shiny, happy, people

Sooo, last Friday this time I still had my head in the clouds as I’d spent the morning doing something exciting and fun that I’ve never done before. I did one of Janine Binneman’s ring carving workshops and it was epic!

Top: The table laid out with all kinds of exciting tools. The blue thingies are the wax that you carve.
Bottom: Hard at work with the hard stuff - look how involved we are!

You might be wondering what a fabric nerd is doing amongst hard materials and metals but, if you know anything about me at all, you’ll know how obsessed I am with the process of how anything is made. I know its #nerdydotcom but I find it pretty amazing to see how materials are transformed from something unusable (and often unbeautiful) into something incredible. (Yes, I DO spend unreasonable amounts of time watching “How It’s Made” videos on YouTube and Instagram. There, I said it.)

OK, so this is how it all went down. We arrived at 10am (a decently late start for a sleepy head like me) and were greeted by the mermaid herself. Fresh pastries, coffee, OJ and bubbly were waiting for us – which was lucky because we all know that on Fridays you can have cake for breakfast.

The work table was laid out with all kinds of intriguing implements, cutting boards and cobalt blue wax that was either shaped into 2inch squares or into pre-cast ring shapes (kind of fat and squared off). The first while was spent mucking around with the tools and seeing what kinds of marks could be made on the wax. Which tools cut, which scraped, which carved. It was all very exciting and the wax is very forgiving. There were things to melt wax, things to file wax down, and yes, there were extra pieces of wax if you wanted to start over.

Right: I'm not too cool for tools. Different shaped files for shaping the wax
Top Right: Wax, bubbles, coffee and tools. What more could one want?
Bottom right: I think I was the messiest. See how you have to file down and shape the wax?

I had this preconceived idea that I was going to make something florally but I soon found out that the world of jewellery making is HARD AF! If you ever see delicate hand-crafted jewellery, know that it took a decent amount of blood, sweat and tears to create the end result (probably a fair amount of cussing too.) Before I went to the workshop I had this firm idea in my mind of how I wanted my “piece” to turn out. But honestly, the feeling of carving and creating was so enjoyable that I didn’t really mind what the result was. The workshop is 3 hours and it went in a FLASH because everyone was so preoccupied with what they were doing.

The Mermaid showing, telling, and helping.

Speaking of “everyone”, the workshop had 7 people, which is a good amount for chatting and getting to know everyone (not too peoply). Normally I have performance anxiety if I have to make something (actually do anything!) in front of people, but everyone was just sitting there, working away and not comparing what they were doing to anyone else’s creations. 

How's that leafy view?! Green therapy. A workshop amongst the leaves!

Janine explained the really cool process of how the finished wax rings get translated into metal and just because I’m a nerd and I found it super interesting, I’m going to tell you….

First, Janine attaches all the rings to little stalks of wax and then joins the stalks to make a “ring tree”. Then, she casts a mold (out of a kind of plaster, I believe) which then bears the indentation of the ring tree. Melted silver is then poured into the mold. And then, this is the super-cool part… The metal runs along the stalks of the ring tree – which become like veins carrying silver blood – and the metal runs into the ring-shaped indentations in the mold.  And voila! The ring is cast!

(I don’t know who invents these cool ways of doing things but they are coming to my party.) 

I know what you’re thinking… But I’m not creative. Hear me now ‘coz I’m gonna get all creatively-annoraky and philosophical and say that EVERYONE is creative – we just don’t give ourselves the opportunity and time to cut loose and see what we can do! #truestory.  And to be quite honest, making something (for me, at least) is more about the time spent using your right brain and doing something therapeutic than feeling satisfied with the end result. Know what I mean?

How are these glorious colours? Other than the top pic, these are my favourite colours and designs.

Having said that…. I’m so excited to see how my pieces turned out!!! I ended up making two (one with a heart that Janine is putting 3 little stones in – one stone for each of my dogs, obvs.) Watch this space (and my Instagram!) because I’ll definitely share the pics!

This is how my piece turned out....LOL! Just kidding!!! How I wish! This is one of Janine's recent pieces that is utterly heavenly.

Honestly, if you’re looking to learn a new skill or just looking for a fun, marvellous way to spend 3 hours, do the workshop! Follow Janine Binneman on Instagram (drooling is allowed and inevitable) and be sure to watch her stories. She's obvs on Facebook or you can shoot them an email to find out when the next ring carving workshop is. Pinky promise that you will love it. 

And whether you plan on making something or not, do check out her work because it’s delicious and diverse (Ummmm… and Christmas is coming up…just saying.) 

Till next time nerds! 

x

 P.S. All pics copyright @janinebinnemanjewellery