Sea glass ring

I've been looking forward to sharing the sea glass ring I made on my day workshop last month. I was so excited to get the chance to take this course as I've never had the opportunity to learn the basics in  silversmithing techniques before. The course I attended was the Sea glass Jewellery course which runs several times a year at my friend's Gallery/studio here in Cornwall, UK.

The course gave you the opportunity to create a piece of jewellery that incorporated a piece of sea glass. Some people had their own stash but there was plenty on hand for me to choose from. I loved this sea green colour and as I have small hands, it needed to be chunky and dinky at the same time :) Did you know how many different colours sea glass comes in? There were electric blue pieces, sunshine yellow and deep orange as well as pale turquoise and cloudy whites - it was hard to make up my mind. The yellows and turquoises were particularly nice.

We all went for making a ring - which is harder than a pendant apparently, lol, but the example rings were so lovely that I was drawn to them. Then onto the fun bit - the learning!!

 

The class had a mix of abilities - some had done a bit of working with silver before and others, like me, had none at all. But I felt that was a better mix for learning. Our teacher Rebecca was soooo good - you could easily tell she was an expert! - and I managed to grasp how to shape, solder, use that mini blow torch confidently:) and construct my ring from her demonstrations and individual guidance. As the group was a maximum of 6, we got lots of 1 to 1 time, for which I was very grateful. I was good at following each step but needed more time to learn how to correct the mistakes as I went. But it's all good - I like mistakes because I learned so much more than if it had gone swimmingly the first time!

The filing and polishing at the end was when it started to look like a proper ring. Suddenly it was clean from solder and heat - and SHINY :) And that's when it hits you - OMG, I've just made this ring!! From nothing - like wow! A total dizzy headrush moment, lol! and such a feeling of accomplishment I can tell you. I was on cloud nine all the way home!

This course certainly made me re-think my comfort zones in my own work. It was a huge confidence booster and helped me consider expanding my work to incorporate new materials and techniques. If I hadn't done this, I might not have got into researching jewellery techniques, beading or wrapping wire, or set myself the August challenge to push myself further in my work. A catalyst indeed.

If you are interested, you can find this course and other glass/jewellery courses over at the Jane Smith Glass website. Jane produces amazing glass work, I just love her wall panels - worth a visit:) So many courses I'd love to try - precious metal clay, making your own glass beads - yes please!!

So I'll be collecting coloured sea glass the next time I'm at the beach, lol - I fancy making a pendant :))
See you all soon!