Ancient? Vintage? Modern?

Really had fun with rings today. Creating these big Polymer Clay rings made me think of old as well as modern. While something can't be called Ancient unless its hundreds of years old, and Vintage needs to be at least 30 years old, then these rings have at least an ancient and vintage flair about them.

I made some polymer clay resin cabochons, used some milifiori and some glass...

I have some of the commercial glue on re-sizable rings, but didn't like their look, so made re-sizable shanks with wire inserts. I know that in the photo it looks like just a ring being held in place with a clay strip, but the shanks actually have prongs that are embedded solidly within the clay. The rings are then baked and after cooling I apply further embellishment on the back, so the wire inserts aren't visible. One size fits all.

What do you think?

Monday Night Clayamies Chat

I would like to extend a invitation to all to join a real time chat held each Monday evening using MSN messenger. In order to join the chat you need to get hold of a member and they will add you to their contact list. In case you aren't running messenger here is a link to the download.
http://download.live.com/?sku=messenger .The chat beings between 5-6pm PST and around 8pm EST. The group of chatters is diverse and interesting from across Canada. We chat about clay and our every day lives. It is a lot of fun if not a little confusing the first couple times you join in. It helps when everyone types in a different text colour and when you are clearly identified by your name.

Come and join us and have some giggles!

A Maple Leaf on a Saltspring Shore...

I took a photo of a little red maple leaf on the shore at Vesuvius on Saltspring Island last October. This week I did a little digital tinkering and snipping with scissors to come up with this little 4x4 canvas. It's heading out to Artemsia Gallery in Westport Ontario to show a little of the west coast's fall colours.

Good morning clayers,

How is everyone doing this very cool fall morning?

I have some pictures to share with you and hopefully I will be able to upload them. So please be patient with me as I am not a computer techie. The one picture is of some jewellery display ladies that I bought in the Dollorama, I am going to try them out and see how well they display my jewellery, they were only $2.00. I thought perhaps some of you might be interested in them.

The other pictures are of my little ladies that I made for the show in The Art Gallery in Lindsay.

Have a great day!!!

Amy

Hi from Carolyn

Hi all!  This blog is a really great way to keep in better touch with all our members.  Thanks Tina for getting things going!

Since Dave and I moved to the interior of B.C. (from the coast), we've had a very full and exciting summer. We were busy with building our deck and yard work with some time out to enjoy the wonderful lakes and parks nearby. The weather was extremely hot the whole summer with over 3 weeks straight of +40 C temperatures and so was impossible to work with any clay during those days. We finally managed to have our air conditioning installed which brought great relief! Besides the heat we were surrounded with 3 major forest fires for over 3 weeks which was a little nerve wracking and difficult to breath with all the smoke.

On the brighter side, I had the opportunity to be in my first juried art show. It is a large one that has been going for 26 years. With so many talented artists in the area I felt it was a real honor to not only have all 4 pieces accepted but to receive an award for one of the entries -- a coffee table I tiled with polymer clay.  You can read about it on our blog by clicking on the photo:

There are 2 members of the clayamies that inspired me to do this table. One person is Nancy who some time ago showed our Vancouver guild how to make stamped mosaic tiles. I loved the concept of mosaic tiling with polymer clay and thought of all sorts of projects to work on with this technique, one of which was an antique coffee table I purchased that was in need of refinishing. Then someone told me about Krista Wells and her book, Polymer Clay Mosaics, which was full of inspiration and ideas. 

Since I was the first and only polymer clay artist to enter this show, I was asked to give a demonstration for one afternoon.  I showed how I made my canes and had quite a crowd of people who were all wide eyed and excited as they had never seen anything like it before.  It was such a good experience, I'm already looking forward to next year. 

I've since been busy with creating a wide range of buttons, beads and jewelry pieces specializing more into animal prints.

Clay?? What's that?

I haven't done much clay this summer because I've been away from home a lot. Visits with my mother in Pennsylvania, an emergency trip to Arizona to help out my dad, a great vacation in Newfoundland, and now I have an adorable, time-consuming puppy!! You can see impossibly cute pictures of the baby plus a post about the Newfoundland trip on my blog.

I did get to take an interesting clay workshop with Ronna Sarvas Weltman at Polymer Clay Express in Maryland and I taught my guild members how to make my "fancy hat" Bottles of Hope at our August meeting.

Why We Make Art

A couple of years ago someone forwarded me an email with a link to a site called Daily Good. They send out a daily newsletter highlighting good things that are happening in the world. Wow! What a concept! At the time I was really in need of some good news, having been bombarded with all the sad things we see and read daily. I signed up for the newsletter and have enjoyed a little pick me up every day since!

One of the latest issues highlighted an interview with 7 artists who were asked why they make art. Here is the link: Daily Good

I hope you enjoy the varied perspectives and get yourselves hooked on the Good News too!

