Visiting Instructors Anne Mitchell and Terri Caspary Schmidt Share Their Talents

In September, BeadFX is honoured to host two acclaimed visiting instructors from the United States for a total of five classes.

Award-winning metalwork artist Anne Mitchell is teaching four classes at BeadFX. Anne started her creative career over 25 years ago as a professional lighting designer. Looking for another outlet for her artistic energies, Anne began teaching chain making and metal working approximately 13 years ago for just pure enjoyment. During those years, Anne found that the creative outlet provided by teaching as well as a consistent demand for her classes was too alluring to deny. Leaving lighting behind in 2003, Anne is now a full-time designer, teacher, and author.

TAKE MULTIPLE CLASSES AND SAVE ON THE CLASS FEE:
Single class fee: $170 each + HST
Take 2 or 3 of Anne Mitchell's classes: $160 each + HST
Take all four of Anne Mitchell's classes: $150 each + HST

Friday, September 6
Hodgepodge Bracelet
10:00am - 5:00pm
Yes indeed you can!  In just one day you can create this Hodgepodge Bracelet. We will start out day with making the PMC slider filler rings and while they are firing we will texture, form and drill the silver rectangular back piece. After our lunch break, we will clean and texture the freshly fired PMC and them you will learn my secrets of making the Viking Double section out of fine silver. The last hour of class will be spent with assembly and patina then you can walk away with your very own Hodgepodge Bracelet!  
Technique focus: Metal Forging, Fusing, PMC & Viking Double Knit.

Saturday, September 7
Simple Elegance: PMC and Fine Silver Necklace
10:00am - 5:00pm
In this full day session of metal creations, create your very own version of this amazing necklace. Start out your day choosing your textures and creating your PMC links for firing. While we wait with bailed breath for the firing to complete we will prepare our fine silver rings for assembly and fusing and we can take those fusing techniques to a higher level, learning how to implement more complex patterns into the final design. The final part of the day will be an exploration of texturing, patina and polishing techniques. At the end of this class you can walk out wearing your creation. 
Technique focus: PMC & Fine Silver Fusing.

Sunday, September 8
Fine Silver Chain Creations
10:00am - 5:00pm
Have you heard the one about fine silver being too expensive? Or, the one about fine silver being too soft for jewelry construction? Let these myths about this amazingly affordable and structural medium be put aside and join me for a full day of fine silver chain making. In only a matter of hours I can help you can unlock, refresh or just fine tune your fine silver fusing techniques. I have 17 years of metals experience that I can share with you. During this one day intensive, I will go over winding, cutting, joining, fusing, texturing, work hardening and patina for the chain that you will start and finish. By incorporating my kitchen table-top, Low Tech Metalsmithing™ techniques, you too can stop buying ready made chain and finish off your own jewelry creations with chains that you have made yourself. The only limit to this technique is your own imagination.
Technique focus: creating, fusing, texturing and patina for fine silver chain making

Monday, September 9
Creating Fine Silver Chain for your Lampwork Creations
10:00am - 5:00pm
This is the class that lampworkers and lampwork bead collectors have asked me to teach for the last 3 years. In this full day class you will learn my techniques for setting delicate lampwork beads in unique fine silver settings. You will learn dapping and punching techniques for end-caps, slider bar assemblies for barrel beads, hook connections for elongated barrel beads and my signature forceps style spinner bail for those (problematic, I don't know what to do with this amazing) disk beads. Class will consist of working with 3 professionally crafted lampwork blank beads made by JC Harrell and by the end of class you will be ready to set your own creations or those beads from your personal collection.
Technique focus: fine silver fusing, texture and patina

In our lampwork studio, Terri Caspary Schmidt with be dazzling us with Dots, Lines and Tessellations in her 2-day, advanced beginner/intermediate lampworking class. Terri has been a bead maker since 1999. Before discovering lampwork, her creative life focused on fiber arts, including surface design on silk and the Japanese process of Katazome, which involves complex stencil cutting and resist dying using natural pigments. She finds the meditative quality of lampworking to be a good balance with her life as a nurse-midwife in a busy hospital based practice. Most of Terri’s beads are characterized by the use of line and repetition to create complex symmetrical designs.  She is interested in the manipulation of lines on the bead’s surface to create rhythmic tessellated patterns and motifs that are inspired by biological forms, Escher-like interlocking shapes, architectural details, and Mid-Century ceramic design.

Friday, September 6 & Saturday, September 7
10:00am - 5:00pm each day
Dots, Lines and Tessellations
This 2-day workshop is for intermediate bead makers who would like to achieve more precision, symmetry and refinement in their work. For two days we will set aside all our fancy tools, presses, powders, metals, and fumes and focus on fine tuning and expanding basic and ancient techniques in surface design. The mastery of these skills will give you freedom to express more complex ideas in your work. This is old school bead making with an emphasis on slowing down, finding your rhythm, and honing the skills that will help you transform your ideas into reality. Using 3 simple tools and the power of your hand, eye and mind, you will take your bead making to a new level.

We will work on precise dot placement, dot shaping, optical color blending, pick-work, masking, stringer and micro-stringer techniques, as well as the use of negative space and line as key design elements. I’ll share with you my methods of shaping a base bead to achieve a good foundation for detailed surface work. You’ll learn some useful tricks with the 3X5” marver, and how precise heat control will enable you to manipulate the surface of your bead almost as you would clay. I’ll show you how to correct little errors in your work so you don’t have to plunge that 45-minute masterpiece in the water. Exercises will be technique oriented with lots of practice time and individual attention. We’ll have on-going discussions about inspiration and design. You’ll find that many interesting ideas can emerge from intense focus and repetition of basic techniques in lampworking.
Class fee: $500 + HST; Kit fee: $30 + HST

To register for these and all other classes, please call the store. For more information, consult our website. Click on 'classes' and follow the link to 'September'.