Need a little retreat?

I know I do! The Kentucky-Tennessee Polymer Clay Guild is sponsoring their fourth (I think) annual retreat at one of the most awesome places in the eastern United States, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. The dates for this event are October17-19, 2008. Marla Frankenberg will be there teaching workshops on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. She'll be covering her unique and oh-so-amazing caning techniques for flowers, ferns, leaves, and the fabulous dots which we all adore. I'm crashing the party on Saturday night to teach a class myself.

I can't think of a more relaxed and stress-free environment than the one at Mammoth Cave. The members of the KTPCG are wonderful and talented and so much fun! Because of the space limitations, they only have room for 30 people at the retreat and the last I heard, there were only 6 spots left.

Here's what I'll be teaching and since we'll be getting all dotty with Marla, you'll be able to embellish your pendants just like I have here.

Here's a few more details if you want to snag a spot before they're all gone. The cost for 3 days of non-stop claying is $150 and each attendee is also responsible for their own food and lodging at the Mammoth Cave Park Hotel. The food at the hotel is great and the rooms are clean and well-priced at a special rate of $59 per night for this event. To register for the workshop/retreat, you can contact Leslie Blackford. Yes, she'll be there, too and I won't blame you a bit if you decide to skip my class on Saturday and just gather around her workspace to watch her make some magic. Reservations for a room at Mammoth Cave Hotel can be made at 1-270-758-2225.

Hope to see some of you there!

When Pigs Fly

Today is a sad day for millions of George Carlin fans. The comic genius passed away yesterday evening at the age of 71. I adored his off-color, irreverent humor and although I know it was too explicit for some people, I loved the fact that he poked fun at the truth in ways that I sometimes found shocking and pretty twisted. I went to see him perform many years ago and got to hear his "incomplete list of impolite words". I still laugh when I think about him rattling those off. If you've never heard this part of his routine and think you can handle it, click here. I recommend not having children in the room while you're listening to this. It's full of "bad words" so don't watch it if you have delicate sensibilities about that sort of thing.

I guess I have a bit of the twisted thing going on too, especially late at night when I'm surrounded by funny people like Marla Frankenberg. The above photo is our version of a flying pig, aka Heavenly Ham, that we made after a weekend workshop that Marla did here in WV. I keep it hanging in my studio as a reminder that sometimes life is so absurd all you can do is laugh.

Toni Ransfield from New Zealand has a much more elegant take on the flying pig theme. This one is made around a real chicken egg.

We're all familiar with the whole idea of the phrase "when pigs fly" as a comment on an absurd notion but maybe it's become a bit trite and overused. Perhaps, "when pigs dive" may be a more up-to-date choice in today's world.

May your day be filled with much laughter and minuscule amounts of absurdity.

Spring is in the air . . .

. . . and I've got flowers to share! And then, it's back to the tax tables for me.

Flowers are a recurring and popular theme in most types of art and polymer clay is no exception. There are so many different ways to bring a flower to life using clay. These are just a few of my favorites. Not a lot of words, just a lot of floral goodness to feast upon!

This cherry blossom cane is from Olga Ostapenko, who lives in Russia. Her cane work is incredible (check out the geisha cane ) and she makes some wonderfully delicate necklaces, as well, using sculpted roses.



Pittsburgh's Marla Frankenberg used some of her incredible cane slices to make this dimensional pansy, complete with it's own personal ladybug. These were originally made for embellishments on a beautiful box she created for Kato Polyclay's exhibit at the CHA show a few years ago. Marla, you should make more of these!


Leigh Ross, of New Jersey, made all the flowers, including the bouquets and centerpieces, for her daughter's wedding. But, she made them out of polymer clay! Incredibly beautiful work and I don't even want to think about how many hours she spent on these. What a lucky daughter Leigh has!
Another artist who's doing some amazing life-like sculptures of polymer clay flowers is Gloria Spruiell of Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to this stargazer lily, she has several arrangements on her Flickr site that you'll swear must be real flowers. While you're there, look at her polymer clay food, too. She's got an awesome talent!


