A Clay Day

Learning is one of my absolute favourite things. As mentioned yesterday, I only took one workshop in 2011 however, this year seems set to make up for last year's lack. I've booked three one-day workshops at ArtFest in March, a four-day workshop in May with Marcy Tilton and Diane Ericson, and took a private, all day, polymer clay workshop yesterday with...

... Carolyn Good of 2 Good Claymates. One part of my Christmas present from Howard was this beautiful shawl pin made by Carolyn whose studio is forty-five minutes from Kamloops. That was close enough for a clay day so I wrote and asked and we booked it for yesterday which seemed like the perfect start to a creative year. LOL - and I finally opened a package of clay.

Carolyn has a small but incredibly well organized clay studio. She's been working with clay for six years, the last three creating products to sell wholesale and at shows as well as producing tutorials for sale via her blog. She's highly entrepreneurial. We think a lot alike and are a similar age which was a nice combo for two women spending the whole day together in a small space.

Everywhere you look in her studio there is eye candy from jewelry findings to polymer canes to buttons to completed jewelry to spacer beads to convection ovens to photo taking equipment and the list goes on. I'm sure we could have spent the day simply going through drawers and I'd have been thrilled and learned lots.

Clay reminds me of fabric dyes. You can mix colors by the wing it and see what happens method or by the scientific formulamatic one. The clay cubes on the shelf above are basic colors. At the front of the picture, you can see discs of mixed colors. If you could look closer at the page, you'd see a recipe beside each disc and instructions on how to mix that exact color. That's far and beyond the direction I see my work going in at this moment but I've learned never to say never. After years of protesting, I did eventually dye fabric so it could happen.

All the videos I'd watched and the blogs and books I'd read were excellent prep work and gave me enough of an understanding to make sense of the direction we were moving in. Above, I'm mixing two colors together in what's called a skinner blend. By running the clay through the pasta machine over and over using a repetitive folding motion, you end up with...

... this. Isn't it pretty? On each end is the pure color and through the middle are the gradations. It's similar to - and a lot faster than - a ten step dyeing method. Once again, I'm intrigued by the very strong correlation between clay and textiles. A lot of the techniques, the ways of thinking, and the types of workshops available are very similar to what I have studied or taught before.

Once made, the skinner blend was formed into this cinnamon bun-like roll called a cane. This one is a spiral cane and is especially big. There's a method for gradually rolling and reducing the cane to a longer, narrower, more useful shape. The yellow in this cane was quite hard and didn't want to reduce down easily. The properties of clay remind me of the properties of prepared for dyeing fabrics. Each has its pros and cons. It's a version of the fabric factor in fashion sewing.

I made a second, smaller cane working from turquoise to fuchsia combined with black (no surprise there) and then used slices to begin work on this veneer. Actually, at this point Carolyn was cutting and talking and I was mostly listening. It was the end of the day and I was nearing the wet noodle stage - read useless - LOL.

Slices of the second cane were wrapped around a core bead and flattened to make these square beads. I think they're gorgeous but then I'm biased. It turns out that I've forgotten everything I knew from the days of playing with Silly Putty. Back then, I know for sure that I used to make a gazillion little eggs for the bird's nests and now, I can't roll a round ball. Mine all turn out elongated which means I need to practice rolling balls if I want to cover beads. Who knew it was a skill you'd forget.

Here's the earlier veneer slices used in several ways. On the left is a strip removed from the edge of the piece far right. The tube standing up is the original cane. The triangle shaped piece in the middle is a method we experimented with because I plan to switch out the cabochon in the middle with textile work and was interested in how the bezel like frame around the outside functioned and in how to add the holes for stringing. Layers. How typically often that's the answer!

On the drive home, my mind was buzzing with ideas AND... I'm keeping several things in mind including that I tend to go overboard with the accumulation of supplies and information before determining if I really, truly, like the new technique that I'm learning and whether it has any longevity. The point of this adventure is to combine the clay with textiles so my next step will be to try exactly that and see what kinds of focal points I can create before I go crazy making supporting structures like...

... these basic and somewhat boring and incredibly labour intensive tube and rondelle spacer beads which I may not make at all because several questions to answer are what portions of the jewelry will I purchase and what portions will I create and what will the resulting price point be and is that price point doable? These are good questions. While I want my work to be enjoyable, I'm approaching this as a business and the bottom line is that a business that makes money is a success and a business that does not is not - all love and learning aside.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - private workshops. They're my favourite kind.

P.S. The personal growth category is one I'm getting back to this year and hope will be sustained now that life seems to be flowing better again. You can read about how it originated in this posting.

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Personal Growth - Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. - Psalm 37:3-5

These verses are often misinterpreted as some form of manipulation to force God to give us what we want. I originally understood them to mean that if I wanted some thing and prayed about it and asked God to be involved in it, then of course it would happen. Not so. That was a rather immature way of looking at things.

The Message version of the bible writes those same verses this way - Get insurance with GOD and do a good deed, settle down and stick to your last. Keep company with God, get in on the best. Open up before God, keep nothing back; he'll do whatever needs to be done: He'll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon.

What these verses are talking about is to be satisfied with what God has given us, to commit ourselves to following Him, and to recognize that He will shape our heart's desires. I have always been both creative and entrepreneurial. I see how things go together, how they are created and could be improved, and I love to support and encourage others in that learning. These are God given skills that I am thankful for and am able to use here on the blog and that is good and enough and even so, I'm intrigued to see what direction He leads me in over this next year.