Lamorna and Eve enjoying smoothies together at Boca Bar
As 2016 is the 'Year of Change,' I set myself up to take part in a precious metal clay jewellery course on Saturday. I drove down to Stanton Drew, south of Bristol in the morning, and slowly meandered in the car down country lanes as I approached Touchmark Studios.
Chris Pate who runs traditional jewellery courses as well as PMC, met me as I arrived outside her beautiful farmhouse; with dogs barking and a fresh countryside feeling.
This was the first creative endeavour that I have made since pregnancy, so I was slightly nervous. Three other people arrived for the course; one was a seventeen year old girl who is home schooled, another worked for Bristol University biology research department, and the last was an ex NHS nurse who is now a dog walker. We were really all quite different, but it was nice chatting amongst ourselves about what we hoped to achieve during the day.
Chris studied jewellery at Bristol School of Art, where I have done numerous evening courses in ceramics over the years, so it was good talking about the great teachers who had taught us there. PMC is clay impregnated with small particles of metal - such as sterling silver, copper, gold or bronze. You work with it like you do with clay, but once it has gone through the firing process it turns into metal. It's interesting stuff and the possibilities for using it to create things are endless.
Touchmark Studios - our work stations
I really wasn't sure what I wanted to create, but it was interesting learning about different processes and techniques. I had tried working with precious metal clay once, years ago when I worked for a ceramic art cafe in Bristol, so that plus my knowledge of working with normal potters clay helped with my work.
We enjoyed a lovely home cooked lunch together in Chris's kitchen, and then went back to finish our work in the afternoon. The dead line for the kiln was 3.30pm so that the pieces would be fired in time for us to burnish and polish them.
We had a go with the hand torch, which was fun.
I must say I was very pleasantly surprised when my two pendants came out of the kiln. Burnishing and polishing took longer than I thought, and it was interesting to learn how important the finishing stages are. It was really nice to fully focus on something by myself for a whole day. However, dear Eve was not far from my mind; the second pendant that I made has the letter 'E' on it for her. I enjoyed looking at the other ladies work; we had all created very different pieces but each one was beautifully made. It was cool that the day had gone well for us all.
There is a lot to learn when it comes to PMC, so I am slowly working my way into it, but it feels good to find a process that I can work on at home, learning from books and youtube as I go along. It's a bit more accessible than ceramics. As a mum it feels nice to have a challenging project; something that I can ponder on and enjoy - who knows what may come of it?!
I raced home to get back in time to see Eve before bed time. She was sat happily on Daddy's lap on the sofa when I walked in the door. By the sound of it, they had both had a great day. They had met Jilly, Navi and Lamorna at Boca bar for lunch. Our girls had a wonderful time eating chips and drinking smoothies together.
I felt a bit sad to have missed out on seeing our friends but very thankful to have been able to go on such a fantastic day course. Chris is a really good teacher, so knowledgeable, open and friendly. She offers lots of other courses so hopefully I may make it back there again one day.
But for now, I am thinking about how I can work on jewellery projects at home to make me more proactive, creative and engaged.
For more information on precious metal clay have a look at the following links:
After being away for the whole of Saturday poor Eve was rather clingy on Sunday and kept crying. She even had a sleep on me on the sofa, which is pretty much unheard of these days. I must admit that I quietly enjoyed sitting on the sofa with her, watching her as she slept.
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