After recently deciding it was time for me to give my work a 90 degrees’ turn toward jewelry, I joined the PMC guild ant joined their local chapter in Phoenix: Metal Head Feat of Clay.
I attended my first meeting yesterday and had a great time.
The group is very friendly and well organized. In addition of many special events, regular meeting are held every month at Friend & Friends AZ Arts Studio in Peoria and I sure will be back to participate.
The meeting was followed by an artist reception for Pam East who is giving an enameling on silver workshop this week-end at the studio.
Pam, who is a renowned enameling artist, spent the last few months experimenting with enameling on copper clay, which has not been done before. She had prepared a slide show which was very informative and shared with us the struggles and excitements she has been trough during this testing phase. This presentation was a real treat.
I love colors and love working with enamels on glass. So, the idea to add them to spice up my new silver pieces is very attractive to me. And since this week-end workshop is already full, I purchased her new book “Enameling on metal clay” (Pam nicely signed it for me) to experiment by myself.
Needless to say that as soon as I was back home, I thumb through the book. At a first glance, it is very well made.
- a first part describes the basic of working with silver clay. Tools, techniques, tips… a brush-up never hurts! and there is always new tricks to learn.
- then, a part dedicated to enamels and how working with them. Lots of good advices here.
- and step by step projects, going from very basic (quick and easy earrings) to more elaborate (cloisonné et champlevé).
I just can’t wait to try. Maybe not this week-end… but absolutely during my holiday break.
If you are interested into enameling on silver, I highly recommend this book. Note that the name “metal clay” in the title implies silver clay. Copper clay is too new and hopefully she will write another book soon. And we cannot enamel bronze clay.
A bientôt!
Patricia
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