The weekend was upon us!
We spent an age going around all the stalls (*yawn*) and finally met up with
I made a ring in the masterclass first which was a good suggestion as it got me used to working with silver and included the tuition as well. I then used that ring as it was a thumb ring and about the right size for a pentacle:
Click for larger image
Not bad for a first attempt, I thought. About the size of a 10p coin. However, not quite perfect and the energy flow that the piece symbolises is the whole point of it so after some uhming and aahing I decided to make another piece the next day. More about that later.
I managed to show
Later on that evening we rode to get some food as
Aside: I'm actually feeling a little self-conscious as
Anyway, back to the weekend.. just as we got back the Outdoor Polish Theatre had started - a very strange tale of ghosts and reckless abandon and symbolic drinks of temptation, all told by actors on stilts in weird costumes with fishing rods with rubber bats hanging off and sitting astride a two-headed horse with wheels and pedals and so forth. They danced around and flailed their fire sticks and performed some spectacular swordplay - very skilled as at one point they looked to be blindfolded (but I think they were really masks). Very entertaining even if we couldn't quite understand what the story was about.
After that we went back in and sat and drank tea and coffee with everyone. It was really nice to chill out in the Tiny Tea Tent, eating chocolate muffins and seeing old friends. The topic turned again to bikes and I mentioned the Reading Ride Out. Alex (an alternative vicar, now with undercut and a stripey goatee and earrings) mentioned he has a trike which started as a Virago (my first bike) so I told him the details. I'll have to give him a ring this week and point him in the right direction for the details and hope he can make it! Matt too might be able to make it (I'd cheekily forgotten
Anyway it was getting late and we were pretty shattered so we went home and crashed out. The great thing of course is that the festival is IN Cheltenham so it's literally a ten minute ride back.
The next day we waited for Tianna to come back from Rob's before we again set off to the festival, this time with Tianna in tow in the car. Not only that but
Later on she spent her time quietly nestled around either my or
We again went around all the stalls (*double yawn*). We saw some 'field' theatre which was rather entertaining. A mad guy in some spangly super-hero costume throwing knives and boules at some poor unsuspecting member of the public:
Home for lunch and to drop the rat off - we bumped into Alex, Kat and Paul on the way to the gates.
When we came back Tianna and I paid a quid each to go on the inflatables, as captured on
I was very knackered after all that, especially negotiating the inflatable assault course.
Tianna and
At my suggestion, Tianna decided she'd like to make herself a silver ring, which as all the classes were freeform ones I ended up teaching her how to do. I'm not sure a ten year old quite has the patience that's needed for silver working but she seemed to enjoy herself:
Annealing, or the process of heating and quenching the silver to make it malleable | Cutting the loop of silver in preparation for joining into a ring |
I then made the second pentacle, making the star first and making the ring afterwards to fit, which I had learned from the first attempt would be the most sensible - do the detailed stuff first and the simple stuff to fit around it. Here is the result:
Click for larger image
It's smaller than the first one; about the size of a 20p coin as modelled by the delectable
I actually really enjoy creating silver jewelry so I'm semi-seriously considering taking it up as a hobby. I don't think the start-up costs are that bad - I just need a blow torch (apparently they're the same ones pastry chefs use to toast meringues), some silver and silver solder and a heat-resistant mat. What do you think?
We wondered around again trying to find
Home time at last. Stayed up really late watching the League of Gentlemen on telly before finally crashing.
Wow this has been a long post. Time to get on with the rest of the day :)