Sunday 28 August 2011

1960s Inspired Rings

I am busy preparing for a workshop I am running at the Castle Museum York Saturday 1st October 2011. The workshop will be inspired by the Sixties Gallery in the museum. They have a fantastic collection of bright and groovy stuff. This is a photo I took on my last visit



Today I have been making a selection of ring blanks ready for the class to use.




The workshop will run from 10am until 3pm and is £20 per person
You will make your own funky sixties inspired plastic ring


To book a place telephone York Museums Trust on 01904 650333

It is part of a much larger programme of events being organised by York Museums Trust (including a silver clay class on 12th May 2012) and there will be two days of taster sessions with demonstrations by some of the makers running on Saturday 10th September and Monday 12th September.

Why not come along and have a look and sign up for something interesting..... Hope to see you there!

Location:York, Castle Museum

Saturday 20 August 2011

More metal clay thinking

I have begun a new website specifically for my work and classes in metal clay. Find me at www.metal-clay.com You can subscribe and comment and I will be using that website blog style, as I like the more active nature of a blog rather than the traditional static website.

I will continue to post here too - but will keep them different from each other

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Mary's shoes with Serena Patridge

Yesterday I had a brilliant day taking part in a workshop run by local artist Serena Partridge.  The workshop was called 'Mary's shoes' referring to an exhibition about the Weatherill family of artists currently showing at the Pannett Art Gallery, Whitby.

Serena demonstrated to the class,showing us her methods for constructing beautiful little paper shoes and we then went on to make our own versions, choosing from the patterns and papers that she had provided.  At the end of the day most of us had made two or three little shoes, each of which has its own imagined story.  
These are the shoes made by the whole group.  As you can see they are very individual and beautifully decorated (and that most people in the group actually made a pair of shoes).
Here are my three shoes.  I began with a fairly small example and made them progressively smaller.  This was a fabulous day and I would like to do this again sometime.  I wish I had made labels and a story for each of them, they do really lend themselves to story telling!

There will be more workshops at the Pannett through August.  On the 18th, 23rd, 25th, 30th August and 1st September are a series of drama workshops for children.  They are running from 1.30pm to 3.30pm and will be exploring and imagining life in Whitby for the people shown in the Weatherill paintings.

On Friday 26th August from 10am until 4.30pm there will be a drop-in workshop looking at Womens' work in Whitby during the 1800-1900s.  You can learn about traditional Ganseys and participate in rag rugging.

Booking for any of the workshops is essential - telephone 01947 602051


Friday 5 August 2011

Micro fold forms

I have spent a lovely couple of days in my studio with Jill Leventon, a good friend and talented maker and Enameller. I have made these small copper pleated forms and it is quite addictive. I will need to try more of this as soon as I have a bit of free time, thanks Jill