Another first

Usually when I do a post of one of my classes it's all pictures of the class and the student's work.  For a change I'm going to post pictures of me..... teaching the class. (Thanks to Stacey Brown.)

These were taken when I was demonstrating torch firing (while the kiln was firing the student's pieces.)

Annemarie Blue  also sent me pictures of her pieces.  

(Obviously she is a better photographer than I am.)

She plans on hanging things from the bottoms of her pieces  

It doesn't take much

It doesn't take much to amuse me. For a long time I've know that silver balls can be made by torch firing the silver until it balls up, but I've never done it. Tonight I was a little bored, so I took ACS sheet clay (which I've had for a long time), cut it into little squares and took the torch to them. How cool (showing my age again) to watch them turn orange and ball up into little silver balls.

I started with ACS but now use PMC brand metal clay. Lump clay, paste and syringe from both brands are very similar, but the sheet clays are very different. ACS sheet is shiny, stiff and very much like a sheet of metal. PMC sheet is more like a piece of leather. At first I liked the ACS sheet because of it's similarity to sheet metal, but my preference changed over the years. I now use PMC sheet exclusively. So, I needed something to do with the ACS sheet. Turning it into little balls was my answer.

I also wanted to show some students how to ball the end of fine silver wire. Of course Murphy's law prevailed and the wire would not agree. So, it also got turned into silver balls. It balled up beautifully (after my students had gone.) Oh well, it doesn't take much to make me happy.

Double the fun

Today, my other cousin's grandsons came to the studio to make their Mom a Valentine's present. (I don't think they're going to wait until then!)

Once again it was a fun time. I really do enjoy seeing my students succeed. They did their own cutting, filing, sanding and drilling. Everything went smoothly.

I allowed Nate, the older of the two to do his own torch firing. I wasn't really worried, but the fire extinguisher was nearby.

And, since we forgot to sign our work before firing I pulled out the engraver to sign the back. (What a noisy tool!) It was nice to see big brother Nate helping little brother Matty.

They should make their Mom proud!