So this is most definitely not the end of the Studio we are in fact making a future for ourselves in a different format.  We really enjoy the group workshops and we REALLY enjoy the retreats so why not focus on making those the best events we can?  Lonely really enjoys writing the books and it turns out he's quite good at it! We are also going to add some vlogs, video tutorials and more to our repertoire- join our Youtube channel to see what we are up to - Glastonbury Wire Studio YouTube.  Its a bit basic at the moment but come Sept we will start to add more to it in the mean time you can watch the amazing retreat videos that Iza's husband Pawel made for us at this years Retreat.

Lonely has enjoyed teaching 1 to 1, being part of our students wire journey and we will still be offering this service but the price will increase as we are looking at ways of making Lonely's work and teaching more accessible in other ways- more books, videos and small group workshops.  But do get in touch if you want a 1 to 1 with Jim we just need a bit of warning on the dates.

Lonely will also be more mobile to travel to other parts of the country (world?) to teach other groups and we will be putting some packages together to launch that service.  What we are aiming for is to make it as easy as possible for people to work with us from where ever you are in the world!

Glastonbury is still our home, we did have a look around to see if we could rent a bigger space but it seemed that no matter where we went we just keep coming back to the crazy place that is Glastoland.  This is a town where you never know what each day will bring whether it is the beautiful goddesses sweeping into town for their conference from all 4 corners of the globe the Glastonbury Dragons celebrating Beltane or a funeral so colourful and joyful that tourists stop to take pictures.  It could be the sheep that break free from the wool festival and have a quick wander round boots, or it could be the colourful busking man who plays the recorder and has a box of instruments for you to join in as you walk past. It could be the festival causalities who roll in after the main event, drink cider first thing in the morning and never leave.  It could be early morning walks up the Tor with the mists hanging over the moors or a quite walk around the Abbey Ruins or a dip in the White Springs.  Glastonbury is a strange town that will chew you up and spit you out if you are not careful, come to be a a part of and accept the madness and you will be fine! Don't fight it.
Hang around long enough and you will meet time traveling yogis, white witches and water wizards, high priestesses of Avalon and green men.  You will have conversations about how evil the moon is and be probed on your metaphysical beliefs outside the school gates at 8 in the morning.  You will sit in a cafe withs ents, tree sprites and woodland faeries.  You will have to develop opinions on subjects you didn't even know existed like the ability to live with out food, that David Icke is a man of sensible and insightful knowledge about the world, or whether or not eating phytoplankton will keep you balanced.  You will go to mother and baby groups and be asked to chant for your baby, (I must have read 'singing group' wrong) and you will have to make sure that there are raw vegan options at a 5 year olds party.   
When you leave the Glastonbury bubble and head to the 'real' world you will feel like an immigrant in an unfamiliar world, your clothes will jar with the neat suburban surroundings and you will not see a witch or green man for days.  There will be no drumming or random procession and there will certainly be no "ancestral clapping day".

We are here to stay in the madness that is Glastonbury so if you are ever looking for an excuse to come and see for yourself how wonderfully bonkers this town is then make a date you won't regret it!

So the Studio will continue and we will do everything we can to make sure that this year and the next are the best yet!  

​Come and see us at The Big Bead Show in April and October

Thank you to all who support us we are always so grateful and we looking forward to working with you in the future.  If you have any suggestions or thought then please do share them with us we would love to hear from you!

I wanted to continue with profiling artists and designers that influence us here at the Studio but I also thought I would be interesting to hear from some of our students too.  So here is what I hope to be the first of many profiles looking at the work, influences and talents of our students who have studied with us here.

We have been very privileged to work with students from the beginning of their wire journey and to be still working with them.  Watching students start their first tentative wraps and realise that wire is something that really interests them is such a delight and one of the pleasures of teaching.  

Many of our students return for more classes after the initial beginners workshop and some have joined us at the retreat year on year.  It makes us feel like we are getting something right!  We aim to provide high quality teaching in wire jewellery and hopefully the encouragement to our students that they can continue to work after the workshops have finished.  So see those journeys first had is a great delight.

