Interlude

Before I finish off describing the conference I thought I would briefly revisit Prague and some of the gems I discovered in their Decorative Arts Museum.

A pilgrims brooch from 11th century I think. Collecting badges was a hobby even back then!

A bishops ring. It wasn't a modern thing to be avant garde and set the stone upside down!

A flea ball. I kid you not. Placed under the skirts to repel fleas. Bigger one available to repel unwanted male attention !(Ok so the last bit was an April fools).

Lovely stone set necklace (Czech garnets?)- again the design looks modern.

A lovely gold and pearl art noveau necklace.

EU conference day three....part two

While Roswitha is firing our wonderful creations (did I mention how excited I am about those stones!!!!) I pop next door to have a peek at Carol Douglas's workshop Copper Dreams. I wish I could be in two places and take both classes. Carol's pieces are wonderful creatures from the world of faerie and I love them! Her patina's are wonderful too. Fortunately she teaches here in sunny old England, so I will be sure to be tracking her down for a class!

See more of her work (and better still book her for a class) at http://www.silvershadowsjewellery.co.uk/

EU conference day three....

The final day (with an hour less sleep due to the clock change!!!) dawns bright and sunny again.  Its time for the Swarovski crystal workshop with Roswitha Schwarz. Roswitha has some beautiful samples of her new techniques developed in collaboration with Swarovski (would had never heard of metal clay! tsk,imagine that!!!). Apparently they cut "real" gemstones too (and believe me the quality and depth of colour is fab) and have some jewel set chain (again, I have seen this with base metals and synthetics, but never sterling and semi precious) and pre set stones. I am so excited as the results look stunning. I am also thrilled by Roswitha's designs - her style is very clean and contemporary yet beautiful and shows the stones to maximum benefit.

My photos don't do them justice. Suffice to say the stones are easy to work with. The tiny stones in the preset bezels give a wonderful delicate finish and the jewel chain gives a completely new look. We used photopolymer moulds to create the design. I have used the yellow photopolymer plates before but they are quite thin, these were Imagepacs and about 2.5mm thick red ones supplied as a gel sachet. Needless to say I will have to buy some to experiment with!

I am so excited about these stones and can't wait to buy some! hopefully we will hear more about them here: http://www.rosart.de/

EU conference day two....part three

The afternoon (after a coffee break- I can't even look at the pastries, sandwiches and ice cream!)
sees Jana Vesela teaching Antique Enamelling applications.
Another lovely lady (I forgot to ask what her PhD was in!) she had thoughtfully provided not only three colours of enamels but tiny little pots for mixing. Here are a couple of her wonderful works:

See some more at her website: http://www.atelierstribra.cz/index.php?lang=en&cmd=gallery&id=20

We made basic pieces and then learnt how to apply the enamels and torch fire them which was fun.

Here are my two pieces.

EU conference day two....part two

The beginning of the afternoon (after a seemingly un-ending buffet lunch- several mini desserts are lower calorie than one big one right?) sees Pam East's presentation on enamelling copper clay. The work is beautiful and the enamel colours very bright. It is interesting to hear how the different brands of copper clays need different handling. Pam is both enthusiastic and highly dedicated to her areas of expertise and the amount of research she has done is quite astounding (and makes life so much easier for the rest of us!)

If you ever get a chance I would take a class with this lady, I guarantee you wouldn't be disappointed. She also has a great book on enamelling on metal clay and some coloured coded metal clay slats (I have had some for ages and love them!) See more at http://www.pameast.net/

EU conference day two....

I am tired already ...bed time was late due to slooooowwww service in restaurant!
My first class in sgraffito on glass with the lovely Astari Swatantri from Finland. She provided us with black glass cabochons and then proceeded to make bezels/pendants from the metal clay which we then dried and refined. Then came the fun part of applying some overlay paste in a even layer for which Astari had created a clever method. It soon dried and we were free to scratch in patterns using some special tools from Japan.

Astari has written a book too, and won awards from the Japanese art clay competition

EU conference day one masterclass part 2

First a few more pictures from this afternoon.

dragonfly with mother of pearl wings

filigree syringe pendant

filigree ring

This evening, a brief opening speech by Herwig Schwarz, and then Mr. Kawai (head of Aida's overseas division). He brought a tear to our eyes and his own as he thanked the world for helping in Japan (119 different countries offered aid) and said that knowing they were not alone was a great comfort. There were hints of what they are working on (mokume gane was mentioned) and the unfortunate news that a substantial price rise is coming to metal clay (please don't buy up all the stock before I get home!!!). Apparently they could sell the silver they reclaim for more profit than they make from metal clay!
And finally (with champagne) a presentation from Swarovski. We learned about the history of the company (started in Czechslovakia not Austria!) and their current developments. They cut semi-precious gems as well as crystal and zirconia and have been working on combining their products. They have developed new cuts- I love the fan cut. http://www.swarovski-gems.com/#/fan-cut
We also had some sneak previews of trend forecasts for 2012 (only now being revealed in Basel, and not offially launched for awhile.) Here are this years forecasts: http://www.swarovski-gems.com/#/trend-research-1 (This post will get rather long if I go into next years, but if you want to know, email me, or check back at their sie soon- you get pictures that way!).