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.