So when student begins to create on their own and even begin to make a sell their work successfully we are keen to celebrate.  Today I will be profiling Kay Newman, many of you will be aware of her work she is known for the quality of her finish and attention to detail.  She is very active on the wire groups sharing her work, tips and advice where she can.
Kay came to spend 3 days with Lonely Soldier just after our first retreat, so just over 2 years ago now.  Even then Jim knew that here was as student with a real flare for wire work, her persistence for perfection was evident in those first few days.

Kay has since go on to create increasingly creative and unique pieces, developing her style and skills. She has rebranded and created a design label, website and packaging.  She is a great source of knowledge and inspiration when it comes to wire jewellery design and it seems that is not all she can do....I thought it would interesting to see how Kay arrived at wire, what her influences are and where her creative flare comes from.  So I asked her to write a bit of biography for me and I think you will enjoy reading it... :) 

Kay work can be found at:
https://www.facebook.com/knartistry/
and
http://knartistry.com/
I urge you to have a look at her website and follow her on Facebook too!

​Me and creativity
 
When Tabs asked me to write a bit about myself and how my creative journey ended up with a passion for bending wire, I had to go back quite a long way!
 
My mum taught me to knit when I was probably around 5 or 6. Basic knitting soon became boring and I taught myself various different patterns and I developed a love of Aaron knitting. I then saw a friend learning to crochet – this looked a lot of fun too, so again, of to the little handicraft shop in the village for crochet hooks and wool. After many struggles I made myself a dress!! I remember it well, I was about 10. It was florescent pink.
 
Not long after, when I was in the middle of making my sister a similar (smaller) version, in a far more tasteful peach, I came home to find my mother talking to a strange man. Transpires he was a reporter and photographer from the local newspaper. I was then bundled off to get attired in said fluorescent pink dress, trooped out into the garden, plonked into a blue wicker chair, and made to grin inanely at the camera whilst pretending to continue to crochet the dress I was making for my sister.
 
At the time I had a rather dodgy ‘layered elfin’ hair cut complemented by Dame Edna Everidge style winged glasses. (Oh the joy of having a mother ‘who knew best’). The picture appeared in the local paper under the heading ‘Handy Kay crochets her own mini dress’. The humiliation when I went to school. I think I am still mentally scarred. I soon moved on to making crochet doilies, there was no way I could be photographed wearing them. Or at least if I was the pictures would never make the local paper.
 
The only saving grace is that it is so long ago the picture is not available on the internet. I know, I have searched extensively to make sure.

​It was around this time, whilst still sporting the unique haircut and mark II of the Dame Edna’s that I discovered ROCKS!!!! A trip to the Blue John Caverns in Derbyshire and a browse in the gift shop and I found lots of pretties! Not too much of a selection, but tigers’ eye – all the play of light on the colours! And I could stroke and touch them! (OK, my secrets out – I stroke stones – even smoothed pebbles from the seashore, they are just so tactile.) My father subscribed my to some publication about rocks – I just loved the shapes and colours. In addition, after many hours in his workshop my father produced a tumbling machine for me. We bought the proper grit and a barrel and eight weeks later I stared at a rather motley selection of polished pebbles. Nothing like the pictures in the magazines (my rocks having been collected on a holiday to Cornwall).
 
Undaunted, I saved pocket money and when possible slowly added to my rock collection. Some of the smaller tumbled stones became jewellery – stuck with large dobs of Araldite Epoxy to stainless steel findings. A few of these still lurk in one of my ‘treasures from my childhood’ boxes!! I continues to yearn for a proper ‘cabochon’ and to be able to cut my own cabochons became a dream – which still remains unfulfilled today. I use this childhood denial as justification for my current cabochon collecting passion. 

I also loved cross stitch and embroidery. I am sure some of us remember the cross stitch canvas and wools, making all the different stitch variations to complete a table mat to take home as a Christmas present for some unsuspecting relative.
 
