Sawdust Studio Art Classes

Laguna Beach is known as Orange County’s art mecca, and it’s no wonder. With endless galleries, art studios, and festivals, there is so much for the art lover to see and do. This month, a new program was launched by the Sawdust Art Festival, Sawdust Studio Art Classes. These exclusive classes are offered in ceramics or in jewelry making and are taught by the artists themselves. The classes allow you to let your creativity out and gives you the opportunity to make ONE OF A KIND works of art for yourself, or as a gift to a loved one.

I had the chance to take a pendant making class with David Farris.  Honestly, I can say I had never done any type of jewelry making quite like this. We started with a square piece of copper, my ‘blank canvas.’

First we “roughed up” our piece of copper with steel wool. Next, we moved into adding texture to our copper, through stamping. This was accomplished by hammering the copper. We had the option of using thin gauge wire shaped into various forms or pre-made stamps with various shapes that could be hammered into the copper.

I opted for bending wire into a wave shape.  After covering my copper in wave patterns we torched the copper.

This made the copper a bit more pliable and accelerated the oxidation process.

You can see my cooled piece of copper above. If you look closely, you can see the oxidized areas of the copper.

After I was satisfied with my stamping and hammering, it was time to decide on what my pendant would look like. There are endless options as to what you could make. Stencils with various shapes, rulers to measure out long strips, or if one was brave enough, you could free-hand cut the copper into any shape.

Above, you can see I played it safe, and opted for various circlular sizes that would be linked together creating a cascading effect.

After cutting the copper, it is quite sharp and rough around the edges, so we needed to file it down. Then David drilled holes in each piece so that the copper circles could be attached to the findings.

The last step in the process was to darken the copper and further accelerate the oxidation process by using liver of sulfur. We dipped each copper circle in the solution and used a wire brush to clean off the surface. What emerged was a creamy dark hued copper.

Above is my pendant. I am thrilled with the piece and will treasure it forever! I can’t believe I was able to accomplish this in just 2 hours! Wow! Thank you David Ferris and the Sawdust Art Festival for a great art experience.

By Anne-Marie S.

Don’t miss out on this fabulous opportunity!

Classes are offered every Friday and Saturday at 10:00am and 2:00pm at the Sawdust Art Festival grounds, 935 Laguna Canyon Road.  

In celebration of this launch, classes are offered at $65 for the month of October. Group bookings and private classes are also available. Click HERE to book your class 24 hours a day or for more information.