New Tools, New Techniques

With the October long weekend holiday and daylight saving adjustment, I have been working in a mind "fog" today, and kept wondering what I would write about in this blog this week... it was so obvious.

Last Friday I had the great privilege of attending a workshop conducted by visiting US master artist in Precious Metal Clay, Hadar Jacobson. Please see why I have been so excited about attending this workshop - please check out Hadar's website. The workshop covered many new techniques for me and challenged the way I have previously thought about approaching, executing and finishing a silver project. I learnt new finishing techniques using a handheld rotary tool and yesterday bought some new attachments for my dremel . My husband, Jim was really surprised when I got up early yesterday excited about going shopping at the local hardware store!

I made a small pair of hollow form earrings. In retrospect, I chose rather uninspiring shapes, but as this was the first time this year, I had even touched silver clay, I thought I should try to be a bit conservative. This was also the first time I had set a precious faceted gemstone into the silver, so I was really happy with the end result and have been happily wearing the earrings today.

It was also a great opportunity to meet up again with friends from the Contemporary Clay Instructors' Program a course which I completed at The Eclectic Studio in 2007-2008. It is also great to work with other "like minded" people - what a creative atmposphere!

Of course, I have now reignited my interest in working with clay. How many hours are there really in a day?

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Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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