Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

  Winter, snow and being in the house a lot makes me want to cook.   I happened to pick up my grandma’s cook book.   It is very old and a wonderful look into what her life was like when she was cooking for her husband and their two girls.   I think she also cooked for men who worked for them at the farm.   I loved having milk and cookies at her house.  She usually had a cake when I visited her! I wanted to share some of the pages and let you enjoy them too.   The book is well used.   Grandma gave it to my mother and now I have it.   Once in a while I try to decide what recipe I want to make from it but I seldom get past reading and remembering.  I love this story about the rose jar! 

My finished Pueblo Ring The second project we made in Hadar’s class on ‘Architectural Jewelry’ was a ring with 3 layers.   It has dimension in the front, an integral band in the back and the bottom is enclosed.   I made a mini pueblo with a tower, middle building and a wall.   The clay is Hadar’s Brilliant Bronze.   Each layer has a different texture which enhances the 3-D effect.   Using the paper ring to dry the separate pieces.  These are parts from different class member's rings. The band starts with a strip of paper taped in a circle that is 2.5 times larger than the actual ring size.   That adjusts for the shrinkage during firing.   I should have made mine a half size larger.   Now I have a pinkie ring that is a little heavy.   Someday when I make another, this may end up in my etsy store.   Right now, I’m just excited to have made it!   Each layer is made separately and dried before attaching to the main b...

Yesterday Peter and I took a day trip to V-Bar-V Ranch near Sedona AZ.   We love to visit ruins and see petroglyphs while we look for real birds and interesting textures of nature. In 1994, the U.S. Forest Service acquired the V-Bar-V Ranch to protect the ancient art panels found here. The property was first homesteaded at the turn of the century (1900’s) by the Taylor family.   Several families ran the property as a working cattle ranch after that. We checked in with the ranger and took the short walk to the very large configuration of rocks on the sandstone bluff.   It was covered with petroglyphs- 1032 have been identified so far.   Most were pecked, ground or scratched into the rock between 1150 and 1400 A.D. (over 800 years ago).   The Sinagua people who created these images seemed to like pairs – 2 birds, lizards and humans with different sets of legs- and we found several of these pairs.   By watching the movement of light across the rock ...

  Just needs a chain! Taking Hadar’s ‘Pictorial and Architectural Jewelry’ class was a 3 day adventure into using Hadar’s clay and her techniques.   The first piece we made was with Low Shrinkage Steel XT clay with a small amount of copper added.   She just discovered that the Steel XT low shrinkage clay does not need 2 phases of firing.   Her manual is updated. www.artinsilver    I’ll be using a lot more of that in the future.   It was easy to mix and work with and has a longer working time. Our first project was to be the interior of a room.   We were to start drawing a rectangle on tracing paper.   Then we were to draw a second rectangle that would be a window. We drew lines to the corners of pieces.   Now we had a ceiling, a floor, and two walls.   We transferred that to layers of clay.   Hadar’s direction for the perspective drawing was very simple and very effective.   She wanted us to use her perspectiv...

Pre-Workshop Necklace Hadar's Clay - my pre-workshop necklace February means Tucson!   It’s the Gem Show and The Bead Show with warmer weather than Prescott!   This year I started with a 3 day intensive class with Hadar Jacobson.   Twelve artists met at Lyle Rayfield’s studio in the beautiful Tucson Mountains to learn how to make architectural style jewelry using Hadar’s clay.   Our Class! As a member of a Face Book group, I’ve been reading for quite a while of artist’s challenges occurring in the process of sintering (when clay becomes metal), firing, etc.   I was totally intimidated.   Intimidation is not a state I’m comfortable with but I continued to delay using the clay myself.   One day I received an email and phone call from my good friend, Lyle, who also certified me in Art Clay.   Lyle wanted to invite Hadar to teach ‘Pictorial and Architectural Jewelry’ and needed attendees.   I whined a little and said, “OK.   ...

Taking a walk through a forest, on a mountain trail or through a meadow, always inspires me.   One of my favorite flowers on these walks is the thistle.   The details of that flower make me smile.   When I found this thistle stamp in a store, of course, I just had to have it.   I put it on my work table waiting for the right time to use it.   One day I decided to make the thistle in fine silver clay and put a wire staple on the back.   That staple would allow me to make a backing of polymer clay and attach it securely to the silver.   I also made a silver flat bail with a hole toward the bottom so I could put it between two layers of polymer.   Both the staple and the hole would force polymer clay into those openings locking the silver in place.   These are the 3 slabs of polymer for the Illuminance & Clarice beads The back of the medallion is made from the sunburst slab in the front of the picture. Combinin...

Off to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show!  Actually I'll be spending 3 days in an intensive workshop with Hadar Jacobson artinsilver.com  learning to use her clay and producing (I hope) some lovely pieces of jewelry.  I'll be sharing that experience when I return.  It is also an opportunity to see some friends, take care of having taxes done and seeing my old home town of Tucson.  I understand the downtown area is much improved!  And the temperature should be warmer than Prescott! Later!

It’s been a while since I made a ring.   In fact, it had been years.   And when I was going through my supplies, I realized that I needed to use more of my silver clay stash.   Now might just be the time to make a ring. The design I had in mind incorporated holes into a shaped band.   Out came my books and I started reading and remembering. I wanted a size 6 ring and measured 2 sizes larger.   In the end I should have made it 2 ½ inches larger for the shrinkage…next time. Should have made the size a little larger for shrinkage I rolled my silver clay 4 cards thick, planned where the holes would be and cut them with a fine pointed tool.    Since I wanted a shaped ring that was higher in the center than the edges, I dug out my seldom used cork clay and dampened it.   Then I rolled a snake with tapered end and put the clay over it as I wrapped the clay around my ring mandrel that I previously covered in a wrap paper.   Marked where ...