Going Back to School

If you follow me over on Facebook, you may have heard mention that I have gone back to school. No, not anything like full-time, but every Tuesday evening I spend 2.5 hours at the Edinburgh Contemporary Crafts jewellery workshop in town, leaning how to saw, hammer, torch, solder and more. I actually started this silver-smithing process back in September, when I took a slightly random (for me) class on making a bowl and spoon from copper. Well, it was not the beginning of a great love affair with making bowls(!), although I did thoroughly enjoy the term. What it did do however, was make me much more comfortable working with fire, and with the process of annealing, pickling and hammering metal. The perfect prelude to this term's silver-smithing jewellery class! 

I've even gone so far as to book in extra sessions on some of the weekends. Yep, total geek. But I knew that already - it's ok, I can deal with that! I am not planning on abandoning what I already do - no fear there - but I am really exciting about incorporating silver-smithed elements once I am feeling more confident in my basic foundation skills. Soldering my own rings with confidence - I have made  a few (not pictured here) and am hoping that in a few weeks, with much practice, I will be able to create rings with enough consistency and skill to build on the range of rings I started just before Christmas. Loops, clasps, pins, pendants, charms.....I can't wait! 

Here are a few images from the class so far. Please be kind about my less than amazing drawing skills.....

It's another new idea for me to actually draw my ideas out. I rarely do that when working with beads, but of course when you want to pierce something out of metal, you really have to draw it first, or at least I do right now! 

Here's the first thing I've pieced with which I am actually pleased. Sure, it's far from perfect, but I can see the potential here, and it does look like a feather. Rather than an ink blob, which the first flower I pierced out a couple of years ago definitely did...

And here's a tree. Ok, not the most beautiful tree ever, but a tree nonetheless! It's now soldered onto a little platform. Not quite sure what I'll do with that, but my soldering wasn't bad - it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad - and I'm pretty pleased with it too. 

And here are some more ideas as yet unrealised. Flowery birdies, a sun, and a nellie. Watch this space....