King of Hearts

Intelligent, generous, kind, dedicated, funny, charming and talented are all adjectives I use to describe my friend, Dr. Ron Lehocky. Unless you've been hiding in a cave recently, you've probably read about this Kentucky pediatrician's great passion for raising money to benefit the Louisville Cerebral Palsy KIDS Center. With one heart pin at a time, Ron has raised nearly $80,000 for this deserving organization over the past few years. That's almost 8000 hearts at 10 bucks a pop. He makes each and every one of them himself in his "spare" time and each and every heart is as wonderful and special as he is. The one shown above is a custom sticks and stone heart that he made just for me. It's truly one of my most favorite pieces and it hangs on the wall of my studio with many other hearts I've collected from him over the past few years. I've given a few away as gifts but I just can't bear to part with most of them so my collection (shown here) continues to grow.

You may have read Ron's excellent article "Skinner Blending My Passions" in the February 2009 issue of Polymer Cafe. It provides a wonderful insight into his passion and includes a great tutorial for making a heart of your own.

If you want to read more about Ron and his hearts, see Cynthia's past posts on Polymer Clay Daily here and here.

To purchase one of these wonderful heart pins (which is what I suggest), contact Ron and let him choose something special for you. It will be one of most rewarding $10 purchases you'll ever make.

Heart Attacks

Hearts are everywhere this time of year. Marcia of Mars Design has made two of my favorites. I love this translucent pendant with the heart accents.

And what could be better than a piece of her rainbow peace heart cane?

David Revonav's elegant earrings are perfect for a romantic Valentine's dinner. You know, the kind you enjoyed before kids and life happened to get in the way.

I love this piece from Janet of Chickie Girl Creations . She has such a unique style.

Germany's Susanne Dingendorf created a liquid clay heart as the focal of this beautiful wire-wrapped ring.


It's refreshing to see so many variations on the cookie cutter hearts from long ago. There's definitely no shortage of creativity in the polymer clay community!

Wes' World

If the terms Warrenator, Reducerator, and Kochanator sound like something from another world to you, you may be right. These are all things found in the world of Canada's Wes Warren, polymer clay adventurer, inventor, and cane-maker extraordinaire.

He's made some recent posts on his blog explaining some of the work involved in building extremely precise canes that weigh in at more than 7 pounds. And, believe it or not, bungee cords ARE involved!

A recent YouTube video offers a glimpse into his reduction methods. Prepare to be amazed! For more incredible photos, check out his Flickr site.

A Face in the Crowd

Not only is "A Face in the Crowd" a great title for this blog entry, it's also the name of North Carolina's Julie Eakes' new business. Here's a photo of some of the pieces that I've been lucky enough to collect over the past few years. This talented lady builds some of the most beautiful face canes I've ever seen.

Her newest cane, which she writes about on her blog, is based on a Da Vinci drawing. I think this one is my favorite so far. In addition to being so very talented, Julie is one of the nicest people I know and has a wonderfully fun personality. If you're lucky enough to live in the Albuquerque area, she's planning a class on face canes in March. Further information can be found on her blog.

More off the cuff remarks

I know it hasn't been that long since my last cuff post but, it's been long enough! Long enough for me to find and fall in love with some more fabulous new work. This "Decode" cuff from Austria's Eva Ehmeier is so edgy and cool. Her work has such a clean, modern feel to it.

Rosanna Ohlsson-Salmon is a charming polymer clay artist I just "met" yesterday on Flickr. She describes this wonderful mosaic cuff as something she "made on a rainy day." I describe it as absolutely delicious!

French artist Sylvie Peraud has some wonderful new work on her Flickr site, including this gorgeous bracelet. As usual, her work is beautifully designed and finished to perfection.

I'm beginning to feel the urge to shovel out the mess in my studio and get back to work myself. Anyone have a small dump truck I can borrow?

Ringing in the (Lunar) New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! May the Year of the Ox be a healing one for all of us. Thanks to everyone who sent me get well wishes. I feel as if I've been gone forever but I believe I'm beginning to rejoin the land of the living due in part to all the beautiful new work I've been seeing online. Polymer clay rings, like this one from Susan Turney, are popping up all over the place.

Jana Roberts Benzon has been on a recent ring making binge, as well. This one was made for the lucky man that happens to be her hairdresser.

I ran across this ring from Nemesia while I was checking out some new photos on Flickr. She's been using recycled flatware to make spoon rings and other new jewelry. Very clever!

