Big sad SIGHHHHH. 

Unfortunately both of my classes have been completed BUT I had a great time, made a few friends and learned a lot of great things and I ended up with 2 rings from each class. I was also able to include a little drama as well. Sometimes you have to pay extra for that.

My first class was after work this past Wednesday and it was the PMC3 (precious metal clay-silver). I did have fun learning how to work with the metal clay. It does dry quite fast but it can be slowed down.  My first ring was more of a rush job because I was trying to go to fast but I learned more of what to do for the next one. My second ring I thought about before I actually started working on it and THAT is the secret to this medium. Get everything laid out ahead of time and think of what kind of design you want to do, then pull the clay out and get to work. The instructor was Donna Lewis in Scottsdale AZ. She also created these Lil Bella clay pots which act as a little humidifier to keep the clay moist. If you do PMC, you could really use one of these.

Before

After all these rings were completed, the whole class left all the rings (about 40 or so) on the kiln to dry so they could be fired. She even took pictures of all the finished rings and had everyone sign for their rings when they were picked up a few days later. The drama decided to get involved when one student had picked up one of my rings by mistake and it was gone. Now to be honest, all the rings were pretty close in shape and design so I could see the confusion happening. Donna was able to find out who signed for the ring, contact that person and I was able to pick it up today. She ROCKS. It is all to her organization, creativity of taking photos of the finished rings and keeping track of who received their rings. I would definitely take another class from her again.
AFTER

Now, on Friday, I had an all day class that I loved even more because you work with metal. It was taught by Melissa Manley who is an artist, instructor at various art retreats and teaches at a community college in NC. I really enjoyed her approach to making jewelry and am so thankful with what I learned.  I have tried making rings before but with very little success but now, watch out. I was able to complete 2 rings in that class as well. We used fine silver to make the band and then a copper band with texture on top of that. My wife's ring was filled with X’s and O’s.

I had just tried some different patterns on mine with a sterling silver rivet in the middle. The MT stands for Me Too. A phrase that my wife and I keep saying to each other because of our common love of jewelry, crafts and hobbies we share.

I was going to name my ring/quote  Lord of the Rings “One Ring to rule them all”  but then the house would be filled with hobbits, or......

Have any of you readers taken any recent art, jewelry, writing, music, etc.... type of class and just had the greatest time doing it??   Leave a comment and let us know what you enjoyed and a link to it if you want.

John

Trying out for teachers pet

Well, not really but I am really excited about this week.  I get to go to class this week, actually 2 of them.

The classes are being held by Art Unraveled, which is a mixed media art retreat  that comes yearly to Phoenix. This is where my love to create and make jewelry all started from. Last year I attended a class on making engraved copper letter openers. What I learned from that was how to work with copper, etch, heat, pound (my favorite part), grind, file, darken and then polish the pieces. Once I completed that class, it gave me a better appreciation of all different types of art and the artists who create them.

This year I have enrolled in 2 different  but  same types of classes. The first class is PMC Freestyle Organic Rings , using PMC3 silver clay. I have never worked with this material before but have done some reading and it looks like fun. I started checking on the web and there are so many beautiful pieces out there. It is amazing on what you can do with it. I just hope it rubs off on me.

The 2nd class is also creating rings but I will be using copper, brass and silver. There are  a lot of texture put on these rings and I know that this will be a fun day. After competing both of these classes and a bit of homework, I hope to come up with a few new designs of my own to sell. I will post some pictures after the class, this weekend.

Next week I want to try my hand at coming up with some kind of demonstration of a process in making jewelry. Maybe a weekly or every other week type of posting.


I am now looking to to get your comments on, is there an easier way to...........?

A way to get more people to your blog and hopefully to you Etsy store. I know part of it can be going to other peoples blogs and leaving comments or tags on your site. My only issue is I will only post to a blog if what I read inspires me somehow and I have something to add to it.  A few of the different blogs I have read have hundreds or thousands of people watching them.

Now I know I just started the blog around a month ago and I am truly ecstatic that I have 11 people who follow me. I know this is a slow process but it is always interesting to learn how others have done it.
Please remember that I always enjoy any type of feedback or just a quick hello.