February 2014 - Is that Autumn Already?

Here we all are, the beginning of March and Autumn is with us. It seems far too early for the change in temperature and the rain we have been experiencing, my tomatoes are only just starting to ripen in complete contrast to last year's bounty! Time to start thinking about the coming longer evenings and getting organized for winter.

I find my best creative time is when I find myself indoors more, cuddling up to a heater and trying to distract myself from the less clement weather. Perhaps it is because I feel so much less drawn to the outdoors, things are not growing much so they stay tidier for longer once they are done, and I do not enjoy the cold. Short, wondering moments spent looking at the sky and sea, and much more time looking inward and thinking about making little things of beauty and interesting ways to articulate them. How is it for everyone else? We are all so differently inclined and everybody's creative urges are unique.

The Guild is up and running at full speed once more, after the summer holidays and the various educational institutions have returned to their year. Plenty for you to be involved with, and we are still looking for interested folks to take up some of the tasks that make us such a great group to belong to!

We are looking for someone to:
* Take over the newsletter ( I am off to Nelson to be a granny as soon as we have bought a house)
* Take on organizing the display cabinets in the studio, as a running mini exhibition that members can participate in
* Take on keeping the supplies in the kitchen cupboard up to date - detergent, tea, coffee, toilet paper, etc
* Volunteers for the new committee, including someone to take the chair, when we have our AGM in July
* Anyone who would be interested in running a members' studio workshop in a field they are able to share some skills in, or can gather together some things to try out together. It is a great way to test-run a workshop you might want to take elsewhere as well.

Of course, we are not looking for one poor soul to take on all those areas! Just whatever you think is manageable, and dare we say it, perhaps enjoy doing so! It is a great way to meet people, try out some ideas, and learn some new skills. I have found sharing some of my own knowledge and skills has been a really enjoyable process, and I have grown in a way I would not have had I not screwed up my courage and said 'yes'.

Open Times for the Studio
For members, $10, or $8 with a concession ticket
Tuesday
Anita is opening up at 10am - 2pm
Wednesday
Solvejg is opening up at 10am - 3pm
Saturday
Crystal or Karen, open up at 10am - 2pm

Free Members' Club Night
Every 3rd Thursday of the month at 7pm

Members' Monthly Workshop
*March (this month), is enamelling with Michel Boston and Anita Parris
$20, book with Arthur or Tui 382 1332
Every 3rd Saturday of the month, 10 am - 3pm-ish


Take a look at Jeremy's report on last month's workshop. It sounded as if it was its usual exciting self, I am sad I couldn't be in two places at once :( Thanks for the article, Jeremy.

SilverSmiths Guild Casting Workshop

Heads down and hard at work

On Saturday the 15th of February the SilverSmiths Guild held a casting workshop, with a focus on cuttlefish and Delft Clay casting. The course was led by Arthur (Harrison).

7 people attended the workshop with bags of scrap metal in their hands, ready to be recycled in to new silver jewellery. They brought a variety of items they wanted to make casts from including plastic monkeys, metal fish and rings, with some just wanting to use the visual affect of the natural contours of cuttlefish.

Preparing the cuttlefish

With cuttlefish casting we learnt how to make blank moulds by sanding 2 cuttlefish flat, to get a good fit between them. An item could then be pressed in to the two halves for an impression to allow a silver copy to be made, or the cuttlefish could be cut into, to create an original design, whilst making sure the two halves were marked for matching up. We learnt the importance of plenty of air holes to ensure the mould completely filled with the molten silver; although some times the lack of air holes provided a great effect. With a sprue cut the cuttlefish were ready for casting.

Melting silver in a crucible

Scrap silver was heated until the molten silver glowed and with a sprinkle of borax it was poured in to the mould. After cooling in a bucket of water, the mould could be pulled apart to reveal the result, ready to have the sprue removed and made in to a finished piece of jewellery.

A bit fuzzy, but you get the idea

Cast ring shanks

With Delft Clay casting, 2 metal rings are used to make the moulds from. A lower ring was filled with compacted clay, with the help of a hammer tap. The item from which a cast was to be made was pressed into the lower mould to about half-way in. The second ring was placed on top; talc was dusted on the clay and item to be copied in the lower mould, before more clay was compacted to fill the moulds, which were levelled off with a ruler. Separating the rings revealed the 2 halves of the moulds from which the original could now be removed. Air holes were made in the bottom mould and in the top half a hole for the molten silver to enter. With the 2 halves put back together a conical sprue was made in the top, through which the molten silver was poured.

The messy end of Delft Clay

After some cooling in a bucket of water, and a bit more patience than cuttlefish, the 2 halves were separated and the sand removed to reveal the newly cast item ready to be cleaned up.

Cheeky Monkey! Remember that Barrel of Monkeys game we used to play?

