Master Class with Gordon Uyehara

I’m still recovering from a fantastic weekend with Gordon Uyehara. Hosting the course and having a house full of friends staying over meant it was a busy weekend, and I loved every minute of it!

Gordon landed in Edinburgh, after a very very long journey from Hawaii, early on Thursday morning. I took him on a little tour of Edinburgh to stretch his legs I was thrilled to have been blessed with a beautiful day after a week of rain. I’m not sure Gordon was so impressed with the Scottish weather, mind you, it was a bit chilly in the shade…. I showed Gordon the Castle, the Royal Mile (where we found a very aptly named restaurant), Holyrood Palace, Scottish Parliament & Arthur’s Seat.

Friday was spent setting up the workshop which kicked off on Saturday morning at 9am.  I’d asked Gordon to teach his beautiful Naupaka pendant after falling in love with it as soon as I saw it! The course was fully booked and excitement levels were high as Gordon started to demonstrate.

So off we all went to start on our own pieces. It was a challenging project, taking two days to complete but everyone did a great job. The concentration levels were unlike any Ive seen before in a workshop, with us all holding our breath at one stage or another as we joined the piece together.

On Sunday afternoon Gordon began to fire the pieces that were ready. All of them came out beautifully. The majority of us chose to oxidize the pendant after a brass brushing, to give it that “Gordon” finish. Here is a shot of most of the finished pieces.

I have always loved Gordon’s work and I am so thrilled that he agreed to come to Edinburgh to teach for us. Thanks to everyone who came along and made it a really memorable weekend.

All the pictures from the weekend are up on my face book Art Clay Scotland page which you can find here.

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Scottish Bead Fair & Japan!!

Well, I think its taken me a week to feel human again and catch up with life simply being at home!! My trip to Japan now, alas, seems a long time ago!!

BUT rather than bore you all to death with a massive long post about the trip I thought I’d break it down day by day = the first few of which were spent in the Factory and Aida Studios!! So if you have always wondered where Art CLay Silver comes from, come back on Monday when I’ll post pictures and tell you about the factory tour! On Tuesday I’ll tell you about our Master Class…… each day of next week will correlate to the day we had in Japan almost two weeks ago! Make sense? Here are a couple of pics meanwhile..

I’m having a nice day today preparing for our Scottish Bead Fair tomorrow. I’ll be there doing a precious metal clay demo – if you are coming please stop by and say hello. We will be taking along info about all our new courses at The Little Bead Shop/Art Clay Scotland.…… some are bound to book up fast – like our Sunday full day beginners class – so if you are hoping for a space try to look for us early in the day!! You can also book onto the fantastic courses with Hattie Sanderson and Gordon Uyehara tomorrow too!!! They are booking up fast so dont miss out!!

Expect pics of the fair tomorrow!

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