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Soldering on silver clay

Understanding when, and knowing how-to solder is a vital technique for jewellery makers. You can expand your jewellery making experience substantially by learning how to solder silver clay. 

In this session Anna will teach you:

• What the soldering process is and how to do it successfully

• How to make suitable silver clay pieces ready for soldering

• How to sweat solder stud earrings and cufflink backs to your silver clay work

• How to clean up fire scale and polish your pieces ready to wear

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Saturday afternoon

Silver Daisy Chain

Learn how to make your own silver daisy chain from art clay and wire. No soldering is necessary! In this session, you will learn the secret to making a flower chain including:

• How to make and shape the flowers

• How to connect the flowers with wire

• How to successfully fire your chain (kiln is required)

• How to polish the flowers

Please note: As this is a short session you will make 2-3 flowers as a sample chain and you will learn how to add more to make a full bracelet or necklace. Note: the flowers will be fired at the end of the session and will need to be collected later in the day and polished at home.

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Sunday afternoon

Carving techniques

Any textures or patterns on Clément's jewellery will all be made from his own personal handmade texture plates. In this class you'll get an introduction to how to use linoleum and carving plates as a mixture of both texture plate and a mould, giving you new ways of efficient making.

Clément will show you how to use different carving tools, and share lots of his experience and know-how.

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

When: Saturday morning

Tension Stone Setting Ring

Tension stone setting is a beautiful way of setting stones without bezels or prongs, giving the impression that the stone is magically suspended in the metal.

Tension stone settings should only be done in very strong alloys, like iron or white gold. But; in this class you’re going to learn how to create that beautiful illusion, using pure silver!

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Experience needed: Some metal clay experience needed

Session runs: Saturday morning

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Sakura Cherry Blossom Pendant

In this session Etsuko will show you some traditional Japanese techniques involved in making a cherry blossom inspired pendant, a delicate hanging silver petal.

You’ll learn a technique for applying real gold leaf and Mother of Pearl to your silver. This has been inspired by the traditional Japanese technique called “Urushi. The word “urushi” is used both for the technique and also for the (usually) red and black lacquerware which is traditionally created using the technique. Some people say the word Urushi comes from two other Japanese words: “uruwashi”, meaning “beautiful”, and “uruosu”, which means “to moisten”.

You’ll be show some tricks for handling very thin gold leaf, and an effective way to cut thin sheet of mother of pearl. 

Experience needed: Beginner

Session runs: Saturday afternoon & Sunday morning

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Lace Flower

Let Japanese Master artist Etsuko show you how to really master your syringe work! Using syringe type silver clay you'll create a delicate Lace Flower pendant. You'll learn how to reinforce your syringe work to make it wearable, whilst still looking delicate and light. You'll also use the syringe to set a fireable stone to decorate your flower with.

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Experience needed: Metal clay experience needed

Session runs: Saturday morning

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Festival Feathers!

Have some fun with feathers and make some festival earrings! Come and make some fun and colourful feather earrings.

Using Art Clay silver you will learn how to texture and wrap the clay to form a cone shape which will be used to hold your feathers. You will learn how to use embeddable jumprings so you can hang your earrings from elegant earwires.

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Sunday morning

Colour Pop!

A hands-on session which is bursting with colour! In this session we will be making a beautiful and colourful pair of leaf earrings using fine silver. You'll learn all about how to add a glossy pop of colour, using alcohol inks and UV resin.

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Saturday afternoon

Embellishing your work

Have you ever made a metal clay piece and then wished it had a certain something extra? Let Joy show you how to add embellishments to your fired work!

This workshop will cover lots of techniques for adding embellishments to fired pieces (and you can use some of the techniques on unfired pieces too). You'll start with a fine silver reversible plain pendant (which Joy will make for you in advance). During the session you'll have a whale of a time adding decorations to make the piece your very own. Joy'll cover techniques such as 24k gold keum boo, adding moulded and cut out fired elements, adding fine silver wire decorations, riveting and using Liver of Sulphur with resists.
 

Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Sunday morning

Sterling Silver Rings

In this workshop Joy will show you her method for making rings with a perfectly textured band.
You'll add a topper where you'll set a non-round stone into a complementary textured shape. We'll work with Art Clay Silver 950.

Please note: due to time constraints the ring will be fired after the workshop finishes for you collect your ring later during the conference.

Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Saturday morning

Brilliant Bails

When you first start working with metal clay, you often begin by punching a hole in your pendant and using a jump ring to hang it. As you gain more experience, adding bails to your designs increases the options for making your work unique.

In this class with Julia Rai, you’ll learn to design bails that complement your work and create movement and interest. The class will explore all kinds of bails including hidden bails, fixed and free-floating statement bails and tube bails. 

During the class you will make one pendant with a bail of your choice. You will also make some different bails to take away in the dry stage for use after you leave the class.  If you have dry stage pendants that you want to add a bail to, bring them along.

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Saturday afternoon

Making stamps with photo polymer plates

Join Leigh to learn how to create our own stamps  with the help of photo polymer plates and sachets - you can make your own personal stamps from drawings, hand writing or doodles, hand/foot prints, or computer designs.

Leigh will run through what you need to get started with the technique. You’ll get her tips on how to make sure you get great looking clear stamps every time.

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Sunday morning

Sculpting faces in polymer clay

Learn some great techniques for how to create and sculpt faces by hand in polymer clay. Lena will show you how to use your sculpted face to make a silicone mould. A mould will allow you to create unique face pieces from metal clay which you can then further decorate as you wish. 

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In the session you will be making a plain face, which will be suitable for mould making. Depending on how fast you work, the piece will be cured in the session and you'll make the press mould there. If it isn't finished you will leave with moulding compound and instructions, ready to create your mould as soon as the face is baked. You'll also be given a pre-made mould, using one of Lena's designs, ready to use straight away.

Lena firmly believes EVERYONE can be an artist - the only thing separating a non-artist from an artist is lessons and hours of practice, not talent!  "I never get tired of sculpting faces. They’re like landscapes for me, unknown places to explore. When I start to sculpt (or paint) a face, it’s always exciting, I never know who I am going to meet. All technique in the world won’t change that there is always room for the clay/paint to show me a new face I hadn’t imagined before. I love that, and let me material steer me where it wants to go, rather than where I want it to go!"

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Sunday afternoon

Glass cabochon ring

In this class you'll make a show-off ring topped with glass. Meropis will show you:

• how to make a silver ring shank, with the help of a syringe

• how to decorate a glass cabochon with paste and syringe

• how to fire the glass safely without any damage

• how to attach the shank with the cabochon

If there is enough time, Meropi will also demonstrate how you can use a microwave kiln to make your own glass cabochons.

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Experience needed: Beginner

Session runs: Sunday morning

Three-sided bead

Learn to make this beautiful three-sided bead out of Art Clay Silver. Your bead will have the texture of your choice, and you can decide the shape and size as well. 

Depending on the design and size these types of beads can be worn alone or you might choose to integrate it into a beaded necklace after class.  In this class you will learn how to torch-fire your bead, so that you can continue your metal clay journey at home, even without a kiln.

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Sunday afternoon

High force silver paper

Aimed at all levels of metal clay artists and enthusiasts, we will use Art Clay Silver Paper Type Plus + to learn how to adapt the paper-crafting technique of Kirigami to create interesting three-dimensional jewellery designs. Kirigami is a variation of origami that includes cutting of the paper, rather than solely folding the paper as is the case with origami, but typically does not use glue.

Through this Japanese art of cutting and folding techniques, we will create these interesting pop-up designs which give a contemporary twist to students' silver clay projects. During the three hour session, learners will be able to plan and design alternative border frames. 

There will be several design options and more examples on display to inspire learners’ own ideas.
 

Please note - students’ work will be fired at the end of the session after which, they may collect, polish, patina and finish their pieces in their own time.​

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Experience needed: Suitable for all levels

Session runs: Sunday afternoon