Edinburgh jeweller

I have been very fortunate to be able to attend masterclasses in metal clay with a number of fantastic artists. I spend a large proportion of my income on doing this as it is my passion and I know that by spending a couple of days with someone you learn so much more than you ever will from a book (although I love books too!) I am now looking at the masterclasses for 2014 (I'll write about those in a future post!) but I thought I would think over what the artists I have studied with so far have taught me. Not just techniques as there have been too many of those to list, but a general ethos to inspire and inform my work. Julia Rai is a British metal clay artist, fantastic teacher and director at the Cornwall School of Arts Craft and Jewellery . She was the first person in the world to achieve Metal Clay Masters registry level 4 (there are 5 levels). I have taken five accredited courses with her and have learnt more every time. I think the main thing I have taken from studyin...

I am very proud to say that this week I took and passed the Rio Rewards PMC certification (PMC stands for precious metal clay). It was run in the UK for the first time ever - it had previously only ever been taught in the States. The three day course was taught by Patrik Kusek at the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery . On the course we had to make seven pieces to the correct standard - a pen, two pairs of earrings, two rings, a tetrahedron and a carved pendant. It was a lot to get done in the time but I learnt a great deal from Patrik and my fellow students on the course. By passing the Rio certification I also achieved the Higher Diploma in Metal Clay from the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery. I am very happy that these two dreams have finally been realised and I feel I can really develop my skills with metal clay now.

Wow! There are so many excellent silver clay and jewellery making masterclasses being run in the UK this year! Here are the ones that I have found. Please do add a comment below if there are any that I have forgotten. It's definitely worth regularly checking the Metal Clay Academy events page as this is a great source of information for all things metal clay. Lisa Barth Copyright Lisa Barth Lisa Barth is visiting Tracy Spurgin's excellent workshop, Craftworx in Yorkshire. I spent three blissful days there last year at Terry Kovalcik 's masterclass. Lisa Barth will be doing two masterclasses Leather cuff 3rd-4th April Designing from the stone 5th-7th April Anna Mazon Copyright Anna Mazon Anna Mazon is visiting Lynne Glazzard this year. Herbarium open pendant 11th-12th May Patrik Kusek Copyright Patrik Kusek Patrik Kusek is visiting the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery and teaching a number of masterclasses as well as the Rio Rewards cert...

Milk chocolate fondue from Haagen Dazs A year ago I decided to start a diary of goals and to log things I've done related to my creativity. I chose thanksgiving to start this as it is a well known date but as I'm not American it means nothing to me specifically so it was great to create my own day around it. This week I took a day off work as my thanksgiving day. I travelled into London (I do this every day so it's not a big deal!) and went for lunch. I sat and read my diary over lunch. I wrote a summary of what I've achieved started teaching at the London Jewellery School completed my PGDip in Academic Practice with a merit won best paper presentation for the second year in a row at my university was commissioned to make jewellery for well known people had a piece of jewellery worn by an actress in a BBC interview was a co-author for a published journal article attended a masterclass run by Terry Kovalcik and learnt to make a box pendant learnt how ...

There have been a couple of very welcome developments for silver clay artists here in the UK in the last few days. Firstly, Aida have announced that silver clay prices are to be cut between13-14% with immediate effect. This follows an increase of 30% that came into effect on 1st June 2012 (see my blog post on this here ). Art clay is not at the price it was pre-June this year but it is still pleasing to see that prices can go down as well as up! The best price I have found online in the UK today is at www.metalclay.co.uk but make sure you shop around. The other piece of very exciting news is about the Rio Rewards PMC Certificate . It has previously only been available in the US. However, Lisa Cain and Julia Rai from the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery have arranged for it to be taught in the UK in May 2013 by Rio Grande senior instructor Patrik Kusek . Many serious silver clay artists have taken the Art Clay certifications available in the UK but this well recognised PMC...