Fish cast from a polymer clay model

Issues with air not escaping, but good detail

So after an enjoyable day’s workshop we all ended up with the knowledge of how to cast with cuttlefish and Delft clay, some great new pieces of jewellery and a bunch of new friends!
Photos and words from Jeremy Reece :)

Summary of Committee Meeting of SSG

Febraury 3^rd 2014,

7pm at The Studio

39c Tanner St

Present:

Noeline Walker, Crystal Mathison, Solvejg and Diederic Ruarus, Jo Crompton, Debi James, Jenni Downs

Apologies:

John Weeber, Arthur Harrison, Anita Parris, Karen Atherton

Previous minutes taken as read.

Correspondence:

Kobi Bosshard sent us a postcard thanking us for payment for the masterclass he held for us last year, and expressing his desire to hold another masterclass at a later date.

Treasurer’s Report:

The accounts are looking healthy.

The Exhibition in December 2013 ran at a small shortfall, which is what we expected with the smaller commission on sales charged this time. The commission will return to 20% next time. The EFTPOS machine proved to be a success. Diederic has looked into using one for all our silver sales during the year.

Agreed unanimously to proceed with this.

Class Report:

Term 1

Tuesday – Level 1;   14 enrolled

Wednesday – Level 2; 14 enrolled

Thursday Morning – Level 1;  7 enrolled

                    - Level 2;   6 enrolled

No advertising has been needed apart from contacting the data base to top up the Wednesday evening class. There was a bit of interest generated from the exhibition in December.

Noeline has expanded the class handouts with a bit of help from Jo.

Silver stock has been topped up and everything has been bagged and made into unit items. This will simplify things for the tutors when selling silver.

Membership:

Membership stands at 61 at present

Exhibition:

We had a turnout of 60 to 70 people over the opening night, and a small but fairly steady flow of visitors over the following week. We had quite a few obstacles to deal with with all the road works and lack of signage at the time, so not too bad.

Discussion about space allocation for members next time we hold an exhibition. Maybe we need to give an allowance in cm2 to deal with pieces that take up more space, rather than a limit on the number of pieces.

We want to make the cabinets available for members to use, perhaps hiring them out. This will be explored further. There are breakages and insurance to consider

Is it possible to organise a static display of some work for libraries?

Is there the possibility of holding another exhibition around mid-winter?

General Business:

Diederic has approached Woodplus regarding fixing the cupboard door that has come adrift, and a quote for building a cupboard around the vacuum cleaner under the polisher to reduce noise levels. Also to come up with a cover or hood for the solder stations to reduce light interference when soldering.

We are going to have to deal with the solder station ourselves.

We need to be looking to the membership for new people to become involved on the committee. We will need a Newsletter Editor, and someone to take over the Chairman ship at the next AGM as well.

Classes – New Tutor training

Tuesdays: Debi James is helping Sol out. Karen is recovering from some surgery to her shoulder.

Wednesdays: Jax is helping Jo out

Thursdays: Anita and Yvonne are alternating weeks, helping Sol out.

Arthur is away, but will be available if needed.

Casting Workshop:

February's members’ workshop is cuttlefish and delft clay casting. Arthur will be here to run that.

AGM

Our annual general meeting will be held in July this year. Financial members are able to vote, and membership renewals are due on 1^st April to coincide with the financial year.

We are looking for new committee members. Jo is moving to Nelson, John Weeber is moving to Golden Bay, and Arthur is required to step down from the chairmanship after 4 years in a row. We may need to approach people to think about becoming committee members.

We have had a rolling mill donated by Jeremy Harding, which Anita collected and has stored in her garage until we can make room for it in the studio here.

Member Workshops:

Suggestions:

Cora has offered to run a wire wrapped bracelet made in copper. She has also suggested she could hold a Fancy Chain and Maille workshop, and put together a couple of suggested lesson plans for that.

Anita and Michel will run an enamelling workshop again

The colouring metals workshop was a success and Noeline has explored the use of coloured pencils further, so it might be a good one to repeat. Including the use of titanium, and different patinas for copper and silver.

Perhaps Nicola could be approached for a small spoon making day

PMC with Susan Brown might be a possibility

It may be possible to organise a ‘Taking good photographs of your jewellery” day. Noeline has a photography DVD which could be useful

Jax could be approached about doing a workshop around drilling holes in stones and different ways of combining them with silver?

Would Sylvia be interested in sharing her non-toxic photo etching process?

Further discussion and ideas

We need a contact details and course dates card for the window so people can reach us when the studio is closed.

Arthur is approaching Avon Engineering to see if they can put together a list of tools and prices. It would be good to be able to source some tools that members can buy locally. The list could be displayed in the studio.

The fire alarm needs a new battery.

Gordon Harris will take some of our course fliers.

Crystal will continue to work on the bookmark and postcards for us, and do a contact card for the window.

Get well cards for John Weeber, John Ogilvie, and Karen Atherton.

Sol will open the studio on Wednesdays, 10am – 3pm.

A Cleaning Roster will be organised.

Instructions for the keypad have been put on the wall for reference.

Meeting closed at 8.30pm