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

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

Time out

I don't know where the past few weeks have gone but they have simply flown by. Last week I ran a couple of interesting workshops in my own studio; the first for a couple who spent the day making their wedding rings In sterling silver and gold using traditional techniques and the second for a couple who made some beautiful pieces in their first foray into art clay silver. I have a couple of commissions half done on the bench and am making samples for a 1960s inspired rings class that I will be running at the Castle Museum in York on the 1st October. I will try and post some pictures of them in the next few days!

Summertime inspirations

I have had a few days off this week to catch up with some of my family and relax.  The beauty of always having my mobile phone with me is that I can take pictures anywhere.  The seeds heads with a ladybird was taken on a quick visit to Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate.

This beautiful picture is my Dad's garden.  It was lovely to see the roses in full bloom and the sunshine on his collection of unusual plants.  He does sometime open his garden to visitors and you can see more here on his website

On the journey home across the Yorkshire Wolds I stopped to take a photo of this field on the rolling hillside, a mass of poppies growing through the yellow flowers of the rapeseed crop.

The birds and the beads

I am preparing to take part in North Yorkshire Open Studios which this year runs over 5 days June 10/11/12 and 18/19 10.30 to 5.30 each day. I will be having a small opening event on Friday 10th June from 5.30 until 6.30pm when I will be showing my bird inspired Jewellery and launching a new range of small bead bracelet kits.

Just send me a message if you are intending to come along, it will be lovely to see you!

Plique a jour and lots of other fun

I have had the most amazing weekend.  The very talented metal clay artist Lesley Messam has been up to North Yorkshire (together of course with her lovely husband Keith). We were a little sad as Joy Funnell was originally going to come as well, but couldn't because of other commitments.  She did very kindly email some notes on plique a jour enamel to help us on our way.  On Friday we had a day out in Whitby but Saturday and Sunday were spent in studio, teaching each other all kinds of things and laughing and experimenting along the way.

I have a large stone set and ready to attach to my partly made ring.  The main achievement for me was actually doing some plique a jour enamel.  I did make two pairs of earrings using this technique way back in 1999 but have not attempted it since.

Bird a week, plique a jour earrings

This is my second attempt. I got a little confused about which colour went into which cell so a couple of the cells have more than one colour in them.  I have really enjoyed the challenge of doing these and will think about designing something for plique a jour again soon

I still have my big ring to finish first and another bird brooch is in progress

Forget me not

This little brooch is a commission for clients for their daughter as a wedding gift. It does have all the elements of something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue together with the forget me not  that are her own favourite flowers.