New classes

During the middle of winter I don't usually teach classes in my studio because there is always the chance the roads will be too bad for students to get here.  This winter has been particularly snowy, I don't remember having this much snow in December before.  Anyway, it gives me a bit of free time to play around with new ideas.  At the moment I am testing out an idea for a workshop embellishing beads and here are my first two samples.  The smaller of the two is 16mm in diameter and they are both enamelled.  I will be running this as a workshop later in 2011, let me know if you are interested in learning this technique.

Cloisonne enamel

I have at last got around to doing a bit of enamelling, only a little piece but it seems like ages since I did any cloisonne.  When I first began to enamel it was a technique I used all the time and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it.  It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but has made me think.  I need to get back to my sketchbook and start playing around with some new ideas.

Art Clay World UK Guild Conference in Jersey

I have just returned from the Art Clay conference in Jersey and had a fantastic time. It was lovely to meet up with friends and as always, the exchange of ideas was great. There were a whole series of workshops and the first one I attended was called 'Enamelled Accents' and run by my good friend Joy Funnell. Here she is explaining the firing process to some of her group.