Winter/Spring Workshop Schedule

Feel like learning some fun metals techniques?  Here are the workshops and classes I'll be teaching over the next few months!


Enameling for Jewelry and Beyond

Students will learn basic techniques in enameling, such as sifting and kiln firing. We’ll apply these techniques (plus a few other fun things) to everything from pendants and earrings to items for the home - think drawer-pulls and light switch plates!

8 Tuesdays - Jan 10 - Feb 28
6:30-9:00pm
Visual Arts Center of Richmond - Richmond, VA

 

NC Black Co. Micro Raising Workshop

Raising is a process for forming sheet metal into vessel form using the metal's natural response to hammering. Students will explore methods for creating miniature vessel forms. These methods can be used to create sculpture and jewelry as well as vessels. Students will focus on samples in copper and will create a raised vessel by the end of the class. All tools are provided.  Some metalsmithing experience is helpful, but not required. 

Two 1-Day Workshops

February 4 - 10:00-5:00

February 5 - 10:00-5:00

Cape Fear Studios - Fayetteville, NC

3-Day Workshop

March 22-24 - 10:00-5:00 each day

Radford University - Radford, VA

Jewelry Fabrication Weekend Workshop

This is the perfect introduction to creating jewelry the traditional way, by starting with sheet metal and wire. You'll learn about the basic tools of the jeweler: a jeweler's saw, pliers, hammers, and the torch. We'll cover techniques that will enable you to create beautiful wearable jewelry, such as rings, bracelets, and pendants! We'll work with copper with sterling silver, and will provide all the materials, tools and equipment. No experience necessary - all you need is enthusiasm!

Feb 18-19 (Sat-Sun) 
10:00-4:30 both days
Sawtooth School for Visual Art - Winston-Salem, NC

Galvanic Etching and Champleve Enameling

Galvanic etching, or electro-etching, is a process that uses electricity rather than acid to etch metal. Students will learn forming techniques for their specific pieces, and then we’ll move into champleve enameling, a technique that involves wet-packing enamel powder into the recesses created by etching the metal.

8 Tuesdays - March 13 - May 1
6:30-9:00pm
Visual Arts Center of Richmond - Richmond, VA

Using the Hydraulic Die Press in the Jewelry Studio

Explore the fascinating realm of forming metal with a hydraulic die press. You can easily add dimension to your metalwork with the hydraulic press. Being able to easily create multiples of a simple form is one of its greatest assets. Students will learn to create original dies in acrylic sheet or other material, then use these dies to make puffed metal forms that can be altered using various techniques and textures. You can make multiples for a series of jewelry pieces, each one with the same outside silhouette but finished differently. The possibilities are endless. Basic Jeweler's Saw skills are helpful, but beginners are welcome.

May 19-20 (Sat-Sun)
10:00-4:30 both days
Sawtooth School for Visual Art - Winston-Salem, NC

VisArts Enameling Workshop

Last weekend I taught a Basic Enameling workshop at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.  It was my first workshop there, and I had a great time.  The facility is very nice, fully equipped studio, friendly people, organized administration, fabulous students! 

Mark and I moved to Richmond this past January, and knew basically nothing about the city.  Someone suggested that I look into the Visual Arts Center as a place to work and to meet some interesting people.  I made an appointment last Spring and pitched my proposals for classes and workshops for the Fall session, and came to find out that VisArts was fully equipped for enameling, with four kilns and lots of old enamels, but they had had no one to teach it in years.  Lucky for me!  I proposed two enameling workshops and an etching and enameling class.  I was able to make my Basic Enameling workshop run with only three people, but I don't think my next workshop, Alternative Techniques in Enameling (Nov. 12-13) is going to make this session.  Oh well.  I already have five people signed up for my evening class, Galvanic Etching and Champleve Enameling, starting in a couple weeks (Tuesday evenings, Nov. 15 - Dec. 20, 6-9pm).  So that will be a lot of fun. 

Anyway, back to the Basic Enameling workshop.  Prior to the workshop, I went into the VisArts studio and made colors samples of all the enamels they had to offer.

I made handouts including some basic info and facts about enamels, descriptions and how-to's with the techniques we were covering, and some tips and tricks that just make things a little easier as you're going.  I made samples of all the different techniques we'd be trying, which were surprisingly a lot, given that this was a basic enameling workshop.  And honestly, it was a lot of fun to revisit those techniques that I don't often use.  In my first enameling class, we were presented with a whole lot of basic techniques like this, and then were asked to take this knowledge and make a piece of jewelry.  Well, that's all well and good, but there were so many different things that I wanted to try, I ended up trying to use several on one piece and it came out looking rather muddled.  I remember wishing we had been given some extra time just for making samples of each technique to try them all out and see what we liked before jumping into a piece of jewelry. 

So that's what I asked my students to do.  The first day, I did demos of several basic limoges techniques, and then the students did their own samples.  After lunch, I showed them a few basse-taille techniques, and they were free to make some samples of basse-taille or anything else they wanted to explore.

Since we only had three hours to work on Sunday, their homework assignment that night was to come up with a piece that they wanted to make based on the techniques we had covered.

Greg made a beautiful landscape tile:

Gwen made a gorgeous leaf-shaped pendant:



I thought everyone did a wonderful job, and we all had a lot of fun!  I hope to see them again in future workshops and classes.  Can't wait for my next class. 

Thanks VisArts and students!