No post on flowers would be complete without a photo of the wonderful things that Barb Fajardo is doing. She uses various surface designs to create amazing sculptural-like flowers. Barb has an interesting post on her blog about the progression her flowers have taken over time. She is truly an original and innovative artist.

When I started writing this post, I had no plans at all to include these photos but, mentioning Marla's box for the CHA exhibit made me remember my own rather "unique" entry, the "Bloomin' Butthead". It has flowers (sort of) and I had a lot of fun making it. This box is about 9 inches tall and it's all clay. As I've probably mentioned before, I'm definitely not a sculptor but even so, I'm still trying to figure out WHY I didn't win. Hey Donna, I think I was ripped off!

Hope all of you are starting to see the first signs of Spring!

A Special Synergy Offer

Several years ago, I tried the Krafty Lady Art Moulds from Australia and fell in love with them! These are, without a doubt, the best molds that I've ever used with clay. They're flexible, silicone-based molds that need no release agent and can be used with practically any art material you can think of. You can also bake both liquid clay and regular clay in them. I was so impressed with these molds that I've been selling them at workshops and retreats ever since. I'll also have them available at the upcoming Synergy Conference for the NPCG during vendor fair. The above photo is an incredible example of what you can do with these molds. This piece was made by my very talented friend Michelle Zimmerman, who used four different molds to create this amazingly cool piece of art. Michelle is a talented sculptor who is actually responsible for creating one of my favorite molds in the Krafty Lady line, the baroque torso, which now comes in three sizes. She's used the larger size in this piece which is now hanging in my studio.

This piece from Marla Frankenberg is another favorite using the baroque torso. I love the "tattooed lady" effect. And here are a few pendants I've made using the regular torso mold. This mold is available in a set containing both a front and a back but is also sold separately. I used only the front of the mold in these pieces.

There are hundreds of molds available and rather than show up with just a small variety to choose from, I've recently been offering the students in my classes the opportunity to pre-order exactly what they would like. I would like to make that same offer to those of you who are attending Synergy next month. Here's your chance to get the molds you'd like at a cost that's less than retail and with no shipping fees. All you need to do is to go to the website of After Midnight Art Stamps (the U.S. distributor of the molds) and send me the stock number and description of what molds you would like. For example, "AM 123 angel wings". The prices that you see on the site are what I'll be charging for those that send me their order by Tuesday, January 29th. I'll order the molds next week, pay the shipping and handling costs myself, and send you a total via e-mail before the conference. Simply bring a check or cash to the conference and you can pick up your molds from me during the vendor fair. There's no need to pay in advance and this offer is only valid for those who are attending the Synergy conference. For those who don't wish to pre-order, I'll also have a selection of molds available for purchase at the regular retail prices.

I've heard nothing but good things from people who've purchased the molds in the past so if you'd like to comment on them here, feel free to do so.

And, I'd like to say a special thank you to the wonderful members of the Orlando Polymer Clay Guild who attended my workshop this past weekend. This is the second time I've had the opportunity to share a classroom with this group and their kindness, generosity, and talent are simply incredible! I love you all! Their annual retreat, Orlando Clay Fandango (formerly known as Florida in February) is coming up March 13-17 and I believe there are just a few spaces left if you're interested.

Bad Santa!

How best to traumatize small children? Force them to have their picture taken with Santa Clause, of course! My friend Marla Frankenberg sent me a funny email that contained these pictures and many others and it made me wonder why we force our children to sit on the lap of a bizarrely-dressed stranger when they obviously want no part of it.

There are exceptions, of course. My oldest son was never afraid of Santa. He's 17 years old now and I'm sure he'll love me for this but, here's a photo of Daniel when he was 8 months old sitting on Santa's lap for the first time. We literally had to pry him away from the jolly old elf. He adored him! I remember this day like it was yesterday. Hope you're all making wonderful memories this year and having a fantastic holiday!

Stuff to do!