Seeing all of these rings reminded me of my own collection of rings that I've recently acquired from other artists. I gathered them together to take a group shot and realized just how many creative ways there are to construct these fun jewelry items. Zsuzsa made the green eye ring using a purchased adjustable metal ring blank. I've seen similar blanks for sale from various online companies. The small band ring in the foreground was made by Donna Kato who's been using some sort of ceramic base to form and bake her rings on. Leslie Blackford sculpted this cool party animal and used an oversize o-ring for the band. The pretty ring with the flower cane slices was made by Kathy Caldwell, a member of the Kentucky/Tennessee Polymer Clay Guild. Below is a photo of the socket she confiscated from her husband's tool box and adapted for use as a form to both build and bake her rings on. I love this idea. It would be so easy to make rings in the exact size you need using this method.

I think a trip to the garage to look for a socket set is in order. Keep warm and stay creative!

Edited to add: If you'd like instructions on making the flower and leaf canes like the ones on Kathy's ring, you can find them here.

Kudos to Will for bringing back neck scarves

It's been a while, hasn't it? Thanks so much for all the messages wondering if I've run off to the Caribbean with Vladimir, the pool boy. For those of you who've written and received no response or, a response that's so delayed, you don't even remember why you wrote to me in the first place, I apologize. I'm finding it difficult to maintain my usual pace.

As much as I hate to do it, I have to admit that I'm not the bad-ass warrior I thought I was. For the past 2 or 3 years, I've had some pretty unpleasant symptoms that have progressively gotten worse. I shouldn't have waited so long to go to the doctor. Lesson learned. I've spent the past few months having a lot of tests and enjoying the anxiety that goes along with all of that. On Thursday, my under-performing whacked-out thyroid gland is being removed. I'm looking forward to a much healthier 2009 not only for myself but, for the rest of the country, too.

As soon as I'm feeling up to it, I'll be back. In the meantime, I'm wishing all of you a happy and healthy holiday and all the good times you can handle.

Faeriology

Pittsburgh's Lesley Polinko is one of the most talented people I know. Besides being an incredible sculptor, she's an incredibly nice person with a fantastic sense of humor. You may have seen her "No Fear Sculpting" articles recently in Polymer Cafe .

She has two pieces available right now on Ebay, including this gorgeous ghost fairy just in time for Halloween. Be sure to check out the hot merman, too!

I'm getting ready to head to Mammoth Cave for a retreat and workshop with the Kentucky Tennessee Polymer Clay Guild. Hope you have the perfect fall weekend!

Plum Perfect

Iowa's Keila Hernandez created her "Plum Blossom" necklace after being inspired by a Chinese painter she saw at Baltimore's ACC show. You can read more about the story here. The initial pieces she made have merged into this lovely creation. Kelia's work continues to evolve and I 'm looking forward to seeing more beautiful things from her.

I'd like to end what's been a pretty rotten week on a happy note. After months of dedication, hard work and an extraordinary amount of courage, our good friend Ponsawan Sila finally has her daughter Ada home again! Because Ada has lots of rehabilitation ahead of her and many special needs that must be met, Ponsawan and her family have had to remodel part of their home in order to care for her. This expense, added to the massive medical bills they've incurred, has become an additional burden on a family that's been through more than I can even wrap my brain around.

Give some thought to skipping the next 99 cent clay sale at Michael's and making a donation to help them start to heal. You can go to the blog that Ponsawan started for Ada and click on the link in the top left corner to donate through Paypal.

Hope all of you have a wonderful fall weekend!

Let Freedom Ring!

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth or anything and I appreciate the emails asking where I've been the last couple of weeks. I've been feeling a little wiped out and haven't spent much time on the computer since I returned from Philadelphia. I just wanted to take the time to offer a much belated thank you to one of the most wonderful polymer clay guilds out there. I had such an amazing weekend with the talented ladies in Philly and I got to see some incredible things while I was there. Standing so close to the Liberty Bell was just awe-inspiring and a very moving experience, especially in light of the fact that our country seems to be totally falling apart right now. Not really a big surprise considering the way things have been handled the past few years. That's my fleeting version of a political rant and I'm moving on to more pleasant topics now!

