Easter egg tree

A little fun and sparkle for Easter. The Easter egg tree is a team project made by a number of  busy little hands from my children’s class.  They like to be known as F-art (fun-art).  Of course I couldn’t help myself I just had to throw some pewter eggs into the mix.

Use a oval stencil to draw the shape of the egg.

Using a nozzle bottle filled with glue "draw" the design onto the egg.

Sprinkle glitter over the glue, dust off the excess glitter.

The pewtered eggs using both the positive and the negative cut out shape.

Once all the eggs are made and the glue has dried, thread a loop of nylon thread through the top of each egg using a threaded needle. Hang then on a dried branch which has been planted into a pretty pot.

Video on You tube

The introduction to my Pewter it DVD is now up on You tube. If you would like to have a look please go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb14_XxIBN8

My Pewter It DVD is up on You Tube

Happy viewing! If you would like to order the DVD please mail me at <sandy.craft@telkomsa.net>

HobbyX

Hobby X Johannesburg has been and gone. It was an excellent show, most of the attendants and stall holders agreed it was one of the best Hobby X’ s ever, lots and lots of fabulous crafty bits to abuse the credit card on and absolute proof that crafts are alive and well in South Africa.

I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Metz Press Stand, publisher of a string of the finest craft books, most written by local crafters. The stand was nestled between the two leading pewter studio’s in Johannesburg, one of them Pewter Art Academy, run by Elize Roodt, who supplies me with pewter, information on new tools and inspirational chats. It was very stimulating seeing the level of pewter art done by these studios. I came home to my studio on the slopes of Table Mountain with some new tools, a new book of designs and a head bursting with ideas.

My exciting news about Hobby X is I launched my “Pewter It” DVD!!

It was really well received, we sold lots and lots of DVD’s and by Saturday lunch time were sold out of both  my pewter books, “Easy Pewter Projects” and “Pewter It”, the English and Afrikaans titles. I have already received feedback on the DVD, all positive. The comment which comes through the most is – there are lots of good close ups which are clear and easy to follow. That’s what happens when you get the well known lens man Andrew Ingram to shoot a DVD.

The DVD is aimed at beginners; it is a hands-on workshop giving you a close-up view of the essential techniques of pewter art, low relief, high relief and the patina and polishing process. It also teachers you how to apply gold leaf and glass stain to the pewter to achieve interesting colour effects. It allows you to attend a workshop at a push of a button in your own home.

Special launching price R85.

It was fun meeting and chatting to so many pewterers and crafters. I must say we really are a friendly bunch and every one is so willing to share their knowledge. I have this vision in my head of a very, very long table set with colourful china and pots of tea and coffee, groaning under the weight of soft delicious ice-cream coloured cup cakes, seated happily around the table are lots of friendly crafters nattering and chattering and sharing ideas. No clocks, no responsibilities, only mad crafters.

Restocking the shelves and DVD display.

The Metz Press stand at HobbyX.

The Metz Press team.

design’s that you can use

Below you will find the heart design which I used  to show the three basic techniques in my new DVD “Pewter It” (see post below). I have added the leaf design, which you can experiment with. When doing it in high relief trace the entire leaf onto the pewter including all the veins. Mould out the leaf just, make sure it is not too high, then take the centre vein out a little higher than the leaf, redefine the small leaf veins once the wax is in.

heart design

Heart design - to copy this design please right click and choose " Save image as" this will save it in " my pictures" from where you can print it.

Leaf design - to copy this design please right click and choose " Save image as" this will save it in " my pictures" from where you can print it.

Pewter it

This is a frame grab from my " Pewter it " DVD that I will be launching at HobbyX in Johannesberg this weekend ( 4 to 7 March)

“Pewter it” is the first DVD that I have made. It is a workshop on how to do pewter, where the camera is close up so you can watch every move that I make. It is the kind of thing that I wish that I had found when I started learning about pewter, and I hope that it will be fun to watch. Perhaps more importantly it will show you exactly what to do and what tools and materials to use.

This is an example of the close-ups from the Pewter it DVD showing very clearly how to colour pewter with glass stain.

The DVD is aimed at beginners but is also designed to be a refreshers course for those who feel a little rusty. You are taken through the three techniques needed to master the craft : indented low relief, raised low relief and high relief. I explain the patina and polishing process, how to gold leaf and how to colour pewter with glass stain.

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