Silver Jewellery Making at Community Arts Maiden Erlegh - starting in May

Hurrah!

Silver jewellery making classes are starting again at Community Arts at Maiden Erlegh in Reading!!! Finally, after much Covid disruption, we are starting classes again from 9 May 2022.

I will be teaching the Monday and Wednesday evenings (Cathy will be teaching the Tuesday evenings).  

To book, click here: https://www.maidenerleghschool.co.uk/page/?title=Workshops+%26amp%3B+Courses&pid=130

The dates are: 

Silver Jewellery dates		Silver Jewellery dates		Silver Jewellery dates
Monday		Tuesday		Wednesday
09/05/2022		10/05/2022		11/05/2022
16/05/2022		17/05/2022		18/05/2022
23/05/2022		24/05/2022		25/05/2022
06/06/2022		07/06/2022		08/06/2022
13/06/2022		14/06/2022		15/06/2022
20/06/2022		21/06/2022		22/06/2022
04/07/2022		05/07/2022		06/07/2022
11/07/2022		12/07/2022		13/07/2022

Happy New Year 2022!!!

Happy New Year! New Year, new goals, new plans! 

I have lots of plans, including teaching and craft events. Hopefully Covid will calm down and everything will go ahead. 

 

Craft Fairs:

At this year's events, I'm will be showcasing a new range of modern lockets, which I am very excited about! Craft Fairs and events I'll be doing this year include: 

11 – 13 March 2022 Cheltenham Festival of Crafts

30 April – 1 & 2 May 2022 Henley Arts Trail

14 – 22 May 2022 Oxfordshire Artweeks

11 – 12 June 2022 Whiteknights Arts Trail

17 – 19 June 2022 Bovey Tracey Festival of Crafts

 

Jewellery Making Classes: 

JASSO near Oxford

I'm doing a series of Masterclasses in Abingdon, near Oxford at the fabulous workshop of JASSO. You must be a member of JASSO, but at £20/year it is very good value. Details can be found at this link: https://jasso.org.uk/jasso/short-courses/ 

• Sunday 20 February – Keum boo (1 day)
• 19 and 20 March – little box with a one knuckle simple hinge (2 days)
• 15 and 16 October – trillion stone setting (2 days)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Henley School of Art, Henley on Thames

Monday Afternoon - Beginners Silver Jewellery Course

SPRING TERM - An 8 Week Course! See details here: https://www.thehenleyschoolofart.com/event-details/daytime-beginners-silver-jewellery-course-with-machi-de-waard-spring

Term starts Monday 24th January 2022

Half Term Monday 21st February 2022

Last day of term: Monday 21st March 2022

Only 3 spaces left! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New jewellery classes in Oxford & Henley and Arts Trail in September

 

 

Henley School of Art

New Classes:

Saturday 25 September – Making Silver Rings

Saturday 23 October – Making Silver Bangles

Saturday 4 December – Making Silver Rings

Learn the basics of silver jewellery making a wear a piece you made yourself by the end of the course! For more information and to book, see www.thehenleyschoolofart.com/courses

 

JASSO
New termly class!
Thursdays 10am - 1pm

Starts 16 September  I will be teaching a 10 week class at the fantastic workshop of the Jewellery and Silversmithing Society of Oxford. To join, you must be a member of JASSO but joining is incredibly good value at £20/year.

 

11 & 12 September 2021
I will be at Venue 10 St. Luke’s Community Hall, Norfolk Road, Maidenhead, SL6 7AT along with six other artists. Come see jewellery, paintings and ceramics!

Various jewellery related goings on: book and locket

It's been a while since I posted, mostly somehow lost in a lockdown fug where every day sort of passes in similar fashion. But this very, very long month of March is drawing to a close. The sun is shining, the daylight is longer and the spring flowers are out in full force. Hurrah! Let's hope we have a lovely summer, getting closer to being safer with every vaccination! 

In book news, my and Janet's book Silver Jewellery Making is out there in the world. Janet went on Jewellery Maker TV and for a brief moment (about half a day), our book had the coveted "Best Seller" banner on Amazon in our category of metal work! That was quite exciting! Also very thrilling for us is that we are now on TWO recommended book lists. The first is on Metalsmith Society's page, here: https://metalsmithsociety.com/pages/book-recommendations. The second is on Nottingham Jewellery School's blog, which is here:  https://www.nottinghamjewelleryschool.co.uk/post/reading-recommendations

On that second list, check out the Jewellers Creative Journal if you fancy some help with your creative process. I haven't seen it yet, but a friend recommended it and said it's great if you're just starting building up your own designs.

