Back from my week at William Holland
May 21, 2017 13:11:53 GMT -5
MrP, QuailRiver, and 9 more like this
Post by fantastic5 on May 21, 2017 13:11:53 GMT -5
What an amazing week I had at the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts! The instructors were fabulous, the food was great and they kept us busy from early in the morning till late at night. We had 4 main projects. The first was to get us comfortable with the torch and was finished in just a few hours. We made half round twisted bracelets. Super simple design, and so very easy to do. Annealed the silver, one end in a vice, the other in a vice grip and twist. We then balled the ends and shaped on a mandrel. The half round shape naturally twists with a spiral, spiral, space pattern. Forgot to get a picture of just the bracelet, but it is in the top right hand corner of my 'show and tell' display.
Our next piece was a closed back pendant. Our teacher, Barbara Fields, allowed us to personalize each piece. She had an incredible selection of silver for us to choose from. I swear she must have had every pattern that Rio sells. I bought a set of tiger eye from her, so I could work on a pair of earrings in my spare time. Even though I used gallery wire in many of my other pieces, I really like the cleaner lines of the plain bezel wire and will likely stick with this in my future work. Here is the completed set.
The next project was an open back pendant. I again picked a cab from my instructor, a clear rutilated quartz. It was shaped more like a tumble than a cab, almost as tall as it was wide. I wanted the experience of working with the gallery wire, and although I was able to get the pattern to line up cleanly, I'm just not a fan.
The next was a closed back ring. Again, a stone from my instructor and I really wanted to go outside my comfort zone. This really became a BA ring. Lots of embellishment. Learned to ball and place silver, match patters and create a V-shank band.
The next project was optional. It is a spinner ring. I made mine to fit my thumb and am really pleased with how it turned out. This little bugger took the whole day. Fitting all the rings and keeping the spinner from soldering down was a real challenge.
My last piece was a cab that I had made. I even (tried) to set a faceted trillion stone as an accent, although this was really beyond my skill and did not turn out as clean as I would have liked. I may end up replacing it with a complementing bead or drop at some point.
And just to round out this post. Here are pieces that some of the others in my class had completed.
And a set from the Silver II class. Sorry for the poor picture quality, it was taken through glass.[img src="" alt=" "]
Thanks for looking!
Our next piece was a closed back pendant. Our teacher, Barbara Fields, allowed us to personalize each piece. She had an incredible selection of silver for us to choose from. I swear she must have had every pattern that Rio sells. I bought a set of tiger eye from her, so I could work on a pair of earrings in my spare time. Even though I used gallery wire in many of my other pieces, I really like the cleaner lines of the plain bezel wire and will likely stick with this in my future work. Here is the completed set.
The next project was an open back pendant. I again picked a cab from my instructor, a clear rutilated quartz. It was shaped more like a tumble than a cab, almost as tall as it was wide. I wanted the experience of working with the gallery wire, and although I was able to get the pattern to line up cleanly, I'm just not a fan.
The next was a closed back ring. Again, a stone from my instructor and I really wanted to go outside my comfort zone. This really became a BA ring. Lots of embellishment. Learned to ball and place silver, match patters and create a V-shank band.
The next project was optional. It is a spinner ring. I made mine to fit my thumb and am really pleased with how it turned out. This little bugger took the whole day. Fitting all the rings and keeping the spinner from soldering down was a real challenge.
My last piece was a cab that I had made. I even (tried) to set a faceted trillion stone as an accent, although this was really beyond my skill and did not turn out as clean as I would have liked. I may end up replacing it with a complementing bead or drop at some point.
And just to round out this post. Here are pieces that some of the others in my class had completed.
And a set from the Silver II class. Sorry for the poor picture quality, it was taken through glass.[img src="" alt=" "]
Thanks for looking!