Saturday 14 February 2009

Hi Ho Silver!

Afternoon all!

Hope you're having a good weekend. Well, I've been off playing with silver again. This time I did a great one day silverclay course with Rebecca Crabtree in Knutsford just a few miles down the road from me. It was a fab day and there were a few fellow glass fans there including Caroline. We all got to make some lovely pieces of jewellery - here are the pictures of mine.

In the morning we made some little textured pendants to get us used to handling the precious metal clay. Then in the afternoon we got to make whatever we fancied. The shield shaped pendant started out flat and with a bail, but because numpty-knickers here spent too long chatting on the day, I had to bring it home to fire. But then, running true to clumsy form, here's the series of events:
1. Got back from course, walked upstairs to put it in the kiln.
2. Dropped it, bail fell off in one piece, swore a little.
3. Repaired, left to dry.
4. Carried it to the kiln, dropped it again, bail in several pieces, swore a lot.
5. Gave up on bail, sanded it down and fired it before I had chance to drop it again. ;-)
6. Hammered it in a doming block and soldered a hidden bail on the back, hoping I wouldn't be able to knock this off. LOL!

I think somebody somewhere was trying to tell me not to put a bail on it, and to be honest, it does look much better without one. And then when I got home all enthused, I had another play with some silverclay and made some little silver stud earrings, as requested by my brother's little girls.

Anyway - I'm hoping there will be some more new beads soon - my mojo seems to have gone on holiday at the moment, but fingers crossed it will come back soon with a tan, sombrero, and some duty free. ;-) Hope you're having a good weekend and all the snow has finally melted.

HP x

7 comments:

Jo Smith said...

Loving the silver work, the little stud earrings are especially cute!

Beady Bugs said...

Cheers Jo. It's great stuff to use. :-)

HP x

Catherine said...

Haha! Poor you but as you say, it does look rather gorgeous without the bail! I love it - very chic. Clever you! Oh and those little studs are just amazing!

Hurry up and get that tan so we can all drool over your new beadies!! Can't wait! :)

Laura Sparling said...

Totally amazing work, HP! You know that I am in love with those cupcake studs .....

Beady Bugs said...

Thanks Catherine and Laura.

I'm hoping to be back at my torch soon - my mojo did send a postcard the other day. He's been at the sangria and got a bit of sunstroke - lucky thing - soggy old Manchester for me and a cup of tea. ;-)

Loving having a go at silver work though, glad you like them, I'm sure there will be more. ;-)

HP x

Steph said...

oo, what a nice bunch of silver shinies :) great to see you've been making something creative! i am trying. hopefully i'll get back into things myself soon. just doing one-off orders and things. i expect everyone on FH thinks i have died or something :P xx

Beady Bugs said...

Thanks Steph - nice to hear you haven't dropped off the glassy planet! LOL! ;-) Really missing your glass porn lady! Get that kiln going now!!!! ;-) HP xxx