Returning to my weekend in Philadelphia, it was a total affirmation as to why teaching is so incredibly rewarding to me. This gorgeous necklace was made by Barbara Egnor of New Jersey. She approached me first thing Sunday morning to thank me for inspiring her to work in a more organic fashion and for giving her the incentive to abandon her previous ideas of what constituted "perfection". She was so sincere and I was moved to tears to have inspired someone to make something so incredibly special. This piece represented freedom of creativity to her and to me, as well. I think that's truly one of the best gifts we can be given in our artistic journeys. Thank you, Barbara, for allowing me to share this story, and to all the members of the Philadelphia Polymer Clay Guild, your talent, kindness, good humor and generosity will stay with me always. I'm so grateful to you all.

Time in a Bottle

I'm off to the City of Brotherly Love to share my love of polymer clay with the ladies of the Philadelphia guild. I'm leaving a day early so I can take some time to do a little sightseeing. I can't believe I'm going to be standing in front of the Liberty Bell tomorrow morning!

Here's a photo of my newest excuse to keep working with these organic chips. It reminds me of a sea slug. I have pages and pages of designs to try but, to borrow a line from an old Jim Croce song, "there never seems to be enough time to do the things you wanna do once you find them . . "

Have a great weekend!

Enviable Design Skills

I know very little about this talented artist. I believe her name is Ingrid and her native language appears to be German. I'm hoping that some of my international readers will see this and be able to give us a bit more information. I ran across Ingrid through a comment she left on one of my Flickr photos. Her profile on that site gives nothing away. Update: This talented artist is Ingrid Ulrich and she is from Germany. You can read the delightful comment she left by clicking on the comment link at the end of this entry.

I'm smitten with her unique designs and these extruded tubes that she arranges in totally brilliant ways. Seeing such fresh work is a great and inspiring way to start the week.

I hope you'll indulge me in a brief bit of shameless self-promotion today, too. After putting it off for a year or so, I've finally managed to put together a "kimcavender" shop in the vast wilderness of Etsy. I'll be listing more things in the coming weeks and maybe I'll even figure out how to fix that sucky banner I have up there now.

Hope your week gets off to a positive start!

Falling Leaves

As far as I'm concerned, fall can't get here soon enough. It's my favorite time of year and it looks like I'm not the only one who's inspired by the wonderful colors and rich textures that nature shares with us during this season. This wonderful ginkgo necklace is from Delphine Roche de Montgrand of France. Her work is, to put it simply, nothing short of incredible.

Who wouldn't be inspired by Camille Young's expertise with Lumina clay and the way she sews these leaves together to fashion beautiful neck pieces like this lariat? These are amazingly realistic looking leaves and I can almost feel how soft and pliable they are.

Eva Ehmeier of Austria has fallen in love with Louise Fischer Cozzi's etching technique and has created this wonderful stylized leaf necklace. Eva's sense of color and design are pure perfection.

Fall hasn't quite reach the mountains of West Virginia but, I'm waiting patiently and I know that soon I'll be rewarded with glorious colors everywhere I look and that wonderful sense of crispness in the air.

Who says you can't do it all?

Elvira Lopez Del Prado of Spain is out to prove them wrong! This multi-talented lady not only works with polymer clay , she also makes magic with felt, fabric, wire, wood, paper, and metal clay. I'm totally taken with her felt designs and the wonderfully appealing colors she uses.

This piece combines her passion for metal clay and polymer. She has a wonderfully organic sense of design, doesn't she? If you'd like to see more of her lovely work, you can also follow this link.

Until I sat down to write about Elvira, I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd posted an entry on this blog. I've been fixated on some new work I've been doing and when I get in the zone, it's hard to break free and even think about writing or trolling around the Internet. Now, back to the clay table!

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!

Bracelet Envy

I had planned to feature Maureen Thomas and her fabulous work yesterday but the queen of polymer clay blogging beat me to it. I've changed my post to include some exciting new work from other artists but I couldn't leave out this wonderful photo I asked Maureen to send me. I love the organic feel of her jewelry. Maureen told me, "I try to venture out, but texture always seems to work it's way into most of my pieces. I guess it's my 'thing'. My husband is afraid to throw anything away without holding it up first and saying, '....texture????' What a good guy." She's lucky to have a partner that notices the details and takes a real interest in her work.

This breathtaking cuff by Christelle is titled "Dreamtime". She made this piece for the Australian polymer clay guild's competition "Australia Speaks" and her inspiration came from the symbols and patterns of Aboriginal artwork. This is truly one of my most favorite polymer pieces ever! I'd like to grab it right off my computer screen, slap it on my wrist, and run away quickly.

