Weekend of Workshops

This weekend was all at Wired Designs Studio. When I'm at Wired Designs these days, I am generally teaching a workshop. This weekend I was over joyed to have the opportunity to both teach and take a class.

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Saturday was a delightful day in Fusing I. I love to witness the excitement people have when working with glass for the first time. The ohhhs and ahhhs when they see their first piece come out of the kiln. That happened Saturday afternoon  when this group of ladies saw their dichroic glass pendents came out of the kiln. A little cutting and grinding to get them into just the right shape (like Sue's heart on the bottom left of the kiln below) and back in the kiln they went for a fire polish with the tack fused art glass projects from that afternoon.
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Student work from Fusing I on Saturday, May 19

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Now that they understand a little about the impact of time and temperature on glass, the next step for  Saturday's group  might me taking something like Platemaking on June 23 and 24. In Platemaking they would learn about volume control,  begin to take their cold working skills to the next level and learn what goes into slumping kilnformed glass into a mold to take the shape of a plate platter or bowl.

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The result of one of my demos in the last Platemaking workshop

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On Sunday I got to sit back, relax and learn all about etching metal in one of Gail Stouffer's fabulous metal jewelry workshops. I had a great time hanging out with friends and learning new techniques. Check out the bracelet I made in class (below) using metal we etched earlier that day. The pattern came from sections of a stamp I picked up earlier that day on a "field trip" down the block to Stamp Antonio. I'm grateful for the opportunity to try something different. This is one technique I'll be using again for sure.

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Bracelet made of etched brass.