WOW what a weekend, so much creative time, inspiration, fun with friends, good food, learning new skills, couldn't ask for a better weekend!
The venue was in beautiful surroundings and the food was marvellous, we were thoroughly spoilt!
There were plenty of old friends, it was great to spend time with them and also plenty of new interesting people to meet. We had such fun!
As for the workshops! Well what wonderful tutors! I have come away with some wonderful jewellery I am very pleased with and a whole heap more skills and a brain about bursting with ideas!
This is the Bento pedant I made in
Ana Belchi's workshop on Friday. I am not normally one for subtle but I love her constructed mokume gane (you can see it as the decorative blue in the inside of the form) and have some part made pieces with it. The construction was interesting and has opened up some more ideas for me to play with. I have been following
Ana's blog for a while so it was great to actually meet her and see her lovely work up close.
On Saturday we had a workshop with
Eva Ehmeier. She taught us how to make her beautiful Artichoke pendants. They are quite a lot of work to make but I enjoyed it and love the end result. She is a great teacher and I really enjoyed the class. Here's one of mine, I did have time to make a few other bits playing around with the basic technique too. I have a few ideas for colour schemes I'd like to try out, Eva uses wonderful colours in her pendants.
On Sunday we had a workshop with
Melanie Muir. She showed us how she makes her Mokume Gane sheets, and how to construct a cuff bracelet. Here's the cuff I made. I wasn't that pleased with my colours in the end, I made them to match a pendant I already have but they could of done with something with a bit more contrast I think (especially when you are looking at Melanie's inspirational jewellery!!). She was an amazing teacher and I learnt a lot of new techniques.
The finish Mel gets on her jewellery is beautiful and her techniques are
a little different from the way I have been doing it so I shall play
around trying out her way a bit. I can get a great finish too but I work
a bit harder to get it so if I can use her way and get a great
finish with slightly less sanding that's good news! I have been playing
with the idea of getting a bench top buffing wheel and having seen one
in action I will get one sooner rather than later - will just have to
tidy up that bench to make room!
Thanks to all the other participants too, I learnt a lot from you guys too and it was fascinating to see the variations in colour choice and how everyone just tweaked things a little. I really enjoyed all your company! If you aren't already in touch with me please do get in touch on
facebook or by
email.
Thank you so much to
Debbie Carlton and
Rebecca Thickbroom the
organisers of
Polymer, Pamper, Play, it really was the most perfect
polymer clay weekend - again! Can't wait for next year!
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