In Memory of Mary Lee Forsythe

It has been a sad day for me today. Earlier I received a call from a member of my Asheville Guild that one of our own had passed away. Mary Lee Forsythe has died from a massive heart attack. Those of you not fortunate enough to know Mary Lee have missed knowing her kind and generous soul. She always had a smile and a hug for those of us from Charlotte who made the trek up to Asheville to attend a guild meeting. She was a very talented clay artist and had even tackled silver smithing. Something I had hoped to get her to teach to me. After all we had plenty of time didn't we? Well as God sometimes does He had other plans for Mary Lee. We had also planned to go together to Cabin Fever and Synergy at the end of February. I was looking forward to getting to know her better. I am sure we would have had a fun filled time together. At our last guild meeting she showed me some necklaces that she had made using some of the beads I had made. I told her that we made a great team. I could make the beads and she could string them. She knew that finishing things is not my strong point. I meant to take pictures of the necklaces. Oh well we had plenty of time for that didn't we? Please go to the Blue Ridge Polymer Clay Guild site to read some very nice words (better than I can say) about Mary Lee.

Mary Lee's passing has made me think a lot about the friendships I have made because of polymer clay. I have a friend who sent me a note talking about the friends we have. It talked about how when we were young we had our "best friend". She was the one we played with, had sleep overs with, talked about boys to and everything else you did together. Now we have different sets of friends. I still have my close friends that I share everything with (well almost everything). But I also have my tennis friends and my clay friends. I started meeting new clay friends in 2006 when I went to my first Clay Carnival in Vegas. I now know that my clay friends mean a lot to me even though we may only see each other in Vegas. (Vickie, Lisa, Donna etc) I love doing clay and I love meeting people who love clay. My clay friends have grown right along with the number of retreats and classes I attend. Some I just get to know and then they move away. (Cheryl Medvedeff if you are reading this I have lost your email please write!) My clay friends here in Charlotte (Maggie, Cheryl, Brenda etc) I thank you for being here and putting up with me more often than anyone should have to. And to my clay friends in Asheville we will have a hard time because of the gap left in our lives but we will get thru it together. And perhaps we will learn that we don't always have plenty of time.

I'm published!

You can find a piece of my polymer clay art in Lisa Pavelka's new book that I believe came out today. I haven't seen it yet but someone from my guild got their copy today and told me about it. Not too bad for somebody who couldn't even get an honorable mention in a cane contest in the magazine Polymer Cafe.

Happy New Year!

Well it's hard to believe I have had this blog up for over a year. Thanks to all who follow along and specially to those who take the time to leave a comment. I certainly got a lot of comments and great suggestion about my latest mosaic face cane. I just wanted y'all to know that the cane has been reduced and all is well. I didn't mean to give the impression that I was stressed out about my cane and my failure at slicing. It was able to get a slice at the original size and still have more cane than I know what to do with. I reduced it down to about 3 x 4 inches. I then took part and reduced it down more. The smallest slices are about 2 1/2 inches tall. It reduced OK. (Thanks mainly to Jana Roberts Benzon - but I need to talk to you about getting the slices off the big canes. See you at Synergy and CFCF!) Not surprisingly it was difficult to keep the little lines of mosaics straight. And her chin got a little out of whack! But I can live with it. (like what's my alternative!?!)

I have posted some pictures to show the different sizes. I have just started sanding the big slice so the colors look a little dull. There is also a picture of three slices from my smallest cane. There is also a picture of what I call funky slices. One is the butt end of the cane after I had reduced it to the 3 X 4 size. It reminds me of a woman in a harem peeking out from behind her veil. The other was just a failed slice that I plopped down on some scrap clay.

The last picture is a slice I started playing with. I was trying to get it to look like a pixelated picture that was rather falling apart. I am not sure if I like it. I made a few canes with some of the extruded ends I had left over. I don't like the way the pattern is repeated so often in my floating bits. I didn't feel like putting together any more ends to get different combinations. It was then I realized what a massive project that I had just completed. It took a lot of color combinations and extruded ends to get all the color variances I used in this cane. It's funny when I am working on a project I often don't pay any attention to the work involved but once it is done it's like I am done and any more work on it is hard for me. I guess that is why I am so bad about finishing things. It's the creation I enjoy.

I really didn't mean to ramble on so but once I get started.....