On the clay front, here is one of my latest pieces. I had a blog review my work and host a giveaway draw for one of my Mandala necklaces. The orange/yellow one is the sample I made for myself. The blue/green one is the winner's. She sent me 7 words describing sentiments that are important in her life and chose a color scheme for me to make her personal Mandala. It was a fun and rewarding experience.

Hi to Clayamies

Just got twigged on to this blog...thanks Tina and everyone who set it up and is looking after it!

I'ts been rather cool here in the Peg and we just started having 'summer' about two weeks ago, now that fall is less than two weeks away.

I've been busy on Saturdays at the Waterfront Market in the smaller town of Selkirk about fifteen minutes from our home and it's been fun. The market is in its first year of operation and had some initial start up issues, but it's going smoothly now. Of course one of the reasons why it had issues was that the first six weeks were either too wet or too windy to set up the tents properly, and some folks who didn't have proper anchoring for their tents had things blowing all over.

This neckpiece I made this week is a fun thing I kinda made up on the spur of the moment. I simply created one focal thing and two of everything else and strung it on some buna with a funky closure on the back making its length adjustable. It goes with everything, and I am thinking of all the new 'fall' colors of aubergine, pomegranite and what was that other one...mustard? Who knows. But this will match 'em all.

I've also been making lots of journals. I am also doing some art journaling (painting and calligraphy) when I have time. It's a bit messier than clay in some ways. The other day I got together with some of my former teaching buddies and of course my fingers were all stained. They laughed and said they wouldn't recognize me if I didn't have paint or ink all over my hands. Some things never change.

Anyway, it's great to have this blog set up and I hope to be able to keep up with posting on a fairly regular basis.

Hi from Tina! and a giveaway...

It's been quite a busy summer around here, and a lot of projects on the go and not enough time to get pictures of everything. Tourism has taken a bit of a tumble all over Canada, I've noticed it because haven't had a problem finding parking spots in town, lol.

About tumbling, one of my interests are beach rocks and with excellent beachcombing around here collected amassed a large amount of beach pebbles that I use for inspiration for making my own out of polymer clay. Currently I'm doing a guessing game and giveaway on my blog (just scroll down the last few entries there for details). Here is one that could be the one for the Giveaway, on one of my new cards. Also a tray of pebbles in progress. I need more colours.

Summer of PC

Hi everyone..
Well I have to admit, I have been pretty dormant when it came to working with PC. To many things happening in my life, aka daughter, work.. you know the usual procrastinations. Finally decided that I needed to get the creative juicies flowing, and thinking I could just jump back in... everything I touched was a TOTAL flop... feeling very discourage, Vanessa paid me a visit, and VOILA.. back in the game. She truely got me inspired again, heart racing, the anticipation, and praying to the oven gods not to let your work burn.
So what have I come up with.. well have been making what I call tattoo pendents... for those who don't know me, I personally have 11 tattoos on my body, but many people out there think tattoos are cool, but don't want to have one permanently.. so this was my solution:


The only issue I have is , I can't keep them... I show them to people and all I have left to show is $$ in hand and a pretty picture .. how horrible I know! LOL

Besides the pendents, I have once again started making my Santas.. it has been a long journey to make these little guys again, but they make me smile again. Those pics to follow..

I've also started creating vessels (inspiration brought on by Vanessa) and adding a miniature scenery on the lids. Currently a work in progress...

And that folks has been my summer with PC...It's great to be back. Oh I should add that as I have been creating, my little one is a pc lover in the making... She's a hoot to watch when she is in her uhm 'creative process'

Hi from Vanessa

Hello there! I'm thrilled to be here participating in this wonderful group blog. I'm looking forward to all of the posts that everyone will be contributing. I think we are off to a great start. I had a quiet relaxing summer spent mostly at home. I did make a road trip to Tofino to visit with Tina for a couple days in early July. We had a great time visiting, claying, and exploring some of the gorgeous west coast beaches and old growth forest. I also drove the other direction and visited with Gen over a couple different weekends. I was able to spend large amounts of time working in my studio and thoroughly enjoyed it. I took a couple breaks from creating during the heat wave we had here. Here are a couple pictures of some of my recent creations, many more pictures on my blog. I have spent the last several months experimenting with different vessel, shapes, sizes and construction. There will be more vessels on the way after a short break to adjust to working again. Ahh summer was wonderful, no schedule to keep and as much clay time as I wanted!

Keep on creating!

Work in Progress...

Hi All!

I'm so glad that we're reconnecting this group again! Tina, kudos for doing this...many thanks!

My summer was crazy busy. I did Filberg Festival again and it was fun, though a bit down in sales for the past couple of years. Kind of understandable as the sign of the times.

Presently, I'm building stock for 2 big shows this year, Circle Craft in Vancouver and Art Market in Calgary. Can't believe the first show's in 2 months! Yikes! So glad my son's now in Grade One, finally I can work all day! My first project for the christmas season? Christmas canes, of course! Not really that fun to make these when it's sunny and warm outside! *LOL*

Salut/Hello!

From violette, vio and vioiv. I spent the summer claying and completed a bunch of bottles of hope. In other words, I got to play around with all kinds of surface techniques, had fun with moulds and stamps, and used up some old canes.

