UV Resin

Have you heard of UV resin? It really is the latest thing to hit the metal clay world. I first got a chance to try it back in April when I took my advanced class in Japan, and I loved it!

The ring here has a little cup at the top, textured with dots, which I filled with resin colourants. After curing them I then filled the entire cup with crystal clear resin which is slightly domed on the surface. It looks gorgeous - like a crisp clear pond with little gems at the bottom. The entire resin part took all of maybe 20 minutes to complete - that includes getting the bottles out and choosing colours!

I've now, after a lot of research and testing, added a fabulous range of UV resin products to the shop (will be available online shortly), and I'll also be holding a one-day course in working with it.

The UV resin is different from normal resin in that it doesn't smell, doesn't need to mixed to exact quantitites (it doesn't need mixing at all unless you want colours!), and, it cures in minutes rather then hours!

Just like normal resin you can trap things in it. I have so many ideas including stones, dried flowers, feathers, special photos, ticket stubs, crystals, shells and sand..... I just need another week in the studio to play!

The nice thing with this UV resin is that it cures rock hard - there is no sticky surface to it. It comes out completely smooth and shiny. And it can be filed to shape, sanded and highly polished.

I'm doing a demonstration of UV resin at the Art Clay World UK Conference on the 15th September - it'll be fun to share this new technique with other metal clay fans - or should that be fanatics?

Level 2 Course

So, yesterday we completed the four day Level 2 Course.

It was a really nice group of students, they all worked really hard and we had lots of fun. All of them have been running classes for a while so we all shared ideas and tips with each other. I love it when I learn new things from my students!

Apart from the L2 Projects we also made a lentil bead which we decorated with Art Clay Gold paste and Accent Gold for Silver - yummy.

Here are a few brooches straight out of the kiln. All of them have synthetic stones set into them, set in the dry clay by drilling holes, and mounting the stone, before firing.

And today I received some nice new wooden hammers, which will go up on the website tomorrow. They're really dinky and cute. (Can a hammer be cute?)

Nite nite!

Level 2 Certification

I'm teaching a Level 2 certification course this weekend.



Yesterday, the UK curriculum was changed by Aida. The Combination Ring (Ring with gold cabochon) has been removed from the projects. With the recent price increase it simply raised the price of the course too much, and some of us felt it was impossible to keep it as a project, and well, Aida agreed!



It is up to each teacher to decide what to do instead - they can just remove it and leave it to that. I'll probably introduce a Lentil Bead with Art Clay Gold Paste as a new project, and spend some time going through other interesting things we never have time for otherwise.

Time to check on the glass cabochons in the kiln, fusing away for tomorrow's teaching. Bye!