Reaching for something from the backburner...

I went to Santiago Chile last year and was on a walking tour that included a whirlwind visit to the National Art Gallery. There was an amazing exhibit on Woven Plant Fibers.  I was transfixed and regretting that my carry-on baggage wouldn't allow me to purchase a sample from the gift shop. I would have loved to loiter but walking tours wait for no one. I back-burnered this for the blog AND for something I'd like to pursue. I think polymer and woven plant fibers have a lot of possibilities. 

I've discovered that I live close to outstanding basket makers who offer workshops so I have something new to explore this fall!

Inky Inspiration

Last fall I was lucky enough to observe Maureen Carlson give a demo on alchohol inks on polymer. After dabbling here and there through the year I've been using inks extensively lately- painting on fired clay and layering with foils and translucent clay. I'm getting cool effects with my collection of hand carved rubber stamps too! Here's a Fusion Bangle done with inks painted on  fired clay. 

Peeking into Sketchbooks

I was delighted to see Suzanne Ivester's article on sketching and polymer clay in this month's International Polymer Clay /Association Newsletter! It shows some of the inner workers of 3D artists' sketchbooks including my own... I have to admit it's a bit weird seeing your "notes to self" out there for the world to see! I'm glad I used a different page for my grocery or wine store list when I was working on "Arbutus". It is a great article and what a fun project to explore on an even larger scale!

It was a timely reminder to me to pack my sketchbook as I travel to Calgary and Banff for a few days.
(Go Canucks!... )

Polymer Clay and UV Resin- Avoid the voids

Here's a helpful tip for those of you pouring uv resin on top of polymer clay in bezels. Put a drop of cyanoacrylate glue in the bezel before you press in the clay. It will form an important seal between the metal and the clay. If you don't there's a chance some resin can creep under the clay in a nice dark location far from any pending UV rays. The piece is cured but unbeknownst to you there's a slippery layer of resin in a void under the clay. Eventually the pendant or earrings will be in a vertical position and gravity will draw the liquid resin downward and the uncured resin will seep out from beneath the polymer clay 

and cured resin, it presents a sticky situation that you want to avoid!

The cool image is a T-shirt designed by Ron Marton  in the terrific RedBubble website. His iHac T gave me a good morning pc chuckle. I have a friend in Morrisburg who would love it!

A Family of Muses

These aMusing ladies have kept me busy over the past two weeks! Although two of them are still fussing about their hair and want some beaded dreads and another one has a gripe about her underpinnings I managed to round them up this morning for a group shot. The entire entourage  will be heading for a debut at the Island Artisans Cooperative Gallery at Dale's Gallery on Fisgard for the summer.
As I have a lot of travel plans through the summer these days are a whirlwind of production so I will have lots of items to send along to my galleries and shops as the busy season rolls up!

On a bittersweet note, these will likely be my last Muses as I have a few artistic detours coming up- stay tuned!

Sassafras Copper Workshop-

I thoroughly enjoyed the Copper Workshop at Sassafras Art Studio yesterday. I had planned to try my hand at making findings but I got caught up in a dangly earring fervor and came home with some components that I turned into earrings this morning. I have a pendant and another pair of earings in the to-do area of my worktable.
The good news is that the kiln at Victoria Art Glass is available for firing metal clay pieces for an incredible cost of $5.00 per load. I have a nice supply of copper clay and I plan to make some pieces and have them fired there.... it's a few minutes from Mayfair shopping Mall too so I can multi-task!

Once again- many thanks to Tiffany for a terrific workshop! I highly recommend one of her metal clay classes. Even without a Groupon deal it's time and money very well spent!  

Workshop Day!

Today I'm going to take a Copper Clay Workshop with Tiffany from Sassafras Art Studio- this was a great Groupon find! I started the year on fire for working with metal clay but after all my experiments I hit a wall when I realised I needed to buy a very pricey kiln to be able to pursue my interest. I found myself refocused on polymer clay again when I began to work with inks after my trip to the Morrisburg Gathering in Ontario....I digress. This workshop will be fun and getting it as a Groupon deal was timely. My hope is to pick up some techniques for making findings to accent polymer clay--- there's a certain project I have in mind that needs some dramatic handcrafted end caps and a toggle clasp.

VERY exciting news!

I'm a member of the Island Artisans Association and we are lucky to have the opportunity to sublet Dales Gallery in the bustling Chinatown district of downtown Victoria for the summer! We have an energetic steering committee who is doing an amazing job organizing the co-operative infrastructure of the endeavor and at last count 18 members who will be displaying work for sale. The grand opening will be Canada Day- July 1st!

I'm working hard to have a selection of items to add to what will be a stunning array of Island Craft.

New Piece-

Here's the latest piece- a diptych- 2 8x8" panels. I've always loved this motif and I think this is my favourite version. A simple title- "The Home Stream".