Jewellery class on Wednesday evenings at Maiden Erlegh School in Reading

NEW!

Intermediate/Advanced Jewellery class on Wednesday evenings at Maiden Erlegh School in Reading

18:45 – 21:15 Wednesday evenings – intermediate/advanced jewellery class – next 10 week session starting 23 January £105

Continue learning silver jewellery making with an emphasis on more challenging projects. Students will be guided through a series of projects or a single more complex project. The focus will be on developing skills, so the class is for learners with some experience, but basic techniques will be reviewed as necessary. We will cover techniques including but not limited to stone setting and complex soldering. Full instruction in the use of tools and equipment will be given. Students can work in silver or copper or brass.

 

To book, please go to this link: www.maidenerleghschool.co.uk/page/?title=How+to+Book&pid=131

 

Setting for small stones in my jewellery classes in Great Missenden

As part of exploring basket (or prong, or claw) setting, I showed one of my jewellery classes how to make this small basket setting, which is well suited to small stone around the 3-6mm range. You can find a full tutorial on this blog, which explains it very well: http://fluxplay.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/make-your-own-claw-setting.html 
I made two samples - a 4mm cz with the basket made from 0.5mm wire and a 6mm rose quartz with the basket made from 0.8mm wire. The one my student made was 5mm with 0.8mm wire - and it looks great! It's the one with the bail, my two samples are either side of it in the two lower photos.

(Please ignore the terrible state of my fingernails, that's a result of filing and sanding all the time!)

Jewellery classes in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire

I have been busy teaching and making new jewellery! The new jewellery hasn't been photographed yet, so that will be coming up. In the meantime, a bit about the teaching.

I'm still teaching in Buckinghamshire - at Great Missenden. There are termly classes and Saturday classes for Bucks Adult Learning. There are also weekend courses and a summer 2 day course for the Missenden School of Creative Arts. For both, you can see details on my website: www.machidewaard.co.uk/classes

In November, I taught a private lesson in my studio in Reading: Introduction to Silver Jewellery Making. The results were three rings - a wide one with leaf texture, a twisted wire one and a wave ring.

Also in November, I taught another introductory course in Chesham where the students made a textured wide ring and a wave ring:

Two of those students came for a private lesson in January, and we made jewellery with bezel set cabochon stones:

In the termly classes (now at Great Missenden), we continue making interesting jewellery and working on things like Keum Boo technique (gold foil fusing) and stone setting (such as basket setting). This student made a silver saftey pin:

And here are some examples of student work on basket setting for cabocons and also earrings made with copper and silver:

Jewellery classes in Chesham: basket setting

I've been busy with teaching jewellery making at Chesham. This term we're tackling basket setting. Or prong setting, depending on what you want to call it. I aimed to make this setting accessible for all levels, although I did recommend that people do a bezel setting before starting on basket setting. My idea was to build up accuracy slowly over several projects. I wanted to instill confidence and make the projects achievable. Each element of these projects (size of wire, size of stone, type of stone, type of bail, finish of prongs etc) has been chosen for achievability. The day class is much longer, so the evening classes are necessarily working slower because they are 2 hours long (day class is 5.5 hours). I thought carefully about the building up of these lessons, so that nobody got too frustrated. So far, allowing for predictable mishaps when attempting these new techniques, my students are doing phenomenally well!
So, this is what we're working on:

1. one tier basket setting for round cabochon stone (hard, preferably CZ) with jump ring bail: 

 

2. two tier basket setting for round cabochon stone with tapered bail on prong

3. one tier oval basket setting for oval cabochon stone with jump ring bail to be combined with triangle bail or second jump ring

 4. two tier oval basket setting for oval cabochon stone

 5. After half term, we head into faceted round stones, so we start with this 12mm round cz:

All of the above are my samples, here are some photos of student work thus far:

Jewellery making classes in Chesham and Summer School in Great Missenden

Well, this is the nicest and certainly warmest summer I've experienced in the UK. It's lovely and also not so lovely. The negative only because it gets rather too hot to solder. Anyway, the flowers look great and it really feels like summer! So, here's an update on jewellery classes that I'll be teaching.

If you would like to try jewellery making but don't want to dive in to a termly class just yet, Summer School at Great Missenden Abbey would be perfect for you:

Summer School at Missenden Abbey

To book, please click here for the Missenden School of Creative Arts website.

10th to 11th August 2017

£205 (non residential), £292 (residential)

Thursday to Friday

9:30 – 5:00pm on both days

This course aims to teach students the basic principles of jewellery making. You will start by learning how to use the basic tools required to make jewellery, such as the piercing saw, benchpeg, pliers, hammers, mandrels and torch. The first project, a ring, will guide you through the fundamental techniques of jewellery making, such as piercing, shaping, filing, sanding, hammering, soldering and finishing. Once your first project is completed, we will expand into texturing techniques using hammers and the rolling mill. We will discuss how to design and plan your second project and depending on what you make, we will cover other techniques of jewellery making. You will leave with at least two finished pieces of jewellery in either copper or silver. The tutor can advise you on further courses to take if you would like to continue making jewellery. If you have questions before the class starts, please email the tutor at machidewaard@gmail.com

If you would like to try the Chesham termly class but aren't quite sure, there's a taster session so you can see the room and get a flavour of the classes there: 

Classes in Chesham Adult Learning Centre
I teach day and evening classes in Chesham Adult Learning Centre, Chiltern Hills Academy, Chesham, HP5 2RG

Be guided through a series of projects progressing to designing and making your own individual jewellery. No experience or artistic skills are necessary. Classes are for both beginners and those with experience. The course provides a range of hand tools and access to equipment. You will be introduced to the tools and given full instruction in the use of tools & equipment as the course progresses. Students can choose to work either in silver or they can work in copper or brass. Silver and other metals are not included in the cost. You will be given instruction in how to purchase your own materials.

