While waiting for my camera to be fixed......share share with you some of the pictures that I manage to take on the day of the course at In The Studio (pun intended! lol.... :P).
I found In The Studio through some random searches online and just decided to join their PMC course since it was so near to Nottingham. It's in Kegworth, which is about an hour's drive or so from Nottingham.
Hhhmmm, I don't exactly know how I should classify the are. The studio is both a studio and a house. Thing is, I don't quite understand how houses in England are.
Unlike Malaysia, we either have a shophouse or a house. House is where one stays and a shophouse is where you do business and stay at the same time. A shophouse is normally a 2 storey dwellings with the family staying upstairs and conducting their business downstairs.
In The Studio feels somewhat like a mansion setup but yet not as big as a mansion. Erm, does that make any sense? I don't even know what I'm blabbing about already! LOL......
But the point is, they offer residential for students from outstation. Well, with the necessary B&B charges, of course!
So, it could be like a weekend break thingy as well. Instead of sightseeing or whatever, you make jewellery.
If you see from the site, they call themselves a jewellery making school and offer loads of jewellery making related courses and they have even got branches in London and Spain.
I didn't get to take too many pictures on that day cuz I was already running out of time to finish all my pieces already, so clicking on the camera was pretty much the last thing I had on my mind.
All I was thinking about throughout the two days was, 'hurry, hurry.....you need to get at least SOMETHING ready for the kiln!"
Which was how and why I ended up with so little pictures of the course. Anyway.....
This is my work station. There were in total 6 work stations at the work area. So, yeah, every session can only accomodate 6 people which I thought was a very decent amount of students. Anything more than that is probably a bit too crowded already although personally, when it comes to me teaching, I think 4 would be the ideal.
The work area. You can see evryone's concentrating on their work!
This is in another room adjacent to the work area. This is where the explanation and demonstration goes on before we return to the work area to work. All the pieces you see on the table are samples made from Art Clay.
My 'goodies pack'! =D
Work in progress......
And this.......
For some strage reason, my face looked so swollen here and my hair so flat..... -_-
Is Theresa Spears, who everyone fondly calls Terry, the instructor and owner of In The Studio. She has been making jewellery for at least the past 20 years and teaches I think almost 85% of the courses offered there.
This was the course that I had most fun! Well, apart from metal clay being a fun thing to work with, Terry was a super fun instructor! It's such a joy to be learning from her cuz she made the whole learning experience so much fun!
During lunch break, we walked over to a pub nearby for lunch and Terry was so nice to wait for me to walk with me since she knows that I have some walking disabilities. She'll always say to me 'Let's go, goldilocks!' before grabbing onto my arms and walk together.
And when I asked to take this picture with her, she went and grab her black cardigan just so to match with mine.
Ok, irrelevant info here but she's been such a warm person to be around with which makes the whole experience so heartwarming especially in the cold England weather!
Terry coincidently has been to Malaysia before. Well, Langkawi Island to be exact. Talking of which even I myself have yet to go there! But Langkawi is such a beautiful place which I've been wanting to go!
Langkawi Island
Ok, I'm going to digress a little to tell you a little more about Langkawi Island, particularly if you are non-Malaysian. As a matter of fact, I think some Malaysian may not even aware of this story.
This is a story I had already been told about since primary school. It's about the Legend of Mahsuri. I don't really remember the story in detail but it neverthless left a huge impression on me back then that I still remember it till this day.
Briefly, Mahsuri was a lady (princess?) who has been accused of adultery. She pleaded innocense but was convicted nevertheless. When she was about to be executed, she said that her blood will be white in colour to signify her innocence. True enough, the blood flowing from the wound thereafter was white and with her dying breath she cursed the island to have seven generatiions of bad luck.
Back then, white blood just sounded too fascinating to a kid! :P
But people somehow agreed that the legend might be a real story afterall because the island took a long time before it was finally developed into a tourist attraction in the 90s if I'm not mistaken.
I know Malaysia was still considered a developing country back then but as compared to other parts of Malaysia, the island was kinda slow.
