Back at work....

....and it's great! I was at the studio yesterday with my weekly group. We've had a fab 6 weeks and they've produced some fantastic work. I'm really pleased with how well they've done.

A few are coming back next week for an extra week, so I must remember to take the camera and get some photos of their work to show you all.

I'm having a re-vamp of my website too. It was put together quite quickly as I didn't want to have nothing up! There are a lot of things I want to add to the site, including tutorials so that will be one of the things I will be working hard on for the next couple of months.

I have started to map out my class dates now for the rest of the year, so will be able to announce those shortly, I'll be adding some new topics including a Bronze and Copper Clay workshop. I am loving these new clays!!

Metal Clay Weekend

Two posts in one day!!

I've managed to finalise the details now for a weekend of classes at my studio. Anyone fancy a weekend in the lovely Cheshire countryside??

To have a look at the details of the classes available, please click HERE

Any questions, just let me know and I hope to see lots of you in June!

Workshop Update

As promised, here are some inside shots of the workshop space. I was going to take them when I first arrived this morning, but forgot!

So, here's a before shot





After a couple of hours of swearing at the furniture! Here's an after shot

I didn't get as much time here today as I would've liked, but I'm quite pleased with the progress so far. Fingers crossed my next day there will get the sorting finished off, I may even spend a couple of evenings this week trying to get it all done.

Lots of New Metal Clay Classes

Now that I finally have a base, I've got my class schedule sorted for the next couple of months, as well as running full day classes, I've added some short taster classes which I've wanted to do for ages.

There are too many to list in full, but there's a ring making class, beginners classes, stone setting, and more so just email me if you're near Cheshire and fancy making some jewellery!

Here is the cause of my excitement, and lack of blogging the past couple of weeks

I finally picked up the keys today, to a workshop space, ok, so I have to share some of it with my husband for office space, but I've still got a massive amount of space to work in!! Considering I just have an alcove at home at the moment, this is pure luxury! It's the start of a very exciting time now, and I really need to get on with building the business up - I have overheads now!

I'll be running all my PMC/Art Clay classes from here too, and it's in a really nice rural spot, so great for my visitors. I'm sure that I'll have plenty to blog about now, so you'll all be fed up with me soon!!

PMC / Art Clay Class

I spent a very lovely day yesterday teaching a beginners metal clay class. I had a lovely group that just seemed to gel, we had lots of lovely chat as well as them all making some fantastic first pieces. I think I've managed to convert more people to the world of PMC and Art Clay!!

It has got me thinking today about teaching. I've had a bit of a love/hate feeling about teaching. I've come to the conclusion today that the reason I've not enjoyed it so much in the past is that my creative time has been very limited with me being a stay at home mum. It meant that the creative time I did get was mostly spent teaching rather than creating. Now that I've got more creative time as my little girl is in pre-school, I feel like I can get a good mix of both teaching metal clay and actually working with it and making new jewellery. So, teaching is definitely part of my business plan (yep, I'm being disciplined and writing one!!), I've got lots of new class ideas which I now need to develop and of course need to come up with a class schedule!

Mailing List Competition

So, there's still a lot going on behind the scenes here at Fired Silver!! This means no time for blogging unfortunately, but hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have some exciting news which will then mean lots of blogging cos I'll have lots to talk about!

Anyway, as there are lots of new things coming up, I thought some of you may like to join my mailing list to be kept up to date with all the new product lines, news and classes. Don't worry you don't get bombarded with emails, I'll hope to make it a monthly newsletter, or more often if I have something exciting to share!

I'm running a prize draw for those who sign up to my mailing list before the 14th February 2008. I'll draw a name from the hat, and you'll receive a surprise! Needless to say it'll be silver!! So if you fancy taking part, just sign up to the newsletter at the top of the screen here, and that's it. I'll announce the winner here on the 15th February.

Bye for now!

Interesting couple of days

I've been quiet for a couple of days haven't I!

I'm really giddy at the moment, I went to Kilncare yesterday to get a new controller for my kiln. Mine has been broken for months and months, so I've been limited as to what I can make, but there's no stopping me now! I did my first firing today and it's fantastic!

So the pieces that you saw as work in progress are now fired, except for the glass work. Everything's going around in the tumbler now, so hopefully there'll be photos soon.

I had planned to do some more work tomorrow, but I've been asked to step in and teach a beginners class for someone tomorrow as her tutor is ill. I'm quite excited as I enjoy teaching and it's a place I haven't been before. There's also the chance for me to teach there again if tomorrow goes ok, so I just need to come up with ideas for new classes - no problem there, I've got a long list that I've never got around to doing anything with. It's a small class, so should be a nice day.

New Class Dates

I've set a date now for my next Beginners Class. It will take place on Saturday 7th February 2009 and runs from 10am to 4pm.

I'm also going to run another open studio date as we had so much fun last time, so that will take place on Saturday 21st March 2009.