TASTER SESSION: If you just want to try one session before you book, you can come from 12:00-3:00pm Thursday 14 September for £31. Please call 01296 382403 to book.

Tuesday 9:30am-3:00pm (next 11 week session starts 19 September) £300
Tuesday 7:30pm-9:30pm (next 11 week session starts 19 September) £134
*NEW CLASS* Thursday 12:00pm-3:00pm (next 11 week session starts 21 September) £202
Thursday 7:30pm-9:30pm (next 11 week session starts 21 September) £134

To book, please click on this link to Buckinghamshire Adult Learning.
******Please note the Buckinghamshire website is having technical issues, so it’s better to phone to book: 01296 382403********

Information about classes is kept updated on my website: www.machidewaard.co.uk/classes

plodding ever closer to craft fairs...

So now it's 2 weeks until the first of my autumn craft fairs - Festival of Crafts at Farnham Maltings. I'm still making things and will be sending off a hallmarking package soon.
I went to the Goldsmith's Fair on Monday but was too ill to enjoy it - just helped my friend and then went home again. Yesterday was worse, felt awful and had to get another friend to cover my evening class for me. Today is a bit better, after the long sleep and lots of medicine! I'm going again to Goldsmith's Fair on Friday so will have a proper look around then. What I did see all looked very impressive! In the meantime I have one more class to teach tomorrow and I have a lot to make!
My new website is finished apart from some tweeks here or there: www.machidewaard.co.uk. There's a new logo - same as at the top of this page! New layout and several new pieces of jewellery. It's neater and hopefully simpler for me to maintain!! I also sent out my latest newsletter - if you'd like a newsletter, you can sign up here.
In other news, my friends over at ToDryFor have been very busy indeed - and are opening a shop in Oxford! A real bricks & mortar shop! It's all super exciting and their opening is going to be in a couple of weeks (I'm crying into my tea that I can't make it to the launch, boo hoo!).
Here's a photo of my new gold ball stud earrings:

Summer Course at South Hill Park

There are still a couple of spaces left on my summer course at South Hill Park! See here for details: http://tiny.cc/i1gb8
It's a three day course from Tue 17 Aug - Thu 19 Aug 10.00am - 4.00pm each day.

almost weekend

Wah, what a dreary day outside. Luckily I'm inside! I just wrote an email delving back into my linguistics past. My mom's Japanese teacher wanted to ask me some questions about English/Japanese learning issues so I had to think again about syllable structures, consonant clusters, phonetics, etc. A whole different set of jargon to jewellery!
I've had a packed week, with a very interesting demonstration of anticlastic raising. I had a go as well and bought a stake for small items and am even getting a custom made hammer.(That link will bring you to Tim's page about tools, if you are interested in buying any from him.) I'm excited about it because I could see applications to my own designs immediately. So that was a fun bit of the week. My classes went fine, one more week to go for this term. I have plans for next term, but am a bit worried that the students won't go for it. It's hard to introduce new things when the students have been coming for years and years and know the studio better than me! Still, I don't want to just plod along, I would like a bit more structure and a bit of a fun challenge for the students too. It would be nice to have something to point at at the end of the term for the whole class to be able to say "we did that" instead of just trailing off with all kinds of different projects, half of them not finished. In any case, I will make my plans and just see how it goes...
I should be sitting at my bench right now. I'm still working on the cuff links and brooches. I'm getting closer and closer. Just a bit more to go until I can send them all off for hallmarking. I'm also still waiting for a word from the stone setter for my other big project. I really, really hope I hear from him soon so I can just get that project finished! I asked for the items to be returned by this coming Monday, so hopefully that'll happen and I won't have to phone and pester him. I hate chasing people up, but it seems to be required for pretty much everything.
In any case, hurrah to the weekend and hope you all have a good one.

wah!

Yikes I have a lot to do today! I've just had two very long days over at South Hill Park. All the classes went well and I got loads of my own work done too. But leaving the house so early and getting home so late is going to take some getting used to! Plus there's no internet access so have just been catching up with emails. Usually I guess there wouldn't be so many emails but I'm (along with another jeweller) organising the Evolution exhibit over at South Hill Park and that is SOON. So there are flurries of emails flying back and forth about stock sheet formats and allocated shelves and cases and set up times and so forth. I'll be great once the exhibit is set up!!!
So today I'm working on that a bit plus I really need to get a box together of things to hallmark. I'm still working on the gold ring from the below post. Nearly there, but have no photos yet. Will have them hopefully soon, all being well.
Anyway, it's all a bit hectic and I'm hoping I can stay calm and carry on! Ha!

more gloomy weather

It's rainy and gloomy and the garden looks soggy. My first craft fair of the season is around the corner (Festival of Crafts at the lovely Farnham Maltings!). Things may be cooling down outside, but they are heating up in the studio. Last night my second class teaching silversmithing/jewellery over at South Hill Park arts centre went very well. It went smoothly and everyone was happily working away at their projects. Lovely to see the bangles, rings, etc forming over the course of the class. Today I did lots of phoning - sorting out where to order a sheet of copper at a reasonable price without massive delivery costs. I also phoned for the...hm, I've lost count how many times...nth time to try to get some little post earring display do-dads. I have several of these thingies already and they are perfect for displaying small post earrings. But it's a battle...the supplier still hasn't received stock. It would be so great if I could get some of these things before all the craft fairs are over!!!! Right, now I'm off to paint the last little bit of my backdrop structure. I've done the base coat of paint and now I just need to paint it black and then it'll finally be finished! Hurrah!