Edinburgh jeweller

I'm really excited to have been asked to teach at the You Can Make It 2017 metal clay residential conference in Dorset in March next year. When? 24-26th March 2017 Where? Springfield Country Hotel Leisure Club and Spa , Grange Road, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5AL, England What? YCMI is a residential metal clay conference held in a spa hotel in Dorset. There is a selection of full day masterclasses , hands on sessions , demos and talks to choose from taking place over the weekend. There are so many techniques and projects you can learn over the course of the weekend - check out the website for all the information . There is also the chance to get to know other metal clayers, take part in a charm swap (where you make a number of metal clay charms and swap with others to build up your own unique bracelet) and the ‘Your favourite make’ competition, visit the Make it Market and more. The event is sponsored and subsidised to make it as affordable as possible. Check out the ...

Demonstrating using silver clay paste to make a leaf pendant As I mentioned previously on the blog, I'm part of the Metal Clay Makers group. I was really pleased that I was able to attend the Metal Clay Ltd summer social last week. I live quite far away from Metal Clay but luckily I was visiting family close by so I decided to drop in and I'm glad I did! It was the first time I'd visited the new premises and I enjoyed a browse around the showroom and a look at some of the products available including a new range of bronze clay that I am looking forward to trying out. I also had another look at the amazing jooltool polisher that I am coveting!   As part of the evening a couple of demonstrations had been organised. Petra demonstrated how to use silver clay paste to make a leaf pendant. Even though I have done this before I still learnt some great tips including about embedding wire into the piece to create a bail and using Plasticine to press the leaf into in or...

I spent a very informative and experimental weekend learning how to use Bronze and Copper Clay at the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery which is fast becoming my second home! The tutor was Carol Douglas who showed us some of her work which was both inspiring and intimidating! There were four of us on the course, with varying experience (I was probably the least experienced of us all). Carol spent some time at the beginning of the first day explaining about the issues of using bronze and copper clay. They aren't as easy to fire as silver clay, with most types having to be kiln fired in charcoal. Results can still be mixed and pieces can end up needing to be fired again. Because of our experience Carol let us loose on lots of different projects at the same time in order to experiment with the clays. I found this really helpful because I was able to try out lots of different techniques that I wouldn't normally try in order to see what came out well. I made a number of differen...