28 February 2011

classes with mary hettmansperger

This weekend, I took 2 classes with Mary Hettmansperger. Loved it, tremendous fun, lots of inspiration and very doable. I'm a bit worn out and my head is buzzing with the possibilities. Here are pictures of my finished and almost finished pieces.

There's a bit of enameling, a bit of texturing, forming, burnt balls and quite a bit of help from Mary involved in these pieces.

These pictures are of the same piece, front and back. The view on the left is supposed to be the front, but the more I look at it, the more I like the back. There's just something about the color.

I had quite a bit of help in making this pod pendant.

The orange piece will be for Self-Injury Awareness Day tomorrow (but that's really a post for the other blog).
There's something about working with copper that appeals to me a great deal. Apart from the cost. It's fairly soft, especially when annealed, there's the fact that it changes color when heated, can be bent easily, formed, shaped and enameled - and that's something I've enjoyed for quite a while now. Mary's class gave me permission to not be quite so anal about my enameling, to let it go black around the edges, to not make it look perfect.
So, yes, fun and some very wearable pieces.
BTW, all these pictures were taken with my iPhone. I'm having far too much fun playing with it but, one of these days, I will go back to a regular camera. Just as soon as I make friends with Photoshop Elements 7 again.

6 comments:

Julia said...

Lovely work Doris and I do agree with you about the colour in the 5th image.

I have to say, I haven't done enamelling since I was at school, only 37 years ago, and I really enjoyed it. If I find any of the pieces I made, I will share them on my blog.

Hugs
Julia
xxx

Anonymous said...

I looked here every day for a bit and then thought I'd just look every now and then. Good thing you put up a post on the other blog!

I really like the wires one, but I'd like them up -- it looks like a canoe.

Carol in SLC said...

These are all fabulous pendants, Doris! I have long wanted to learn to do metalwork, and you are really inspiring me!

Jenni said...

Love all this wonderful rustic copper work...sounded like a great course. All your pieces are fantastic.
Jenni

Chateau de Verre said...

Doris, awesome!! Well done!! Susan, Build Zone

Mardi said...

Beautiful pieces, I love your sense of creativity and skill with enameling and design, and now I have to go and google Mary Hettmansperger.