Metal Clay intensive - day 5

Whilst many people were crowding Central London or were glued to their telly to watch the royal wedding, Emma (the tutor), Paula, Elisa (my fellow classmates) and myself were concluding our 5-day metal clay adventures. 

The focus of today was adding gold to metal clay using different methods. We made another three pieces, in my case a pair of earrings and two pendants. 

I'm not a huge fan of gold but I must admit that used as an accent on silver, like this, it is rather pretty. 

I am sad the course is over, I had such great fun the past few days! It was well worth it though, not only have I come home with a real loot of beautiful jewellery pieces but my creative mind is exploding with ideas and I now have the confidence to carry forward on my own. 

I've made a huge dent in my budget buying all the required material so now I just need to make sure I keep some time aside in my busy schedule to keep practicing and creating!

Metal Clay intensive - day 4

A day late but as I went straight from yesterday's metal clay class to supervising a lampshade making class at the Make Lounge, I couldn't post yesterday's work any earlier!

So day 4 was all about making rings, my favourite piece of jewellery ever. It was challenging, making a ring shank without breaking it is really quite an acquired skill! Also gaging how much the ring will shrink is tricky and unless you use special equipment, I guess there is no foolproof method.

There were three different types of rings on the programme but Emma, the tutor, was kind enough to take us through a fourth project.

We made, from left to right, a nested ring (one ring split in two parts that can be worn individually or together), a garden ring, a stone set ring on a wire shank and a pearl ring (the extra curricular project).

Here's a little close-up of each:

I'm really chuffed with those, especially the leaf and the pearl rings, they just look stunning! I don't think I'll ever buy a ring again, I'll make my own from now on!

Metal Clay intensive - day 3

I had another fun and creative day at the London Jewellery School, exploring the wonders of stone setting in metal clay, shame it ended with a thumping headache for me :-(

We made 3 pendants using different methods of stone setting. I'm particularly fond of my rose quartz pendant which is heavily inspired by my pagan beliefs. A perfect piece for the fast approaching Beltane!

The other two pieces are made using a glass cabochon and a cubic zirconia (sorry for the bad quality pic, my iPhone isn't coping very well with very small pieces). It was meant to be a blue cubic zirconia but it turned yellow when I fired it! Am I upset? no, it's organic, it has a life of its own, you can only guide it so far... and that's why I love it!

Tomorrow is the day I am most looking forward to as we'll be making my favourite piece of jewellery: rings!

Metal Clay intensive - day 2

A slightly more challenging day today focussing on the making of beads and hollow forms.

I managed to make 5 pieces in total: a textured pendant, a filigree pendant, two "Pandora" style bead (which are still in their clay form in the picture) and a wrap triangle which doesn't appear here as it was still in the kiln when I left the London Jewellery School. I may or may not post a pic of that one later, I wasn't highly impressed with the clay version so I'm not sure I will want to feature the finished product...

I adore the filigree and the round pendants, I'm not a huge Pandora fan so we'll have to see how those beads turn out after they've been fired...

Tomorrow, stone setting on the program!

Metal Clay intensive - day 1

I decided to make the most of the consecutive bank holiday weekends by taking a creative break. I have enrolled for a Metal Clay five-day intensive course at the London Jewellery School. And of course, what better place than my blog to show off my creations at the end of every day?!

Today being the first day, we had a thorough introduction to metal clay, how to work it, how to fire it and how to finish it. I was amazed that we managed to make three pieces throughout the day: a set of textured earrings, a simple wrapover ring and a stone set pendant.

Metal clay is great to work with, very organic so perfect for me. I can't wait to see what we get to make tomorrow!

Cake pops galore!

Thanks to the Make Lounge I discovered the rather delicious world of cake pops. After assisting on a couple of cake pops classes and with my birthday and Easter celebrations coming on I decided to make my own.

The concept of cake pops is rather simple: bake a cake, crumble it, mix it with frosting, make little balls, put a stick in them and then dip them in chocolate. The result is super cute and so yummy! Both my husband and I fell in love at first bite.

To make my own cake pops, I used a recipe I found in Making magazine. The chocolate cake is dead simple to make, I left it to rest for a day before blitzing it in the food processor. Then I mixed it with the cheesecake icing (which I prefer to buttercream), rolled it in 19 little balls (the recipe should have made 20 so not too far off) and then stuck them in the fridge for a good couple of hours. Once they were cold and hardened, I stuck the lollipop sticks in and we were ready for coating and decorating.

For the coating, I used Callebaut's white chocolate callets. It's Belgian, so good quality stuff, and even for me who's not a white chocolate fan, it's irresistibly delicious. I used the plain chocolate to do a first dip, it's not necessary to do a double coating but with chocolate cake as a base, I find that if you don't, the colours don't look as pretty.

I used the Americolor oil based colourant that the Make Lounge sells to dye the remnant of my callets in seasonal colours: pink, yellow and blue.

The coating took a long time, almost two hours in total! But with a few finishing touches, my cake pops looked amazing!

Most importantly, my guests loved the cake pops. The chocolate cake mixed with the cheesecake icing tasted almost like fudge and the chocolate coating wasn't just pretty, it was scrumptious. The pops would be ideal for kid's parties but they're a perfect size for adults too. And for someone like me who'd much rather have chocolate than buttercream, they're so much nicer than cupcakes!

I can't wait for an excuse to make more!

A little owl family

I need a pin cushion. But I don't want just any pin cushion. In fact, I really wanted to make my own. Whilst debating what type of pin cushion I was going to make, I came across this lovely little Buttonbag sewing kit.

It's a craft kit for children and whilst they're not meant to become pin cushions, I figured one of the little owls would do the job just fine.

The kit includes everything you might need: the patterns, the fabric, the felt, the buttons, the needles and thread and the stuffing.

As it's meant for children, it's all pretty straightforward and easy to put together. The materials were of good quality apart from the needles, one broke in two and the other one was pretty bent by the time I'd finished! I'm not sure I would want children handling those!

The finished product is adorable. But I am now faced with a bit of a problem... How can I possibly stick needles in one of those cute little owls?

My peculiar fascination with Tempe Brennan

In November last year, whilst being a little bit bored on the ferry crossing from Dover to Dunkerque (or the other way round, I can't remember) I picked up a copy of "206 bones" by Kathy Reichs.

At that point, and this despite being a fan of the TV series "Bones", I had no idea who Kathy Reichs was. And little did I know her novels would become my next reading obsession!


Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist, a novellist and the producer of the series "Bones". Both her novels and the series share the same central character: Tempe Brennan. But apart from the fact she is a forensic anthropologist in both, the Tempe Brennan from the series and the Tempe Brennan from the book have fairly little in common.

I really enjoyed "206 Bones" and when I found out it was the 12th book in a series, the bookworm in me could not resist buying the first two books in the series, then the next two, then the next three, then...

I don't really know why I enjoy reading the adventures of Tempe Brennan so much. I mean, there's a lot in it to like, the pace, the plot, the characters and their relationships... But there's also a lot that repulses me like the graphic descriptions of the corpses and the autopsies, or just goes over my head like the scientific details; that's not really my cup of tea. And yet, I can't put the books down and I can't stop myself from buying the next instalment.

I've come to the conclusion that I have developed a fascination with Tempe Brennan. The one from the book that is, not the geeky, awkward woman from the TV series. Tempe Brennan is an aspirational character for me: she's smart, successful in her field, independent, witty and sexy. She leads a somewhat unconventional life that somehow resonates with me. I have no intention of becoming a forensic anthropologist, ever, but I am seduced by this 40-something woman and her lifestyle. When I grow up, I want to be just like her!