Ceramic Jewellery Class - Sew Make Create

Another weekend means another class! This time I'm learning how to make ceramic jewellery at Sew Make Create in Chippendale. I won a $50 voucher with them via an Instagram competition so that helped fund this class.

I did have an idea of what I wanted to make in the class but I'm not quite sure I got there in the end. I think I tried to make too many pieces in the class to try and safeguard against pieces potentially breaking in the kiln and this didn't give me enough time to really finish any of the pieces nicely. I also think a bit more time spent pre-planning exactly what I wanted to do would've served me well.

I thought I might make my ceramic balls for studs but they didn't fare well when I got to the pre-glazing stage so were written off. The beads I made broke in the kiln but I'm OK with that. All of the pendants I made survived and some of them are good - some are too big and heavy for me to wear (I have a bad neck so can only wear light pendants). The smaller round pieces were intended for earrings but I think they are a bit too thick and heavy so I need to think about what I would do with them. I also put the holes too far down in all of my pieces so using jump rings isn't working. There's a reason they say hindsight is 20:20...

I picked up my fired pieces from Sew Make Create yesterday...and here they are!

I have to confess - this piece of ceramic was an example by the teacher. I snaffled it, sanded it and then pre-glazed it. I quite like it - but I'm trying to think of how I can incorporate one of the smaller, similarly decorated pieces in to it.

I had really wanted to make a semi-circular pendant and have ended up with three. It's funny that the blue one is, aesthetically speaking (to me), the best looking piece as I actually ran out time to pre-glaze it hence the sightly washed out look.

I have a lot more pieces to play around with at home - I suspect I'll string up a few more and then cut my losses with the others.
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A class in Precious Metal Clay

I attended a really great workshop on the weekend at the Sydney Jewellery School (which recently moved from Rosebery to Parramatta - how lucky for me)! The class was all about making silver jewellery with Precious Metal Clay (PMC). I first became aware of PMC through Marialla Walker's Instagram (here and here). There is seriously no craft this lady has not tried - inspirational!

Wikipedia tells us that "Metal clay is a crafting medium consisting of very small particles of metal such as silver...mixed with an organic binder and water for use in making jewelry, beads and small sculptures. Originating in Japan in 1990, metal clay can be shaped just like any soft clay, by hand or using molds. After drying, the clay can be fired in a variety of ways such as in a kiln, with a handheld gas torch, or on a gas stove, depending on the type of clay and the metal in it. The binder burns away, leaving the pure sintered metal."

I was attracted to this class as it is actually something you can do at home if you want -- no need for a kiln, just a creme brulee torch and you're off! I'm already dabbling in polymer clay at home so this seemed like a good "next step".

These are so of the examples our teacher brought to class - all made by her (I'm coveting the ring in the very bottom right)

Our teacher Donna was great - very very patient! And I think she brought with her every gadget and tool in her workshop which we were free to use. The first hour of the class was spent being shown various techniques in working with the clay (PMC3) and then we were encouraged to plan out what we wanted to do before opening up the clay and letting it go hard (this stuff is not cheap at ~$50 for 16g so it was very good advice).

Sixteen grams of clay is not a lot and in way I'm glad as I kept my wishlist small and simple and went for two pendants and two sets of earrings. I also had enough for a little heart (made from a mould) that I have given to Dave...he has no idea what to do with, but I can't wear it so I don't want it! I do wish I had made the shapes of the earrings different from each other as they look a bit "same same" but you live and learn!

This is the clay, once it has been rolled out and had a textured surface applied by pushing it into a rubber or metal mat. Shapes are cut out using a pin from a shaped stencil - easy!

The school has a kiln so most of our pieces went into the kiln for firing (took 30 minutes to do this). As you can also fire PMC3 using a kitchen blow touch Donna showed us how to do this too. I wasn't going to embark on this as a hobby at home but I'm kind of running out of space to put all my crafting stuff...but I feel like the seed has been sewn and it might just happen. I didn't have a go at using the blow torch but I kind of wish I had now. 

Once the clay comes out of the kiln it has become 99.9% pure silver though it still looks like white clay. Once you've gone at it with a wire brush the silver surface is revealed. In order to get a good shine on your piece you need to go at it with a bevel (?)...which I kind of did, but to be honest it all looked shiny enough to me. 

Here I am wearing one pair of my new earrings at work - LOVE them!

The Sydney Jewellery School has loads of great classes - I can see myself enrolling in more classes here. 

Polymer Clay Jewellery Class

I've attended yet another craft class! I'm sure the basics of making beads out of Polymer Clay is something that can easily be self-taught at home, but I love a class and embrace most opportunities to dabble in something new. And, like most crafty and arty endeavors it's not as simple as it seems!

I took this class at Workshop in Redfern - a large workshop space (as the name suggests) that offers a variety of different workshops - crafty and otherwise.  I wear a necklace every day so love the idea of being able to make my own, in colours that match items in my wardrobe.

The class was really fun, and ran over three hours which is just long enough to get the basics covered. The class taught by Therese Lyons who runs Ena + Albert, an online treasure trove of all things polymer. Therese was a very lovely, patient teacher and seem genuinely impressed by some of the stuff we were turning out.

sample beads + finished necklaces by our teacher

During the class we were taught how to condition the clay, about mixing colours and different colouring techniques, shaping the beads and how to add texture and marks to our clay. I love how the tray below highlights everybody's different creative take on the task at hand...we were all "taught" the same techniques but we all came up with something different.

the tray of baked beads from my table - so pretty!

...and here is my creation below. It's quite...pink, which was not what I walked into the workshop intending to make. The pink just kind of happened all of its own accord.

When I got home I decided that my necklace didn't look quite right, so I removed the big chunky bead from the middle and the two oblong beads towards the top...and now I LOVE it! I've worn it three times already, and in fact I'm wearing it at work today.

I've made one attempt since the class at making my own beads at home and I have to say I found it really hard to narrow down an idea of what to make as the possibilities are literally endless!

In the end I decided to "borrow" an idea from our teacher -- natural colours mixed with a translucent clay and microbeads. So...this is where years of practice obviously come in handy...a few of my beads cracked (I didn't let them cool before playing around with them), my microbeads all fell off and every bead is a different shape even when I intended quite a few to be the same. All that aside, it still looks quite good but it's a bit heavy for me (Iris Apfel I am not) so it's been gifted to a colleague who seems happy with it.

I love the idea of being able to make beads to match things I am sewing. I have a black and white dress in the pipelines so I'm also thinking of jewellery ideas to go with it...something with red maybe?