Play Date with Metal

I had a zillion things I was supposed to do last weekend but I was reckless and blew them all off to go play with metal all day Saturday at the Tacoma Metal Arts Center.

It's my friend Kimberly's fault.  She had a gift certificate for a class and asked if I was interested. I studied making jewelry at North Seattle Community College way back in my early twenties and after getting my degree in sculpture, I haven't played around much with jewelry except tinkering around with reclaimed tin and wire work.

She was planning on taking the Beginning Jewelry workshop.  I thought that sounded like a perfect refresher course for me.  Here's Kimberly using the flex shaft to polish some metal.

 
Everyone in the class gets their own bench.  I forgot how fun soldering is!  The great thing about this studio is that once you know how to make jewelry, use the tools, are comfortable with the shop policies, you can rent studio time and use all the fabulous tools Amy Reeves has collected in her shop.

We were only there for a little over 6 hours, so my output wasn't huge.  But the two pieces on the bottom right are going to be cufflinks.  The bottom left piece is going to be a pendant and the two brass cut out shapes in the middle are going to be earrings.  

It was nice to mess around with something not in my normal comfort zone.  I was all day in my studio today papier mache-ing and then felting.  Easier media to correct mistakes, I think!