hanging out with medieval re-enactors who make absolutely everything, I forget most people never do crafts or make things once they leave school.
Once the tour was over Farrah started to teach us how to do etching. There's a fume cupboard in the workshop so we can do acid etching, something I'd never do at home, even outdoors in summer. Too much of a hassle disposing of the chemicals properly! We cut up inch squares of brass (in my case) or copper, then coated it with the thick tarry resist. "Like painting on nailpolish," said Farrah, and indeed it was. I coated a couple of squares and as I'm not sure what type of definition we'll be able to get, designed three options - one for blurry, poor definition, one for mediocre definition and one for high definition. Hopefully Farrah will have some samples to show us this week, so I can get a better notion.
After we finished that I went back to my jump rings, flattened them and forged them into little rippled circles. I made some of these before Christmas also, added some pearls & Swarovski crystals and gave them out as pendants. Jenny wore hers on a necklace to work and says she received lots of compliments, which is flattering (though how much of that is due to the trendiness appeal of the crystal I couldn't say).
This weekend I whipped together a bunch of charms for a Charm Exchange I'm participating in for Art E-Zine. Basically you make 25 charms of 1"x1.5" or less, send them in to the co-ordinator, and receive 25 different charms in exchange. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what people come up with.
I used some paua (abalone) shell pieces I picked up on my last visit home to New Zealand (paua is a native shellfish and the only abalone which displays that beautiful deep blue-green colour) and put words on the back, Dream and Joy! (OK, a little sappy, but then when was the last time you saw a Zen-deep charm?). This was written in silver ink on paper, then varnished over which made the paper transparent on most of the shells. I tried using black words but they just looked bad, so I went for something more subtle. I think it probably turned out a little too subtle, but never mind. I wound green and blue enamelled wire around the shell and finished them off with dangles of irredescent French beads and freshwater pearls. They're rather misshapen ones I've had lying around untouched for ages, so it was good to get some use out of them. I think they provide a nice contrast to the asymetrical shell pieces though.