Both of those are well worth following on Instagram, by the way, if you're on there, at @metalsmithsociety and @nottinghamjewelleryschool

Otherwise, I have been busy making lots of new jewellery pieces. At the moment, I am on my quest to make modern lockets. This is one of those lockets. It's my "mini orb" locket, made from sterling silver and 13mm in diameter. I am enjoying getting a better grip on hinges, learning what to look out for and what works well. I figured out that several times, I thought the hinge knuckles were sitting nicely in their little groove, but it turned out that they were ever so slightly *above* the bottom of the groove, which meant that later down the line, the fit was not as good as I wanted. So I've learned to get the loupe out and check under the hinge knuckles from the side to make sure they are sitting down properly in the groove. The tube I'm using is 1.2mm outside diameter, so loupe required! Anyway, here are photos of my mini orb locket: 

Publication day of Silver Jewellery Making: a step-by-step course

 

 

The day is finally here, our book is published!!!! Hard to believe it, but it's finally here. Janet and I are doing an  Instagram takeover for the publisher, @searchpress if you want to follow us there. Apparently there are some delivery issues at Amazon UK, but there are plenty of other places to get the book:

• WH Smith
  
• Waterstones
• Blackwells
• Search Press
• Guardian Bookstore
• Amazon USA
• Penguin Random House
• Bol.com in the Netherlands
• Amazon Germany 

This is me at my bench and the photo below is Janet at her bench :-) 

Silver Jewellery Making book

Janet and I have been hard at work trying to make our book, Silver Jewellery Making, the best it can possibly be. Yesterday we had the last photo shoot at our publisher, Search Press. We added extra images to clarify some techniques and took many photos of tools to show them more clearly. We also added more images to properly illustrate our "how to design" chapter. The photographer, Mark, did an amazing job. Between him and the design direction from Search Press, the tools were turned into works of art! Below are a selection of photos from the day. The cupcake snuck in there because one of the team at Search Press had a special birthday and we luckily got to join in with the cake! The book is coming together well and I really hope that by the time it's published in February 2021, we will be able to throw a big party and invite loads of people!

cupcake

Files made to look beautiful!

the propane torch gets its time in the limelight (although all the projects in the book are done with a handheld torch, we wanted to show different torch options).

tools and the big lights for the photos

silver being photographed

Jewellery made by my students

This term has abruptly ended because of the current virus situation, so I thought I would share some photos of jewellery made by my students in Chesham and Reading this term.

Made by Gill: hammered texture napkin ring

Made by Jane: matching set of earrings and ring with bezel set agate cabochons

Made by Kirsty: punch pattern silver cuff bracelet

Made by Natalie: small bezel set onyx stud earrings

Also Natalie: a rather fabulous rectangle statement necklace. Although it did get amended later because it didn't hang quite right, but I don't have a photo of the updated version!

Made by Rachel: a ring with a large, beautiful stone and on a double ring shank beneath.

Also made by Gill: a swirl of silver wire necklace

Made by Ruth: a very impressive small box with friction fit lid and tree and leaf decorations in brass.

Made by Sarah: a large checkerboard cut stone ring. The stone has subtle colour changes in the light.

Made by Maureen: an impressive cuff bracelet with a simple and elegant result that took quite a lot of effort!

Made by Cora: a very impressive square box with bezel set coral cabochons. Nobody ask how long this took!!!

Made by Helena: elegant moonstone cabochon cufflinks.

Made by Tony: two tube settings on a d-shape ring shank.

Made by Jo: a successful bezel set rose quartz ring.

Made by Gill: bezel set small oval amethyst dangle earrings.

Made by Cora: unusual stone bezel set with decorative gallery wire. Don't mention the melted ones!

Made by Victoria: fun and effective school of fish silver cuff bangle.

Made by Sarah: a brilliant result - hinged square locket with clasp!

Made by Cathy: fabulous rectangular box with friction fit lid.

Made by Susanna: hammer texture pendant with blue cabochon stone.

Made by John: twisted wire rings.

Made by Gill: I forget the name of these things - silver twist and pin to hold a knitted cardigan together.

Made by Jane: ammonite bezel set from the back (this is the front).

Happy New Year!

It's the new year! Happy 2020 everyone! I have many plans for this year, not least the exciting work on the jewellery book. The publication date has been moved back slightly to July of this year, but all is going at a pace in the background. The photos are looking amazing, the text and photos are being put together, and Janet and I have starting editing and we're looking at EVERY DETAIL. There was much excitement when we discovered the book is already on Amazon!!!! No pressure then!!! ha!

Here's the link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silver-Jewellery-Making-step-step/dp/1782217355/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=make+jewellery&qid=1575366994&sr=8-1
and we've even set up author pages so if you click on our names you get way more info on us then you're ever likely to need.

Here is a sneak peek of one of the photos. The designer and photographer put together this photo of the polishing tools and it looks like a painting! I've never seen polishing tools look so pretty!

In other news, in November I brought a selection of jewellery to the always lovely New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham. Not only do they have an excellent jewellery display, there are always interesting other crafts to see there, such as fabulous ceramics! You can see my work on the New Ashgate website here: https://www.newashgate.org.uk/shop_artists/7702/c/101/machi-de-waard/jewellery

Also in November, I taught a very fun and succesful class at Henley School of Art. Everyone made fabulous silver rings and the atmosphere was great.

In my other classes in Reading and in Chesham, students continue to make beautiful and unique pieces. (for information on upcoming classes, see http://www.machidewaard.co.uk/classes/)

Twisted wire bangle with thin round wire and thicker square wire - tricky soldering the join! -by John

Lovely textured rivet swivel locket with a great weight to it - by Hilary

Interesting stone with very flat sides, so set from the back - this is the front with very crisp edges to best show off the stone - by Lucy

Double ring with loose 9ct yellow gold brackets soldered around them - but loose so you can fiddle with the rings - by Natalie

Set of rose gold spiral earrings with crystals on a wire wrap loop - by Jo (fabulous Christmas presents)