See this hat?   Seeing it sitting right there in the back of the class room on Monday morning signified that great things were going to happen.  Richard Salley walked in to the class room wearing it, and taking it off meant the Fabulous Found Objects Pendant workshop would be underway soon.  Right off the bat I have to say that YES, all of the wonderful things you’ve heard about Richard are true!  He really is that nice and that talented.  I admired his talent as I helped set up and placed the class samples on the table.  Found object pins, cuffs, necklaces and bolos.  As students trickled in to the classroom, they joined me to ooh and aah over the work of this found objects master.

We began the workshop by preparing the base of our pendant.  Do you have a Starbucks Frappucino or baby food jar lid laying around?  That’s all you need to get started. We torched the back of the lid to remove the plastic seal on the inside.  Then we hammered away to create a distressed look (and one student admitted she ran over hers with her car).  What I like about this type of pendant is that anything goes…the more distressed and imperfect the components, the better!

I really enjoyed Richard’s teaching style – very casual, but organized and packed full of demonstrations and information. And Richard definitely gave each of his students quality one-on-one time, as he made his way across the room checking in with students to see what they were creating.  We were shown more techniques than you could dream of in one day, then let loose to just have at it and create.  I’ll admit I can be slow to start as I need time to formulate my design. It always amazes me how others can jump right in and are busy hammering from the get go.

You’ll never believe how many amazing technques were covered in this workshop!  Etching, Soldering, Enameling, and working with Faux Bone.  What I love is how Richard taught each of these potentially intimidating techniques and expected us to go to it without hesitation. I had seen tutorials for etching, and my, they seemed to have so many steps, precautions and chemicals, that I never bothered to learn.  And now etching has to be one of my favorite new techniques. 

Here’s a shot of the {ArtBliss}partners in crime –

Now for some shots taken from around the room-

Gathering together some components and figuring out which direction to take....

Mike working on his pendant

Linda's finished pendant

A lampwork artist uses her own heart bead for the pendant focal.

 My pendant was an exercise in layering.  Faux Bone was used as the base layer for the pendant.  Then came the etched metal window and the vintage button.  Annealed Steel wire was used throught out the pendant.

My finished pendant

What a Fabulous day it was.  We’re already looking forward to Richard’s next visit!!

*** There’s still a little time left to enter the GIVE AWAY which ends late tonight!  Please see the details here if you have not already done so!***