After much hammering, sanding and polishing here they are

two perfectly fitting weddings rings!

I know they had a lot of fun making these for each other and it gives them another happy shared memory – best wishes to them both for a lovely wedding and long and happy future!

This kind of workshop is always really rewarding – I love to see the pleasure clients get from making their own special piece of jewellery.

It was really just to check that I could remember how to calculate length, thickness and width of the silver shank and make it to a particular size, allowing for the hammering of the texture. I will be teaching silver ring making tomorrow. I have made many rings of this type over the years but always like to check and refresh my techniques as part of my lesson planning. The studio is all set up ready for tomorrow’s workshop so I will have a relaxing evening. I hope the weather is as fine as this tomorrow as it really shows the landscape to its best advantage, always nicer for visitors to see the dale basking in sunshine.

This was an interesting experiment and something I think I will return to. I am enjoying making work from sterling silver sheet using traditional silver smithing techniques. It is something I enjoy teaching so if you would like learn to make you own silver pendant or ring then please check out my class schedule or email me for further information.

They are constructed from sterling silver sheet using traditional jewellery making techniques. I have roll printed some of the textures and hammered and ground others direct into the surfaces of the silver. They are pieces that have been lingering in my sketchbook for a considerable period and my interest in buildings dates back to my time as a University tutor lecturing in the history of architecture and design. I also wanted to go back to using traditional silver smithing techniques for a series of pieces – it is always important to keep up these skills too, alongside the metal clay and lamp-working. I hope to make a few more pieces in this range before the beginning of North Yorkshire Open Studios. This year I will be open on 9th and 10th June, 16th and 17th June 2012. I will also be open by appointment during the week in between these dates. There are still plenty of opportunities for classes though and for further information please see my class schedule on the website or email me

I have been looking through my many old photographs of buildings, taken mostly during the period I taught history of architecture, when I used to drag my long-suffering partner off to photograph buildings during the University holidays. I have a few ideas sketched out and need to do a bit more design work before I actually begin to make them. I still photograph details of building whenever we go out, so old habits die hard.

This fabulous creature is the door knocker at Durham Cathedral, which we visited last Friday and I am sure it will be inspiring something in the future.

Saturday was taken up by workshops and as one of the scheduled tutors had been taken I’ll shortly before conference I acted as stand in for a small group who did some cells and textures in art clay silver. Although we didn’t get to enamel I hope they were pleased and interested enough to try metal clay again.

Here are their pieces in the end of day display. I am still a bit sorry to have missed Dale Devereux Barkers class but thanks to my group for their enthusiasm, I was honoured to share some of my techniques with you all.

One of my personal highlights was when David Bainbridge of Milton Bridge Ceramic Colours Ltd was awarded Honorary Membership of the Guild, recognising his hard work in the EU consultation process relating to the restriction of lead in jewellery. He was completely surprised! As always we had wonderful speakers; inspiring workshops and shared loads of ideas and it is great to catch up with old friends and to make new ones. Good luck to the new Chair, Jane Ball and I am already looking forward to the next event.

I finished off the enamelling on some of these bobbin style beads and gave them a quick polish. They needed finishing as they are samples for a class I am running later in the year. The toggle and clasp on this bracelet are also art clay silver and are constructed hollow forms.

Then I enamelled this bead. It has two different sized koi carp on it and is also constructed in silver clay. The ripples in the watery background were carved into the cylinder of the bead and the fish were then made in low relief using art clay silver paste type. Fine silver wires were added after the first firing using a technique developed by my good friend Joy Funnell and the bead was fired again. I will probably wear this myself as it is the first focal bead I have made like this (although I am not sure about the yellow)!

Anyway, samples are packed, tools and class kits, clothes, all crammed into my suitcase, a slightly larger one than I anticipated taking. I am looking forward to relaxing on the train and to meeting everyone tomorrow around 4pm and seeing all the exciting pieces of work that I have produced for the members and themed exhibitions. I am also looking forward to meeting David Bainbridge of Milton Bridge Ceramic Colours Ltd who is giving a talk on Friday evening. I had a lot of telephone conversations and correspondence with him last year on behalf of the Guild, as part of an EU consultation on the restriction of lead in jewellery. He did a huge amount of work answering questions raised by the EU relating to enamels, so it will be good to be able to meet up at last.

Here is the stuff I am taking for the class, although I eventually decided to leave the hairdryer out!
It packed up quite neatly but I guess I probably won’t get it all back into the box again at the end of class.

Yesterday Stephi was working in a corner of the studio, busy enamelling intricately cut out copper shapes and happy to be able to get on with her own work. While she was doing that I had Moira making her first little pieces of cloisonné enamel on silver.

Here they are both working away. Moira had done a little bit of enamelling on copper before but yesterday she did very intricate shapes in fine silver wire before learning to wet lay enamel into them, firing each layer before finally stoning the piece smooth and re-firing it.

This was very successful for a first attempt at cloisonné. To see Stephi’s work you need to pop over to her blog and follow her creative adventures.

Today June has been here doing experiments with enamel on steel and copper. I introduced her to the technique of using wet process enamel to coat both sides of her metal in one firing.

Here she is dipping and tilting her piece to make the liquid enamel settle evenly over the surface of the cleaned metal. She has had a very busy day and hopefully learned a few different techniques for developing her patterns and textures and I look forward to seeing her finished work later in the summer.

I have had a lovely couple of days. It is very rewarding teaching and exploring ideas with other creative people. Tomorrow I will be packing ready to set off to the Guild of Enamellers annual conference, always a highlight of year. I need to finish off my pendant and makes a couple of samples, then sort out and pack my tools and equipment, ready to set off bright and early on Friday morning.

The vitreous enamels have all been ground and washed ready to use and I have done a small test of all of the colours I intend to use

I love the vivid possibilities of enamel on silver jewellery.

I will be teaching enamelling later this week and also have classes scheduled for May. Full details can be found in an earlier post or on the website
Please email to book your place or for further information.