World Metal Clay Conference

Hello again everyone! Well I'm back from a whirlwind visit to the windy city of Chicago and my first World Metal Clay Conference.

It was a wonderful event during which I learnt so much, I made so many new friends from all over the world and had great fun which was the best part of all! It reminded me how we all have so much advice and information to share, yet jewellery making, or indeed anything creative tends to be so solitary. It was very important to me to have this opportunity to spend time with other people, learning, making things and generally chatting about what we all love most.

Here are some beautiful images of pieces made by some of the amazing presenters who gave workshops and seminars. I learned about Keum Boo, the ancient art of adding gold leaf to metal clay with a new twist from Lorren Baum-Davis (see photo of her work above).

I was thrilled to find out all about enamelling onto silver clay from the inspirational Joy Funnell. (See her beautiful and very detailed designs below. She made it all look very easy which is the mark of a truly talented artist! To find out more about Joy visit her website at www.joyfunnell.co.uk)











I also had a lot of problems solved by hearing the genius that is Lisa Barth talking about how to set large stones after firing. That has been one of the things that I'd love to do but have found most tricky so I'm now going to attempt it with renewed confidence and enthusiasm, I'm hoping to post my results up here very soon! (See Lisa's beautiful flower pendant and her expert stone setting...one day mine will be so perfect too!)