Monday 5 October 2009

Where did my weekend go?


It went here at Myerscough College in Lancashire. It's a lovely location where they do all sorts of courses including horticulture and equine studies to name but two, but I was there to do 2 days of 'Working with Metal and Colour'
It involved working with anodized aluminium which we dyed and treated in a number of ways before fixing the colour, cleaning it up and then turning into jewellery. My own meagre attempts are in the photos!
I had a great time but it definitely went too fast as I had far more ideas for using the dyes and paints. The anodized layer on the aluminium takes up the dyes and paints and they can be layered or resists can be applied between processes.
The pinks and blues in the photos were achieved by dyeing the metal first mauve and then applying various patterns with nail varnish as the resist before dying again in the mauve, applying more varnish and then putting the piece in the blue dye. After fixing the colour, by boiling the metal for 40 minutes, I cut the pieces and put them through a rolling mill with fabric for texture. They were then shaped on the swage block. I was very impressed with the course and there was a plentiful supply of materials and tools to use so all praise for the tutor, Salina Somalya, whose website can be seen here.

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