During my early teens I also learnt dressmaking. A new side line which actually earned me money emerged. My older brother and all his friends had their Oxford Bag trousers, but then they wanted them shortened, sort of Bay City Roller style. I could manage that! And embroidering names such as ‘Stu’, ‘Nam’ and ‘Col’ onto the patch pockets on the trousers. Sadly this phase with my brother soon passed, and my source of income dried up.
 
I continued to make all sorts of creations – a huge textured picture with embroidery, sequins, netting and various. Plenty of knitted jumpers – a real favourite was a jumper with the De Kuyper Cherry Brandy logo knitted across the front.
 
Meeting my first husband was pure joy – his mother owned a knitting wool shop!! I could drool over all the different colours and textures of wool that she had and manged to produce quite an array of large and fluffy jumpers. (That being my wool of choice at the time.)
 
Marriage and the birth of my daughter followed, and now I had time to indulge in more knitting and dress making. I loved making baby clothes, and in particular the dainty little matinee coats. Unfortunately divorce and being a single parent restricted the creative output to making my work clothes, which was more a cost saving than creative venture.
 
As my daughter grew up I had a partner in crime. We loved making together! By this time I was living in Southampton, and very nearby was a new shop HobbyCraft! Oh heaven! We could spend an afternoon in the shop, and come home with a whole load of stuff to start a new creative journey. I remember one Christmas when everyone got either a silk painted scarf or tie! We tried Fimo modelling clay, decoupage, papier mâché painting, I really can’t remember them all.

A move to London, commuting and house renovation rather stalled my creative streak. My daughter discovered boys and went to university. Two cats also put paid to any attempts to resume knitting. I still had the little flame of creativity burning, and after a diving trip in the Red Sea I bought a digital SLR camera and underwater housing. Absolutely no idea what I was doing but plenty of camera magazines later I was getting the hang of it. Later on I even won a couple of awards for my underwater pictures. 

​Then, just over four years ago I was made redundant. Sadly no massive redundancy payment resulted, but, thanks to my wonderful partner we managed to readjust, and I started working for myself in a ‘consultancy’ capacity. Sounds very posh, but it pretty much involves sitting at a computer screen all day and swearing about legislation.
 
I then started thinking long term. I didn’t believe that the work I was doing would be full time, so I needed something else to do. Thank goodness for the internet. I stumbled across metal clay, and did a one day course about a month before Christmas. I loved it! And then spent a ridiculous amount of time making a pair of cufflinks for my partner and a pendant for my daughter for Christmas. Even my tiny brain worked out that this would not be a cost effective business venture, and I needed something that allowed my re found creativity to continue without bankrupting me. Back to the Jewellery School website and I started looking at wire wrapping. “Ooooh!” I thought - that looks interesting!! I bought a book about wrapping and Amazon in its continuing desire to generate more purchases recommended Weaving Freeform Wire Jewellery by Kaskia Firor. Oh the elation, the drool on the pages as I absorbed every bit of information about making this amazing jewellery.
 
Then I turned to Google and found Nicole Hanna. I was hooked. The detail in the weave, the bend and curve of the wire!! I could not wait for my Next Day delivery of craft wire to arrive! My wire fixation was born. I would sit at the computer and try to work, and the next thing, as if by magic, a new tutorial from Nicole would appear on the screen and my hands would be working with wire, keyboard pushed to one side.
 
Mass production of pendants from Nicole’s tutorials then commenced. I couldn’t get enough of working with wire! Instinctively I seemed to manage to get the weaves nice and even. Construction was a different matter, and there were a number of tantrums and scrunched up pieces of wire along the way. 

​After amassing a sizeable collection of beads I turned to cabochons. Oh dear. Pretty stones – all my childhood memories of beautiful polished stones came flooding back. I needed to know how to set these in wire! More internet searching and I came across ‘Lonely soldier Designs’. And I could do a one to one course! Having the patience of a stretched Mars Bar (a saying of my nearest and dearest), I plagued Tabs during retreat week to get a date in the diary. The sooner the better!
 
