Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

From my new fall collection My latest online class:  Building Better Beads with Dan Cormier What a learning experience!  I'm pretty experienced with polymer clay and know there is always something new to learn.  In this class I built a bead in 4 weeks.  No, I've never taken that much time to build a bead!  A lot of time was spent on each step building the best bead I could instead of making lots of beads as fast as possible.  The zen experience of looking at each step and deciding if it was the best it could be before going to the next step really made me focus.  While I may never spend that much time on a bead again I will look at what I'm doing with more discerning eyes evaluating time, value and quality.   Seeing the process of each step through the eyes and hands of a skilled professional who is willing to teach is invaluable.  Getting feedback on how to improve is so important.  The skills of sanding and buffing poly...

I made cages!   Tiny cages!   While practicing some of the steel wire techniques I learned from Keith Lo Bue’s http://www.lobue-art.com/  online class, I realized that my collection of tumbled stones just might be the start of a new line of jewelry…..Caged Stones!     So here is my first necklace.   Watch for the new series on my Etsy store www.etsy.com/shop/lindabrittdesign    First I made spirals and turned them into tiny cages.   Then I made ‘s’ links and jump rings and combined everything.     I brushed and buffed them, waxed them and inserted the dyed turquoise.   I need more practice to really control the consistency but I like the first piece!

I just took Donna Kato’s class CONTEMPORARY SQUASH BLOSSOM PENDANTS from Craftartedu.com As I was about midway through the video, I realized that this might be one of the few classes where I actually stopped the video to make the project at each step just the way it was presented.   The end result was very close to the class photo with a few exceptions to color shading.   I’m very happy with what I learned and with the piece.   While making my squash blossom, I followed the directions for mixing the colors, backing the cane slices and applying the canes, etc.   Copying a piece makes me feel uneasy and that’s why I tend to just watch the video or take classes that show a technique and turn me loose.   Could be I’m missing some of the finer points that way!   Thanks Donna Kato! After I finished the pendant, I decided to use some of the leftovers and make buttons and beads.   Sharing some with you. Buttons ready to sell! Might be my next ...

Artful Gathering http://artfulgatheringfest.ning.com has some great classes and some of you know I am taking Keith lo Bue’s class.   http://artfulgatheringfest.ning.com/group/steeling-beauty-with-keith-lo-bue   I guess I needed a short break from my polymer clay so yesterday and today I made the ‘s’ link chain and continued to make it into a necklace.   My beautiful Crazy Lace bead gives a nice contrast to the wire and will lay asymmetrical on the chain.   The chain is long enough to fit over my head but if I needed to take it apart I can.   The jump ring at the stone slips past the partial ‘s’ component that is glued into the bead hole.   I still need to work on making better jump rings that come together exactly.    Lots of my new knowledge will transfer to my techniques of using brass, silver and copper wire for my jewelry pieces.   That’s what is so great about taking an online class!   I can watch the ...

Finished Button and Beads After two days of being on the phone with a credit union, a bank, Medicare, and social security, I needed a distraction.   It was time to open my new package with the polymer clay ‘Ultimate Clay Extruder’ by Makin’s and the Bullen’s Wullens Driver Adapter.   I’ve had these tools for weeks and just kept putting off setting them up.   Found an old variable speed drill and I’m ready! This project started when I signed up for another online ‘Craftcast’ class.   This time it was ‘Extrusions’ with Cynthia Tinapple.   http://www.craftcast.com/class-or-recording-item/279652-learn-to-make-extraordinary-polymer-clay   I attended class and was intrigued.   Of course I ordered all the tools to make the class project and waited.   This evening I watched the class video again and assembled everything.   After conditioning 6 colors of clay, I rolled them through the pasta machine on the widest setting.   I used the Kem...

First Exercise in the Class Craftcast with Alison Lee is a really great online source for classes mostly about jewelry making.   I find myself signing up for almost all of them because they are so well done.   When the class ‘Zen and the Art of the Jeweler’s Saw’ with Michael David Sturlin was offered, I waited to take it.   I thought, ‘ok, I have a jeweler’s saw and I’ve used it and so why take a class?’   http://www.craftcast.com/ I’m going to Art Unraveled in Phoenix in August and I’m taking three classes in metal jewelry techniques.   Every one of them lists the jeweler’s saw as a necessary tool.     I got my saw out and tried it. ‘Hmmmmm’   I thought, ‘guess it is time to take the class’. There are recordings of the classes you can buy if you miss the live class and boy am I glad I signed up! http://www.artunraveled.com/ First of all my workspace is too low for correct posture and for keeping the saw vertical.   As you can see i...