To continue.....

Sunday, first. Knitting at The Bear. Comfortable chat, quite a bit of needle-clacking, and a truly great soup. Celery and rice, yum. Definitely one to attempt to replicate.

Then it was off to Alston for the class in precious metal clay. I have wanted to do this for ages, and I certainly wasn't wrong when I thought I would like it. It was stressful - I am not good at working on fairly small things, using quite a bit of tight hand control. Plus I had to design. By the end of the first day, my hands were shaking and I was knackered!

But I got everything I wanted out of the class and then some.



Ready to roll. You use the cards in a stack the size of the number on the top to get the thickness of clay you want.



One of the most fiddly bits - I cut a surface design from thin clay sheet. It collapsed putting it one, but it worked out all right in the end..



Pieces drying on a hotplate prior to firing. Or in case of the leaves, like mine at the front of the shot, drying between coats of slip being painted on. Most of the work on here are not mine, sadly!



Fired pieces being taken out of the kiln. The temperature, I believe, reaches 1650F. Unless I misheard....



My haul. I tried a few different techniques and had no irreparable disasters.

And finally....



My first and favourite piece. Here, it is on a purchased silk cord, but I rather fancy doing a kumihimo braid for it. And one day, I will do Mark 11, to put right all the things that I can see that I could have done better. But I love it!