My three days with Jim were a revelation, so many new techniques and ideas. I came away with a pendant that was so heavy it would double up as a club! From this course I started working on developing my own ways to wrap cabochons in woven wire. Every time I made a pendant I tried a new variation. I tried different wires. I learnt that bronze wire is pretty but like stainless steel wire you will get blisters working with it. I learnt that sterling silver is to be avoided at all costs when weaving, but essential for creating soldered frames that won’t bend when you breath on them. 

​With a lot of encouragement from my nearest and dearest, I set up an Etsy shop and after selling a few of pieces got involved with a couple of Facebook groups and sold more pieces. Almost by accident I discovered that people in the USA have a real love and appreciation of wire work. I was starting to get people liking my work so, after my business FB page was set up, I decided that I needed my own website. Thank you Amazon for the snappily and erroneously titled ‘Build you own website using Wordpress in a Weekend’. Weekend? A month of Sundays would be nearer the mark. But I persevered, swore a lot more at my computer and eventually managed a store I was relatively happy with. I am proud to say that it is all my own work, and I can amend it whenever I like.
 
I have since rebranded, and reworked my website, photographed and designed my own business cards and supporting documentation. The only thing I did do was to get a logo designed for me, which I then ‘tweaked’ in Photoshop because I wasn’t totally happy with it. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on the internet and at my computer but I have a vision of what I want to do in the future and where I want to be. My journey will have detours, and progress will be erratic. After six months of referrals and ridiculous quotes, my workshop is still a concrete slab with one layer of bricks. It will happen though, when the time is right. I haven’t lost sight of my end goal, which is to be able to share my love or wire work with others through teaching and selling jewellery. One day I might even write a tutorial. 
 
In my short wire journey I have had the immense pleasure of meeting the lady (Nicole Hanna) who I hold totally responsible for being the cause of my wire weaving addiction, and I learnt even more during the course I attended when she came over to the UK. I have created pendants with the incredible designer, Imnium (Ivona Pšak) who is another amazing lady. Ivona is the person who introduced me to the idea of combining silver smithing and wire weaving. The final big influence in my work is Iza Maczyk. Iza is another awesome teacher who has created her own unique style of wire layering. I have been incredibly fortunate to have attended a course and been to the Glastonbury Wire Studio retreat where she was teaching.
 
The most important thing that I have learnt is that I am not alone! There are so many amazing people who will get out the wire and pliers and start making, just for the sheer pleasure of creating something totally unique and beautiful. Thank you to all of you who share your work to inspire others, and thank you to those that take the time to comment on the jewellery that I post on Facebook and occasionally Instagram - it makes my day.

Thank you Kay for your candid biography and sharing your journey to wire with us.  We at the Studio are always humbled by the support we receive from our students and we will be sharing more success stories in the future.

So on December 1st last year (2016) Lonely Soldier Designs released his biggest project yet. In the Studio 01.  It was the culmination of nearly a years worth of hard work from inception to publishing.  Lonely Soldier aka James had decided to tear up the 'rule book' when it came to creating a wire tutorial, he wanted to create the most complete, detailed and thorough tutorial he could think of.  Nothing would be off limits and nothing would be left out.  The result was an epic project but one that's aims were to help wire jewellery designers to understand the way he works and to learn some of the design secrets that make Lonely Soldier such a popular designer to enable them to apply those techniques to their own work.

In the Studio 01 is more than just a step by step project to create a single piece.  All the way through are additional hints and tips to help with work flow, creating those fine details and to improve the quality of finish.  All these come from the designer himself, these are his secrets and discoveries that he has made along the way.  The project takes you through a design but the knowledge contained with in that design should open the doors to anyone who completes it to create their own designs, to use what they have learn to really push their skills.  
The out comes of the project have been amazing!  And we have been delighted to be able to share in the journeys of some of you designers.

All of Lonely Soldier's projects are designed, made, shot, written, laid out and published by the man himself.  Not bad for a dyslexic?!  And there is a new one on its way....

I have compiled a collection of the results of students who have either come and done an In the Studio 01 workshop or those who have bought the tutorial and have shared their work with us through our Facebook groups.  I hope no one minds me sharing their work, if there is an issue then please send me a message and ill remove or adjust if need be.