Germany's Bettina Welker has a wonderful new cuff design she's experimenting with, too. I love the unusual shape and the pattern is different and refreshing. As usual, everything Bettina does is beautifully designed and finished.

I'm a sucker for a cool polymer clay bracelet and these amazing pieces have given me major bracelet envy!

Philly's got talent!

They also have a fantastic polymer clay guild, a great website, a blog, a Flickr site just for guild photos, an online newsletter, and 70 over-achieving members to keep it all running smoothly.

This beautiful hollow pendant was created by Martha Aleo, one of the guild's most active members, a very talented mixed media jewelry artist, and a fellow blogger.

Update: This striking jewelry set was made by Patty Pickup.

They have some wonderful show and tell photos from past meetings posted on their website. Unfortunately, I don't have a name to go with this lovely image or for the two below. If you're a member of the Philadelphia guild and/or the artist that created these, please leave a comment so I can fill in the blanks and you can be recognized for your artwork.

Update: The red tile box was created by Dr. Sarah Fisher, who also photographed these three items.

In addition to the Polydelphia Retreat that they host every year, the guild also sponsors several workshops with visiting instructors. I'm thrilled to be heading their way for a workshop the weekend of September 20-21, 2008. We'll have an actual class on Saturday and then on Sunday, I'll be their official "guest artist" and share lots of tips and techniques for creating rocks and beach stones. If you're a member of the guild (I really wish I lived closer!) or considering becoming a member, the price for a whole weekend of polymer clay fun and learning is shockingly reasonable and I'm hoping to see a lot of you there. For more information on joining the Philadelphia polymer clay guild or for registration details on my upcoming workshop, just go to the guild's website and follow the links.



Update: Gwen Agard is the talent behind this striking piece.

Don't forget, I need some names to go with these beautiful images. This one reminds me of aqua terra jasper, a stone that embodies the colors of water and sand. I may just have to claim it as my own if no one comes forward!

A beautiful beginning . . .

. . . to what I hope will be a much better week! This amazing orchid is from Celine (you may know her as Gris Bleu), one of the many talented ladies from France who are doing wonderful and exciting things with polymer clay.

The use of wire in many of her pieces, like this alien poppy, makes for a bold statement. Celine shares snippets of her creative process on her blog and it's definitely worth a visit if you've never checked it out. I adore her work!

It may be several days before I get the chance to make another post. Adam's elusive kidney stones are going to be lasered today and, if all goes well, I should be packed and headed to Louisville by the end of the week for a workshop at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Anyone have a lucky rabbit's foot I can borrow?

Dirty, rotten concretions!

Amelia Earhart once said, "There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls." Unfortunately, my son Adam's kidney stones seem to be the non-rolling variety. They've managed to cause plenty of pain during the past 2 weeks but they don't appear to have any plans for rolling away anytime soon. We'll give it a bit longer but it's beginning to look like surgery is the next step.

I've featured Jay King on my blog in the past and he's become one of my favorite artists. I admire his talent and his wonderful sense of humor. When he heard that Adam was dealing with kidney stones, he created a polymer clay kidney stone just for him and labeled it a "dirty, rotten concretion." It gave us a much-needed laugh. Jay has quite a fan club and the comments under his daily Flickr offerings are almost as witty and wonderful as he is.

Although it clearly states at the top of this page that Imagine Uncommon Things is a blog about "polymer clay, creativity, rocks and other things", kidney stones aren't exactly the kind of rocks I had in mind when I wrote that. So many of you sent nice notes and left comments here when I talked about this last week and I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate all the good wishes you've sent to Adam.

I've had some requests to list my teaching schedule so I added a few upcoming classes right under my mug shot. You can drop me a line if you want info on the particulars for any of these events. I'll have more dates to add soon.

Playing with Fantasy

"It's my escape from myself, my salvation and despair happiness and boundless longing for the unhappened. It's like expectation as well."

Speaking about her work, this quote is from Olga Roehl, maker of some of the most extraordinary art dolls I've ever seen. It took me a long time to savor all the amazing images found on her site like these masks and the piece below, titled "Blue Windy".

When I see sculptural work like this, I'm in total awe. If you're looking for a head start on weekend web surfing, I highly recommend losing yourself in the beauty and fantasy that Olga creates.