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Learning from the best - Anna Mazon

Copyright Anna Mazon 2013
This weekend I was so fortunate to be able to attend a metal clay masterclass from Anna Mazon. Anna is a Saul Bell Award finalist for 2013 and I have admired her beautiful work for a long time, so when I heard she was going to be teaching the Herbarium pendant class at Lynne Glazzard's studio in Yorkshire I jumped at the chance. Her pieces look even more stunning in the flesh. The detail and precision of this tiny work is amazing.

Anna Mazon demonstrating
The class was two days long and we worked at a good pace, first designing our pendant and template, making the piece for the stone and learning to make vines. On the second day we finished decorating our pendants with leaves, flowers and acorns - all under Anna's expert guidance. At lunchtime the pieces were fired and we then worked on the bezel setting for the stone. 
 Lynne Glazzard's studio in North Yorkshire was wonderful. The setting in the dales was beautiful and the studio itself is very well equipped. We all went to dinner together in Whitby on the Saturday night, thoughtfully arranged by Lynne, and I really enjoyed my time there and hope to go back for another class soon.

 Here is a photo of my finished piece. The stone is Polish flint which I thought was very appropriate as Anna is from Poland. I was able to use two of Anna's small pieces and one from my friend and fellow classmate Lesley Messam.

I really feel I learnt so much on this masterclass. You can't beat learning from the best and Anna was a very good and generous teacher. I think I have learnt many things that will enhance my work with metal clay. A perfect weekend!

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