I was not able to attend the September Meeting, however I am sure we ran through all the normal reports and notices. What I do know for sure is about the program held at the September meeting. I had previously participated in a class with Michelle Ink at Jamboree at Salty Yarns, and I knew all about the process.
We hosted Michelle Ink Designs for a class in silver making. What? It was an introduction to silver alchemy for stitchers. The options of what to make varied from silver strawberry toppers to needle minders to jewelry.
Michelle starts the class with her history and her journey. She then walked you through the process, explaining each step the class would follow and what she, herself, will do after the class.
Everyone received their clay in the foil package. The clay had to be worked until it became a creamy consistency.
Michelle had an amazing number of molds to choose from. The clay was rolled in a ball. It was then placed in the center of the mold and pressed from the center out. This was to avoid seams or cracks and to allow the excess silver clay to be pressed off the edges. A paint brush and small amount of water was used to brush and smooth the edges. No worries. There was no waste. Any extra was removed and rolled into a smaller ball to be used with another mold.
Because the need to be fired, once each student finished with their molding, their pieces were left for Michelle to take back to her studio. Michelle painstakingly did fine tuning on each molded piece, smoothing the edges and rounding out any holes made in the piece. She then fired each piece. Polished each piece. Finally tenderly packaging each class attendees piece and delivering it directly to their home address. The follow-up process took about 6 weeks which was made clear before the class so everyone realized they would not be walking out with their pieces.
Use your imagination to see how a finished topper fits a strawberry.
Michelle can be found on Facebook at Michelle Ink Designs.
No comments:
Post a Comment