Happy but weary

 

Fiona and I held a salvaged silver-plate metal jewellery workshop today in Armadale Village Hall. It was limited to 8 people but we had 9 including a younger girl. The opening photo of me, by Fiona, shows me introducing the day, goals and an introduction to processes, designs and tools.

We set the hall up yesterday afternoon for a midmorning start today. Photos of the setup follow.

As you can see from the couple of photos following participants were very engaged and productive. All participant made 4 or more pieces.

It was a grand and successful day. I could not have done it without Fiona's assistance - she knows so much about the tools and processes - it meant we could give participant individual attention. As I said in the title were are very happy with the outcome but we are also weary - hence the brevity of this blog post.

Workshop outcomes

 

Just before I came away I, with Fiona's much skilled assistance, did a 2.5-3 hour playing with metal workshop with a visiting family (mum, dad and teenage son). 

After having talking about options we might fit into 2-3hours they all said - "all of the above" which included: making a small bowl; making a copper leaf; and pouring and stamping a couple of metal forms (hearts and hulls). 

From the photo above and those below you can see we had a very motivated and quite skilled family group; and achieved some good outcomes.

The photos of the work bench rightly indicates that they all got exposed to a few different tools.

Fiona and I love it when we see the smiles of achievement on the faces at the end of these play workshops; and hopefully every now and then one person gets inspired to take it further.

Three more metal workers

 

I spent about 4 hours today working with a mother and two daughters testing out their skills at metal work. They had seen my work in the DEP gallery-shop and were keen to have a go themselves. We decided to make a pair of leaf earrings, a leaf pendant each and a small bowl for sacred bits each.

As you can see from the photo above the earring and pendant outcomes were great. I added the jump rings, ear wires and rubber necklace thingy. One pair of earrings has clips as the youngest young woman didn't have pierced ears.  

A few process shots follow - not a lot as it takes quite a bit of attention when working with three novices with tools and metal that can do harm. Each decided on the length and shape of their leaf forms. The youngest decided to make the smallest leaves - quite a challenge but she was up to the challenge.

I didn't get photos of the finished three bowls but you can see one being hammered and polished below.

A very satisfactory day - giving time and seeing joy when people achieve beyond what they think is possible.

Men at work!!!

 

I introduced a couple of young men to metal. I offered to have the nephews of a friend spend an afternoon (3 hours) in the metal workshop - they were on holidays in Maleny.

I don't teach metal work as such; but from time to time I work with folk to introduce them to the skills of the 'trade'.  After a bit of a yarn it was decided that they were going to try to make a few things for their mum - a small bowl, a riveted pendant and, time permitting, a set of leaf earrings. You will see from the last photo that they achieved all three. 

A few process photos follow.

One of the young men had a broken arm so his holding ability was hampered a bit - I needed to hold metal from time to time. We overcame the inability to get a glove on his plastered hand by fitting leather finger gloves.

Given they had not done this work before - and were not really familiar with tools I think they did well - they were very happy and hoped their mum will be as well. They had to do all the work - I did none of the work for them. They even did the riveting.

When I do this work with folk I put a lot of effort into workshop safety  - so goggles, gloves, closed shoes etc were required.

Bowl and leaf making 101

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Wood and Fiona's classic silver-plated leaf form

We have had visitors who were keen to try their hand out on a bit of metal work. I said I would do a couple of simple pieces with them - a bowl and a leaf.  Introduction to metal work 101???? Fiona often gets left out of such activities; but not this time.

A few photos of the process follow.

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Neil pressing a bowl form

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Maureen - hammering the back of her bowl on a stake

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Barry discussing hammering techniques with Neil

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Maureen opening her leaf form on the adapted carpet layer's tool

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Barry showing Maureen the grinding angle for her leaf

©2019 Barry Smith - Fiona grinding her leaf

And what about the outcomes - all three graduated with flying colours.

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Three formed, hammered, ground and polished bowls 

©2019 Fiona Dempster - We retained the organic edges of the bowls

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Three great leaves - Maureen's stamped her grandchild's name 

It is great to see the creative enjoyment folk have taking flat salvaged metal into new three dimensional forms.

Metal women

©2016 Fiona Dempster - Delicately hammered

We had our friend Caren visiting over the weekend. It provided another of those opportunities to have fun with metal. Fiona was keen to join with Caren in hammering a bowl and making a brooch.

We started from scratch - a piece of metal cut from a small silver-plated tray.

Great apprentices - I demonstrated various techniques and tools and Fiona and Caren went down their own paths.

Hammering...

©2016 Barry Smith - Fiona using a light shrinking hammer

©2016 Fiona Dempster - Caren used a couple of ball-pen hammers

Grinding and polishing

©2016 Barry Smith - Caren in action on the grinding wheel

©2016 Barry Smith - Fiona in action on the grinding wheel

©2016 Barry Smith - Fiona grinding and Caren polishing 

And the finished products

Karen's brooch and bowl

Fiona's brooch and bowl

©2016 Barry Smith - Show and tell????

So two more metal women.