De violette, vio et vioiv. J'ai fimoté tout l'été, le projet principal étant de faire des bouteilles de l'espoir. Ça m'a permi de jouer avec des techniques de surface, d'utiliser mes moules et des étampes, et j'ai aussi travaillé avec de vieilles canes.



It was cool here (Chicoutimi QC) which made it great for claying. Once I finished that project, I made some books. Here is one of them.

Puisque la température a été fraîche tout l'été, le travail avec la pâte a été agréable. Une fois le projet "bouteilles" terminé, j'ai assemblé des livres.

Front cover: devant:



and the back cover. et derière.


Here's hoping that this clayamie blog will have a long and fruitful life!
J'espère que ce blog mettant en vedette les clayamies aura une longue vie fructueuse!

Hi from Amy Eyelashes!!!!

Hi everyone,

Hopefully I havent posted more than once. I finally figured out the picture thing but did'nt get them in here very even. I am computer challenged but eventually I get it. I will do my best to post here often, I have my own blog and I am sorry to say I don't post there enough.

Thankyou Tina for doing this I think it's a wonderful idea. I am rather isolated as far as having clay buddies, the closest being an hour away. I really enjoy the Monday night chats and hope more clayers will join us.

I had a really busy summer , not all with clay. I did take part in Art in the Village, its a show to raise money for our local health unit. A lady who attended asked me if I would be interested in a show for four weeks at The Lindsay Art Gallery. Of course I jumped at the chance, couldnt believe my luck! The only drawback was I had to be ready in four days!!! It was a great opportunity, I was interviewed and photographed for four different newspaper articles and not one camera broke. The best thing to come out of this was a women who e-mailed me , asking about clay and how to do it. I answered her questions and sent her information, and now she sounds so excited about clay. And of course the next best thing was I sold out of earrings.

Keeping my fingers crossed I did this right,

Amy

Hi from gera!

I spent two wonderful weeks on Galiano island this summer. Galiano is a Gulf Island between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland. I had given myself an assignment to re-read the Forgetting Room by Nick Bantock to re-explore collage processes which I planned to combine with polymer clay. Things never happen exactly as planned though and after reading the novel I found myself heading in a different direction and ended up connecting found objects, digital photography and polymer clay. I've been experimenting for the last month or so - here are three of the first pieces in the "rockface" series inspired by Galiano Island's fabulous rock formations.

Cheers!

gera in Victoria

hi from iggy

well, hello and what a nice surprise in my mail box this morning!!!

i already have 6 swappers for our 2009 ornament swap, so please get busy, and i welcome all to participate. i will later send out the requirements as i have learned how to make it all work out no matter how many swappers we have. there will only be a minimum number required altho it will be a one for one swap. and there will be a deadline for signing up, to make the numbers work out and not drive me crazy...

well, i must admit i haven't had my hand on clay for months sad to say, but i do have about a dozen kaleidoscopes underway and a couple of kaleidaladies and other sculptures. finishing my house so that i can sell it and move to westport has taken all my time other than what i am spending at artemisia. it has been a super summer for us there as our business is booming, thanks in no small part to a wonderful program on regional contact, a local tv show. we were on three times and have had people from all over the area come to see us after seeing our show.
we are thrilled, especially since we have tina, gera, wanda and myself as artists in polymer clay.
and we had a lovely visit from marg scott, so one of these days look for a story on her wonderful website.

guess that is long enough for today. thanks whoever set this up.... lets keep it going with great posts!!!

hugs to all from iggy

Here we go!!! So what have I been doing all summer with clay? Not much is the short answer. About the only completed project was the cake topper for Matt and Callies wedding. The best part about that, was the helmets!

I am not a sculptor and things like this are not the norm or even in a style that I like, but the kids like'em so I do'em.

The title says it all

(click on photo for full size version to read text)

This map, a group effort made from Polymer clay was published in the Canadian Geographic Magazine in 2005. The map was the handiwork of Clayamies...from Coast to Coast. Wonder how large it was and where it is now...?

Welcome to Clayamies

We made it! Clayamies has a Blog! and this is our first blog post even though it'll be kind of general.

For many years Clayamies had existed solely as an online Yahoo group and we would keep in touch via email, post pictures to our Yahoo Album, have lessons via saving documents in the database and ask questions via email. To move with modern times we agreed a Blog would be the way to go. With this blog we're hoping to share with Canada and the rest of the world who we are and what we like to do with our favorite medium, Polymer Clay.

On the right you will find links to members of Clayamies. Although this list is not complete by a long shot, if you leave a comment here we can link you as well, or if the link is outdated, let us know that also. Below the member list you will find the Official Clayamies website, where you can learn a bit more about some of the artists. We welcome you to share with us your ideas, share the new project you are working on, what inspires you and even invite you to post to the blog.

If English is not your preferred language we even have a translator gadget on the right sidebar. Select your language and this blog will automatically be translated....English to French or any other language, the list is long.