How to lay this gallery out is proving to be a challenge as there is so much work its brilliant!  I have tried to group them as best I can into first goes, workshop pieces and the follow ups.  This is not meant to be anything other than a celebration of all the amazing pieces and hopefully as a source as inspiration for those who are thinking about attempting the tutorial.  It is worth noting that many of the pieces are made by newbies to wire, especially in the workshops, there were many beginners who came and made an In The Studio 01 piece, with help.

The tutorial is designed and lay out in such away that all you really need is the ability to weave and wrap to a reasonable degree.  Being able to follow instructions helps too but I think that goes with out saying...

These are some of the first pieces to be made following the In the Studio 01 tutorial.  This is not an exhaustive list, there was a class in December who were the first to make it but I have lost their photos. So if anyone wants to add to this gallery then please send me the photos and I will be very happy to make this gallery complete!  I have tried to add captions and links to the designers pages if I have missed anything then please let me know and i'll up date where needed. 

These 3 are l-r Stacy Smith, Missy Lou and Maria Gedo.  They were amongst the first people to complete the tutorial after the release and have gone on to develop the design in their own way, more on that later...  I have pulled their designs out particularly because they were the confidence boost that Jim and I needed when we released the project.  They were proof that we had done something right.  Its not that any of the others weren't proof but these were completed and shared and loved and liked etc as and then we knew that all the hard work had been worth it.  

The tutorial was a big hit and as more people downloaded and bought the book we were asked to create a special group where people could share their pieces and get help if needed. In The Glastonbury Wire Studio group was formed.  This is a closed group so if you haven't already joined then click the link and submit your request, you will need to answer 2 simple questions before your membership is approved but once in you will have the opportunity to share your work, ask questions and see a wealth of inspirational pieces too.  The group is run by me (Tabatha James aka Mrs Lonely Soldier), Jim jai jam Ferris (aka Mr Lonely Soldier) and our good friend Stacy Smith the maker of one of the first In the Studio 01 pendant, boy she is fast!  (pictured above 1st left)

So the finished pieces kept pouring in and being able to collate them together has proved and interesting exercise.  Just to see the variety of work and approaches is fab. They are in no particular order except maybe a slight chronological order.  Each image should be captioned with the name of the designer, when you click on them.

The next images are from a large group that Lonely Soldier taught in Feb 2017.  Some of the students have worked with Jim before and some had started to make jewellery but on student was a complete beginner!  Lonely Soldier has always prided himself on the fact that he is able to help students of all abilities to create his jewellery.  Although it is a tough undertaking for a beginner the results speak for themselves.

On of the most enjoyable ways to learn from Lonely Soldier is in a workshop whether its a 1 to 1, a small group or at one of our retreats.  Lonely Soldier is a passionate teacher and has a LOT of patience and a good sense of humour! Check out the workshops page of the website or get in touch for dates.

What enthuses Jim and I are the multitude of outcomes each really showcasing the particular designers flare and individuality.  I am not sure this is the exhaustive list I have probably missed some out so if you want to submit your design I will happily add it here.  When designers are happy to share their persona work and are proud to say it comes from the tutorial Jim and I are very humbled by the support, we love what we do and we love seeing what you do!

I thought I would leave you with a few of the designs that Lonely Soldier has done as part of the development of In the Studio 01.  

Thank you to all those makers and designers who have shared their work and I hope they don't mind me collating the work here too.
If you are serious about wire jewellery design then we at the Studio are serious about you, we will endeavour to continue to create tutorials and to teach wire jewellery design to the best of our ability, creating clear, high quality tutorials that anyone should be able to have a go at and we are here if you need us to help too.  Join us in the Glastonbury Wire Studio either in a workshop or in our group In the Glastonbury Wire Studio.

This year I wanted to develop a series of blog posts that celebrate those artists who inspire us here at the Studio. I wanted to profile and share the work that really gets our creative juices flowing! There are some many artists that I want to include and I actually tried to start this many months ago but somehow things got in the way and I am only now getting going. Mária kindly wrote her biog from me ages ago so I do apologise to her for taking this long.
Wire work is really having a renaissance at the moment, there are some many amazing designers all working away pushing the boundaries of design. So I hope that these posts prove to be inspirational and diverse and if you see any designers you would like me to take a look at then please send me a link to their pages and i'll have a look.

Mária caught my eye a few months ago when she created the above necklace after completing In the Studio 01 - Lonely Soldier's latest book. Her work is exquisite, expertly finished and with buckets of creativity. She is able to see the possibilities in a design and expand on that. Her pieces are bold and beautiful, something I think comes from her Hungarian/Romanian homeland. I am always fascinated with Eastern European designers, the culture of folk art and craft, the continued celebration of creative talents have led to an enormous pool of amazingly talented designers in beadwork, macrame, soutache and wire work to mention a few. You only have to look through the Beadsmith competition entries to see the quality of the work coming from Eastern Europe and Russia. Mária work continues this trend and I think she very eloquently described her upbringing and what led her to become a jewellery designer amongst other talents!

​Gedő Mária
 
I live in a small town in Transylvania, the region of Romania where almost 2 million Hungarians live, an ethnic minority to which I also belong. My hometown Csíkszereda (HU) or Miercurea Ciuc (RO) is small but very beautiful surrounded by mountains, rivers - I would never consider leaving it.  I am a language teacher, I teach English (EFL) and German (DAF) in a small vocational high school.
 Everyone in my family is a sort of Jack of all trades. My parents let us (me and my two siblings) do whatever we wanted, they let us create all sorts of things and what's most important: they didn't mind if we made a mess in the house. During the Communist era we couldn't afford many things so we had to make them. We knitted, crocheted and sewn clothes, made furniture, carved wood, worked with clay, in other words we made many things we needed and longed for. This way we came across many materials, learned how they behave in our hands and what possibilities lay in them. These helped and still help me in my creative process.
 In my adolescent  years I made my money creating leather jewellery. Then I turned to calligraphy, then to painting glass and ceramics; created batik style Easter eggs which has a tradition here dating back centuries; I also like decorating  gingerbread with royal icing. But my love-at-first-sight-craft is creating wire jewellery. I saw the first piece of wire jewellery on Facebook and felt that I had to make something similar. I have been doing this for about two years and since then I have always been searching for newer and newer techniques. I am self taught but have also learned a lot from three tutorials which I bought but I think the most important instrument is our brain and imagination.
​ I always create my jewellery in my head, I imagine and experiment with wires and sheet metal. I don't intend to copycat anyone but I still consider myself a beginner and still looking for my own style. I am not afraid of experimenting and consider failing and making mistakes a blessing (well, not always) because my mistakes teach me of the nature of the material, of what it lets me do and what it doesn't.
Three wire artists had a great impact on my creative process: IMNIUM (aka Ivona Posavi Pšak), Iza Malczyk and Lonely Soldier Designs (aka James Ferris). Until seeing the first piece of jewellery designed by IMNIUM I only created flat pieces but since then her style influenced me to create 3D designs. Working with coiled coils opened a whole new era for me and I also like working with sheet metal riveting different layers together creating steampunk(ish) designs. I almost always string my pendants on Viking-knit chains because these chains make the whole design complete.
Still got a long way to go but I enjoy every step of it. 

To see more of Gedö's amazing work then head to her Facebook Page there you can see many more of her amazing pieces.

She sells through Easy - check out her jewellery here

​And lastly her personal Pinterest page is a beautiful sight to behold, she is really a very diverse designer and each piece that Gedö makes shows such quality of craftsmanship.

Thank you Gedö for taking the time to share your life and work with me!

​We had a fantastic Big Bead Show at the weekend.  Always inspiring to meet so many talented designers and jewellery makers
One lovely talented designer who is on a mission to promote all things wire and all the people and work she finds inspiring is Gemma Crow.
She is a JM Designer and wire designer extrodinaire
She is also starting a new You tube channel calls Crows Mojo.
​She conducted an interview with Lonely Soldier at the big bead show and you can watch below, don't forget to subscribe to her channel too!