Art with Mom

I grew up in a home where there was always a craft or project being worked on. For every holiday or birthday, we made our gifts. Ranging from baked goods to candles, soaps, and jewelry. My mother instilled in us an appreciation for the creative process and the pleasure of giving something that your hands fashioned. I’ve kept that with me into my adult life and jump at any chance to create.

On my mom’s recent visit to Southern California I knew I had to take her to experience a Sawdust Studio Art Class at the Sawdust Art Festival grounds. The classes offer the rare opportunity to work with real artists to create your very own piece of art. Classes range from jewelry making, ceramics, fused glass, print making and even glass blowing. I had taken a class on copper jewelry making a few months ago and now I had the opportunity to take my mom to one of these fabulous classes.

We arrived in the canyon on a perfect Laguna day…bright blue skies, a light breeze and a comfortable 71 degrees.  (It may seem like I say this often, but the weather is truly amazing in Laguna Beach! Every time I come into town I am reminded of the pure beauty of this coastal village.) Mom hadn’t been on the festival grounds since 1974, even before I was born, but thought it still held all the charm and wonder that she remembered. Once in class, we were acquainted with our artist and teacher for the day, Lorraine Hornby. She is a gemologist and jewelry maker from Laguna Beach. We were learning about water casting, one of the oldest forms of jewelry making. We would be taking silver, heating it to a temperature of at least 1600 degrees and then pouring it into cold water. How fantastic! Lorraine introduced us to the torch and how to use it and adjust the intensity.

Next she demonstrated how to use the torch to heat the small silver pellets down to molten metal using the torch and a crucible.

Once the metal was heated completely the crucible is lowered and the metal poured into water. The shape of your now hardened metal will depend on the height and speed of the pour. It was a surprise when you would reach into the pot of water to pull out the metal and see what treasure you’ve created. Not one piece in the class came out the same.

Next, we jumped deeper into the creative process by deciding how to transform our silver pieces into a pendant or broach. I decided to use one small bead and a jump ring to turn mine into a broach.

Mom decided to add two beads and a pin to transform her piece into a lovely broach.

Wearing our finished art pieces, mom and I walked out of the festival grounds feeling like an artist, even if it was for just one day.

Sawdust Studio Art Classes are offered every Friday and Saturday at 10am and 2pm. Visit the website for more information and register for classes.

By Anne-Marie S.

The Top Ten Places to Visit in Laguna Beach!

Destination: Paradise

1)    Heisler Park

      Along this half-mile walk on the bluffs of Laguna Beach you will see spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.

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.