Well, it's just bits and pieces of info I remembered vaguely lah.
Anyway, that was about Langkawi Island.
Back to Terry. Her words of wisdom that she gave me before I left. Roughly, this was what she said.....
'While others learn what one should do, you learn what one should not do and you'll know what mistakes to avoid in future."
LOL.......
If you've been following my posts on metal clay, you probably heard me talking about all the mistakes that I've made and how some of my pieces did not survived the kiln lor. :P
My of advice when it comes to attending courses like this is:
1. Read up on whatever it is that you intend to learn. When I said read up, I'm not talking about just briefly knowing what the media is about but if possible go into more details like the tools, technique or method of working with it would be very helpful.
2. Don't be too ambitious when working on something that you have only seen for the first time. Stick to the probably boring module projects suggested by the instructor. Bear in mind that time is limited here. You aim should be to pick up on the technique and not creating a masterpiece. I think this was my biggest mistakes in coming up with all those unsatisfactory and failed pieces.
Read More...
Luckily, these pictures were taken prior to my camera went bust on me. Else, I think I'll be having problems blogging already..... o_O
Wanted to borrow my sis in law's camera but turns out she misplaced the USB cable and I won't be able to transfer the pictures into my pc. Memory card won't do because it's a Sony's camera i.e. exclusive memory stick. I call it the stuck up camera. :P Neither did she see the need to get the external storage when the camera comes with in-built 4G memory.
Meantime, I'm pretty stucked....between the cost of repair and getting a new one.
I can't work with no camera....... *sigh* ......... o_O
Anyway, that's not today's story.
What can you do with metal clay paste? Lots! But like I mentioned earlier, it's normally used with a combustible material where it will help to give shape and form to the paste once the material burns off during firing.
This leaf pendant was made from painting layer and layers of paste onto a piece of real leaf which I later oxidised. I wanted to oxidised this piece to give it a more antiqued look and also to make the veins of the leaf appear more prominent.
We were actually supposed to make a bail for the pendant but I meantioned before that I ran out of material. My leaf pendant ended up with a drilled hole instead for me to later attach a jump ring as the bail.
Honestly, I think a proper bail would have look much nicer. Oh, well....
One thing to take note when using paste is that the layer has to be thick enough. Otherwise, it won't survive the firing an cracked like what happen to this piece. Why this is important is due to the shrinkage. If the layers are not thick enough, when it shrinks, and there's not enough substance to hold on to, it just tears apart.
It's a rose ring set with a few CZ stones around it. I saw a pre-baked piece of rose form cork clay and immediately fell for it but I didn't know what to do with it. Nevertheless I went on and painted it with the paste. It was at the eleventh hour that I decided to turn it into a ring.
I thought I've painted enough layers already but obviously, I haven't! My instructor told me she knew that that piece wouldn't make it because she can tell that the layers wasn't thick enough but hasn't got the heart to tell me.
I thought it was thick enough already because I just kept painting and painting and covering the rose form with layers and layers of paste. But of course, I though wrong..... it cracked........
I reckon I could figure why she hasn't got the heart to tell me because the only way to salvage it was probably to get more paste......and these stuffs are blardy expensive and I would have need to fork out extra $$, over and above what I've already paid.
If you look at the ring shank, see how it's neater than the previous one? Well, this was the earlier ring piece I made which took up so much of my time that I had to make the second ring in a rush to be able to get them to fire in time before the class ended.
You should be wondering about the white cast over this piece. Well, that's how metal clay looks like after firing. You need to polish them to remove the white cast (no idea what it is or how it ended up there o_O) and bring out the shine. All the other pieces were polished in a tumbler except this one.
Thinking back, I don't think this is the best way to make a rose ring. I should have used clay instead. Because it was a hollow rose, a relatively heavy one at that, it just did felt right. The weight of it as a ring I mean.
This piece could not be put into the tumbler for polishing because due to the cracks, it will just get smashed knocking against the other pieces and the stainless steel shots.
Well, I was told the only way to salvage the ring is this.
Cover the crack with oil paste and then add on more layers of on that area and send it inside the kiln for firing.
