 |
| Here's a selection of amazing things people have made in one of our workshops! |
As I am sure you must be aware by now we are great lovers of I am Acrylic! The Jewellery is so fun and the founders are so lovely too. So we thought we would let them tell you all about the Jewellery Workshops that they are now doing to add to their workload. Read on to find out some more.
Hi! We are Ruth Williams & Brendan Fan and we make
quirky acrylic and wooden jewellery under the name I Am Acrylic!
We hand-cut all of the components for our jewellery on a mechanical
fretsaw and realised recently that this might translate really nicely into
running workshops, using hand-saws, to teach people how to make their very own
piece of acrylic jewellery - and now we're hooked!
We enjoy getting all the equipment together for the
workshops, including buying safety goggles, making bench pegs, getting lots of
piercing saws and, most importantly, TONS of saw blades - as they snap quite
easily!
 |
| We were a bit over-excited when all the goggles arrived! And we always swoon at all the pretty bits of different coloured acrylic waiting to be turned into something lovely! |
We have an easy 3 step process for our workshops........You
design it, cut it out with the saw, and then clean it up with files and
sandpaper! Then we pop it on a chain for you to take away then and there! It's
fun, easy and very hands on!
 |
| The 3 simple steps in the workshop and the finished thing! |
We have run quite a few workshops now since our first one at
BUST Craftacular fair last
Christmas.
We've really enjoyed the more casual, drop-in ones, that
we've run alongside our market stall at several events (BUST, Renegade, CraftyFox & Aspex) - there's no need to book and anyone passing by can just stop and have a go for
half an hour or so!
We have also run longer, more involved, two hour long
sessions with several lovely hosts (Knit with Attitude, We Make London,
Mamahood and LOIS) and the results of these can be
stunning!
When running these longer sessions we give people some
advice for designing their necklace or keyring beforehand, and give them some
examples from our range of the more simple or more complex things they could
achieve!
 |
| A selection of our products as examples, showing a simple butterfly design or much more complex shape like the flower! |
We have been really impressed with all of the designs that
have been made in our workshops, and it's amazing how quickly people pick all
the skills up!
It was lovely when you guys came and had a go during our
drop-in workshop at Renegade this
spring - you were naturals! We really hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we
enjoyed teaching you - it was fun, fun, fun!
 |
| H's anchor keyring - designed, cut and finished! |
 |
| Sammy's sewing machine necklace - designed, cut, finished & worn! |
One aspect of running the workshops that we've both really
enjoyed, is the interest from young children - they love getting involved! -
and even though we quite often have to risk our fingers to help them cut the
shapes out - they have a great time doing it and so do we!
 |
| Brendan helping one of our younger makers sand the edges of a flower she was making! (Photo Credit: http://marthalovesblog.blogspot.co.uk/) |
We're getting super excited now about our next drop-in
workshop that we're doing as part of the Crafty Fox Market event with the London Design Festival. It's on the last weekend of September (26th & 27th) and
is at an exciting new venue for Crafty Fox called Kachette in Old Street . The
space will be decorated especially for the weekend by paper artist Little PaperVee - and we can't wait to see
it!
They'll be loads of great designer/makers selling their
wares there - with a different selection each day.
We'll be running the workshop alongside our market stall all
weekend - it's free entry and the workshop is just £10 a go - and there's no
need to book - you can just pop in!
 |
| Here's another brilliant creation from one of our workshops - a very appropriate, and very crafty, fox : ) |
And finally, we absolutely love looking at our #iamacrylicworkshop
tag on Instagram - there's a
great selection of pictures on it that really give you a sense of what we get
up to in the workshops!
 |
| Here's a selection from the #iamacrylicworkshop Instagram tag. |
We LOVED dusting off our DT skills when we did the workshop at Renegade earlier this year and I think a bit of practice at the next event will hone our skills for sure! We recommend checking out I am Acrylic workshops when you see them! We just love the fact that they use old school methods to produce their work and help others to use these skills during the workshops.
Thanks so much to Ruth and Brendan for chatting to us. We know they are off on their holidays for a well deserved rest and so have fun guys! Check out their Instagram for Jigsaw puzzle related holiday snaps too!
H,xxx
Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram
