by Rachael Chapman | Jun 30, 2023 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman
I want to say “this was another fun week of play”….but maybe that diminishes the process. With hindsight it’s true, but I am writing these posts several weeks after the online workshop and group crit. In the lead up, I’m always pushing...
by Grace Yu Piper | Jun 30, 2023 | Grace Yu Piper, Handshake8
We have just wrapped up 10 sessions with the fantastic Estela Saez. Sometimes it was crazy fun and other times it was deeply challenging. My practice is very material based, I am obsessed with stone and reluctant to work with other...
by Rachael Chapman | Jun 29, 2023 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman
Weirdly, going back to the material that started this whole crazy mid-life career change, was kinda challenging. My little world had been so consumed with plastic’s and soft materials that I was a bit anxious getting back on the tools. To combat this, I spent a bit...
by Fran Carter | Jun 29, 2023 | Fran Carter, Handshake8
We are now marching down the path into winter here in Aotearoa, New Zealand and we have now come to the end of our online Masterclass Zoom sessions with Estela Saez-Vilanova. As new handshake mentees, we began our time with Estela in late Summer in February. It was...
by Rachael Chapman | Jun 28, 2023 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman
I’ve loved all the little exercises we’ve been given to prompt ideas. For example: Drawing with our eyes closed. Drawing or Making with a word in mind They’re great to stop being overwhelmed when presented with a new project. I often think big, wild and whacky,...
by Lisa van Hulst | Jun 28, 2023 | Handshake8, Lisa van Hulst
I am so grateful for the energy of Estela Saez and the Handshake group during this series of workshops in what has been a difficult year for me personally. The spirit of generosity has been overwhelming as we’ve worked together through what has been frustrating,...
by Rachael Chapman | Jun 27, 2023 | Sample
I’m no stranger to working with soft plastic, yet still it surprises me. Honestly, there wasn’t an in-depth thought process to choose a material when Estela asked us to bring along something we had a lot of to the next workshop. A pallet of something had...
by Rachael Chapman | Jun 25, 2023 | Handshake8, Rachel Chapman
Nelson Jewellery Week – April 2023 Fun times in Nelson with Denise Callan and I wearing borrowed brooches as part ‘A Jewellers Game’ at Arden. Denise wears a Victoria Macintosh brooch Denise is laughing so hard in this shot she’s a blur in the...
by Nellie Peoples | Jun 22, 2023 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples
After our usual feedback session about the previous week’s homework, the series of five rings, we were straight into inquiry through making. Estela had us return to the material that we conducted numerous experiments weeks earlier. I returned to steel signs my...
by Fran Carter | Jun 3, 2023 | Fran Carter, Handshake8
Suddenly we are at that point in the year where we wonder how we are now halfway through it! Feeling the centrifugal force of time consolidating at speed and everything happening all at once. Well, that has been my feeling anyway as I have been thrust from bouts of...
by Nellie Peoples | Jun 1, 2023 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples
In this class with Estela we were all excited to be moving into making something wearable, a ring. Although in our previous classes we were not directly making wearable objects, we each had times where the objects we created moved into that space. It seemed we could...
by Nellie Peoples | Jun 1, 2023 | Handshake8, Nellie Peoples
In this class with Estela we moved back into two dimensions, after we had explored object making in the last few sessions. I thoroughly enjoyed the play between making objects, to then create drawings, and back again. The oscillation between drawing and objects was...