I of course did not go for this method. I did something more interesting with it. And that, you would need to check back to learn about it. ;)
Read More...
So I tried dissecting my Ricoh Caplio R7 myself last night after countless searches over Google. It appears that this seems to be a common flaw with Ricoh cameras. So now you know, moral of the story : don't buy Ricoh.
To think that I was only singing it song of praises a couple of months back..... ugh~
But I really do like the camera though.
In one of the searches through some forum, someone open up his own camera and meddle with the lense a bit and it went back to working mode again.
So, I thought I could probably do the same by trying to figure out what could have gone wrong and secretly harbouring the hope that despite being the noob in gadgets, my camera might miraculously work again. I mean, who am I kidding?
Just in case you are wondering, this is taken with my phone's camera. Not too dodgy, aye?
Obviously, I dare not go past this stage of unscrewing the case. The surrounding lense area are neatly covered by pieces of metal. I dare not take out the tiny screws guarding the territory of the camera lense. It's as though it's saying 'Keep out! Tresspasser will be presecuted!' to me.
I know if I open up the screws there, everything will be beyond my comprehension. It's simply pointless. And so back it went to the service centre for a quotation of the repair cost.
*SIGH* .........
Read More...
Oh, yea..... I'm feelin' real crappy now.
-_-
My Ricoh Caplio R7 decided to died on me today.
-__-
The camera lense is stuck open and I can't switch it on to take pictures.
Well, I can switch it on but it's like it wants to on, the lense zooming out and in ,tries very hard to on but in the end fails to on and the lense is stucked open.
-___-
Eeermmm...... something like a constipation? Okay, I admit, a very crude analogy there but I'm
-____-
Big time!
This is 7 months after I send them back for repair under warranty with also a problem with the lense.
-_____-
And now, the warranty has expired, in which case I'll have to pay for the repair now which would probably cost me so much that I might as well get a new camera! But I don't want to get a new camera cuz a new camera's gonna cost me even more $$$! But I'll feel I got ripped off forking out exhorbitant amount just for repairs!
-______-
I've just wrote in to the online site where I bought the camera from this afternoon. I don't fault the site. As a matter of fact, their service is very efficient and I'm very satisfied with their customer service.
It's just that I'm impatient to wait for their reply tomorrow and ended up googling for the error message on the displayed on the LCD screen. It turns out to be a common design fault with the camera.
-_______-
From what I could decipher, it's gonna cost me a lot for the repairs that I might as well dissect it myself. After all, I haven't got anything to loose given the expired warranty.
-______________-
Oh, crap!
Read More...
Plymouth is located down south of England and surrounded by sea and the weather there is relatively warmer than other parts of England. As compared to the other cities, Plymouth can be considered as quite a new city and even their buildings and city structure are more modern. Well, I really like it a lot there.
The first place that Mary took us to was Plymouth Hoe. Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth.
Talking of cousin Mary, this may probably sound a little bizarre. Can you believe that in this UK trip that is actually the first time I'm meeting Mary despite being cousins? (Unlike Judy, who I foundly call Ju, who I literally grew up with and used to stay behind my house)
I mean, it's unlike the case with a friend whom you met, starts a friendship and then lost contact and then meet again after years later. If you're cousins, then technically you are in that sort of relationship since birth right?
What's even more ironic is that we were both from the same high school and I remember seeing her face back in high school but not knowing that we were related at all, although she doesn't remember seeing my face in school at all.
Well, she was my senior back then and the moment I saw her face, I know I've seen that face from somewhere but just couldn't recollect from where and then it just hit me! She was from my school!
How bizarre is that?
Wondering how we are related? Well, Mary's grandmother and mine are sisters. Yea, it's considered distant cousins already but I come from a very big extended family where the older generation was once a very close knitted bunch upholding blood relations. Which is why and how I came to met up with Mary who has been residing in Plymouth for the past 8 years already.
To be honest, I think my family history is so dramatic that I could even write a book on it! LOL..... :P
I'm serious! I am the 3rd generation of a Chinese imigrant family in Malaysia. My grandfather is the first and my father the second. The first generation still has some ties with China and up until my father's generation, the family was still practising some of the traditional Chinese culture despite a modern exterior.