I'll try to get back here by Friday, or Monday at the latest. I've got lots of things I need to clear off my work table and I've been putting it off for way too long. In the meantime, here are a few links to check out.

If you want to create a masterpiece like this one, check out Mr. Picasso Head. Silly, but fun!

This poptart from Mossy Owls looks good enough to eat! Michael is doing some lovely work and I really enjoy her blog posts as well. You can find her work for sale on Etsy.

Molly McMahan from Molymer Clay (what a fantastic name!) has turned me on to On My Desk. I have no idea why I'm interested in what's on the desk of total strangers, whether they're creative or not, but I've been enjoying it nonetheless.

And then there's Monkee Maker. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I loved monkeys a lot. The funny lady behind Monkee Maker knits adorable monkeys and takes them on hysterical little mini adventures which she photographs along the way. She's got a great sense of humor! Thanks to Marla Frankenberg for another wonderful monkey link to add to my collection.

China Markers

Several months ago, I noticed a post on a polymer clay newsgroup from Oklahoma's Belinda Birnbaum about using china markers to tint translucent polymer clay. I was intrigued since I really wasn't sure what a china marker was and even more intrigued when I saw her beautiful finished beads. Belinda, whose first passion is jewelry design, has worked with polymer clay for less than two years. She was doing some experimentation with colored pencils and picked up one of the china markers (aka a grease pencil) by mistake. She "scribbled" on unconditioned translucent clay and mixed the color in during the conditioning process. I loved the results that she got and wrote to her for permission to post her discovery here.

While I was waiting for a reply from her yesterday, I went to my local craft store looking for china markers and purchased what I thought Belinda had used to make her beads. After talking to her again, it was obvious that I had not made a wise shopping decision. The pens I bought were Pebeo Vitrea 160, actually meant for painting glass and crystal. You can see how I thought I was buying china markers, right? My first thought was to return them. But I decided to follow Belinda's lead and do some experimentation. If it didn't work out, I would coerce my boys into using them to decorate a gift for their grandmother. I spent a few minutes yesterday evening with an old translucent cane and the two markers I bought and here are my sample chips.

I used a small brush to apply the expressed green ink to a translucent cane slice, let it dry (just took a couple of minutes), and then burnished it, ink side down, onto another piece of clay. You can also see an unpainted slice at the top. I placed a painted cane slice onto gold leaf to see if the color was transparent enough to allow the leaf to show through. It was. I used a ball stylus to scribble on a piece of white clay and then encased it with translucent.

So, maybe my shopping mistake has some possibilities. There's still much to explore. If anyone else has worked with these pens or the Pebeo paints and would like to share their discoveries, please feel free to comment.

I want to thank Belinda for the inspiration to experiment with the Pebeo pens and for generously sharing her china marker discovery. I think both of these products are worth a closer look if you enjoy doing translucent layering and they may be compatible with liquid clay, as well. Perhaps you could use them to draw between layers of cured liquid. I hope you'll follow the wonderful example she's shown and not be afraid to experiment with products you already have. If it doesn't work out, learn from it, toss it (or not), and try something else. The only way we can grow as artists is to be fierce (thank you, Tyra Banks!) in our dedication to learning as much as we can about the materials we work with. Don't spend all your time reading about it or talking about it. Get your hands dirty! And to clean them afterwards, Marla Frankenberg highly recommends this stuff.

Going Dotty!

One of the best classes I've ever taken was a workshop with the marvelous Marla Frankenberg. When I first saw her dotty canes a few years ago during a demo at Shrinemont, I just loved them. And now, she's doing much more with them. They've become her trademark and she's incorporated them into most of her newest work. They create such wonderful movement and flow through all of her jewelry.

I'm excited to hear that one of her newest workshop offerings is based on caning with dots. The possibilities for this technique seem endless to me.

Marla will be teaching a week-long workshop at Arrowmont October 21- 27. For more info on what you'll learn, go to http://www.arrowmont.org/

You can email Marla for upcoming class information

and see more of her wonderful work here.