What I like the most during family gatherings is to listen to the old time stories being told by my aunts. It's something like how Joy Luck Club was I think! LOL.....
But that's a different story altogether and I'm digressing already....
Okay, okay, back to The Hoe. The atmosphere was great and the view there... just fantastic!
The weather wasn't at it's best, but it was still great!
After a stroll along the walkway,
we stopped at this Waterfront restaurant for a drink.
What was initially intended to be just for a drink ended up to be a feast! LOL..... XD
Well, not exactly a feast since we went there right after lunch. So, it was quite an odd hour to be feasting already. :P
It so happened that the restaurant was having an Oyster Fest that day. There were not only fresh oysters but grilled lobsters as well!
'Fresh local lobster served here daily'
The long queue for lobsters.... o_O
So yea, we were enjoying some seafood while taking in the view.
Burp!
Sitting facing the sea.......
Accompanied by a live band!
Jaaang! .... I mean, simply the best! =D
Read More...
I also made a hollow bead during the course.
Well, okay.... mine didn't quite end up as a bead but more of a hollow ball pendant. :P
We were supposed to make a bead but I somehow got carried away squirting from the syringe that turning it into a pendant was the only way for me to salvage it. :P I even ran out of the syringe..... erm, not exactly the syringe but the silver paste in the syringe.
Don't think you can just make your own paste and shove it into the syringe to use because I was told that the consistency are different. Syringe type paste has got more silver particles and less binder which makes it of a thicker consistency than the paste in the jar.
Anyway, I was running out of the syringe already to complete the bail and my instructor was kind enough to 'sponsor' me some. Heheh....very kind of her indeed! =)
Please don't think that one is being stingy for not sparing some because these stuffs are so expensive that it just doesn't seem like a common practise to spare each other some. My option at that time was either to get a whole new syringe or have an unfinished piece. Getting a new syringe just doesn't seem like what I would want to do. For one, it's expensive and secondly. I only need a little bit more for completion. And so, my instructor came to the rescue! :P
On to the how-tos. To make this hollow ball pendant, the most important material is this!
What's this? This is cork clay.
Erm...a cork clay is a type of clay which look like cork or a cork-looking type of clay. Hhhmm...... o_O
Well, anyway, the interesting thing about cork clay is that it burns off during the firing process. Yes, burns off as in g.o.n.e. I think the proper term is what they call a combustible material?
However, I was told that you can only use a kiln to fire anything made with cork clay. A torch cannot do.
So, basically you make a ball from the clay. Let it dry thoroughly (very important!) and then bake it to harden it.
Sorry, not my hand. We didn't go through this process. Instead, we were merely chose from a selection of pre-prepared cork clay form to work with.
Once it's done, use the syringe to squirt the paste out convering the ball, like this.
Sorry, not my hands either. I was working with both my hands and did not bring my tripod along and I was too 'paiseh' (i.e. embarass) to bother disturb the other students in the class who were similarly engrossed in their work for taking the photos for me. :P But I found this exact picture of how I actually was working on the piece!
Cork clay is exclusively from Art Clay and PMC also has a similar version but it's wood clay. A wood clay is a type of clay which look like wood or a wood-looking type of clay? *shrugs*
It functions the same but it feels different between the two. Erm, one cork and the other wood? :P
Now, one thing to be very careful is to make sure that the 'wormy' strands are continuous and very important that they should overlap one another.
Otherwise?
You've probably hear this many times by now and some of you could probably even guessed it. The same 'ol story lar..... it won't survive the kiln lor.
One of the student's piece did not survive the kiln. What I meant by not surviving the kiln is whereby the final piece cracked. I couldn't show you a picture of it because I was 'paiseh' to ask her permission to photograph that piece since she was a little upset about it.
Well, I've got one other piece which did not survived the kiln as well i.e. it cracked. But I'll show it to you next time.
Read More...
nb: Prices may be subjected to change without prior notice.
