Clay Carnival 2009

I am happy to announce that I will be one of the instructors next year in Vegas at Clay Carnival 2010. I was thrilled and honored to be asked by Donna Kato to join them next year. Now I have to come up with something that will fit into a four hour window. Now I know I am known for my face canes but a simplified cane can be taught in a 2 and 1/2 day class but not in four hours. I still think I can come up with something that will show how I go about making my complex canes. I will teach some of the hard lessons I have learned to save others from my mistakes. (Glowing boobs anyone?) Well I have until next year so keep watching my site for more info.

I have posted some pictures of some of the poker chips I exchanged on the final night of Clay Carnival this year. I also posted some pictures of some pendants that I made with my Grecian Urn cane and also my Blue and White cane. I just realized that I made the blue and white cane to put into the library exhibit in Asheville but I am going to miss the meeting on Sat and won't be able to deliver. Oh well..the best laid plans...

Grecian Urn

Here is a scan of my latest cane prior to reduction. I am calling it Grecian Urn. Why...? Why not? Looking at the scan gives you a new perspective after looking at the actual cane for a week. Now I realize she really has some junk in her trunk. Oh well none of us are perfect. She actually has a face (which needs some tweeking) but I think once I reduce all that detail will be completely lost. As I said before I am hoping to do a series like this if she reduces out well. Look for pictures of the reduced cane soon.

I am a finishing machine!

The Blue Ridge Polymer Clay Guild met last Saturday for its October play day. One of the things we do is have an auction to raise money for our guild. I sent the call out to some of my talented clay friends and I have to say they came through with some beautiful donations which helped raise over $700. Thank you Jana, Sue and Cathy. I got into a clay zone and actually finished several pieces. I also did some experimentation with paint and crackling. You can see that in the pastel piece. I can't say my photography has improved much. It's now just my stuff on top of some granite. I don't think it's helping show off the work any but I am learning as we go.

I have started working on my "full figure" cane which I hope to be one of a series. What I am calling her ironically is my slender girl cane. I still have 80 or so poker chips to do for Clay Carnival in Vegas next month and I have actually done a little work on those.

Hope you enjoy these photos.

Blue and White - cane 3

Ok this is the last of my new canes. Our Asheville guild puts a display up in the local library each year. It was decided that we would do a blue and white theme this year. I was still in an anti-face cane mood so I came up with this. I think I really need to buy one of those door peep holes like Judy Belcher talks about in her DVD. I can see that a lot of my work was wasted time once it got reduced. Although sometimes it's the little blends and details that can give depth to the cane. I did like working in the monochromatic color scheme because it was real easy to use up your scraps. The cane ended up weighing over three pounds and after reduction I had over five feet of cane. Didn't do a great job matching up when it came to kaleidescoping but I think it ended up with fairly good results. Using eight sections allows for easy conversion to a square which is nice for variation. I also made a cane up with three squares on top of each other to make an elongated pendant. I think most of this cane will end up as poker chips for the Clay Carnival in Vegas this year.

I hope you like it. I am going back to face canes or make that figure canes. I think I will do a little less detail on the next one but make a full figure. (That is a whole body as opposed to one with big breasts ala "full figured gal")

Side note - I like to see where people come from who read my blog. My stat counter gives frequent search words. After looking over this post I realized that I may get some strange visitors. Like those who search for peep holes and big breasts! Ahh the internet is a wonderful but sometimes creepy thing.

cane - part 3

Well here are some beads that I made using the cane I built. I used up some of the left over clay to make another cane. I didn't post pictures of this cane as I built it because I was just winging it. I made some bracelets using this cane. I was able to make three different canes from each original cane. I need to post some more pictures of these canes. I am not completely satisfied with the colors of the second cane. It was meant to be coordinating with the first cane but since I was being el cheapo and using left overs the colors got muted and don't match the first cane. They are all right by themselves though.

It is quite an accomplishment for me to actually finish some pieces. I have gotten much better about that. I even did a pattern on the back. I have donated the beads to the bead jar for the Blue Ridge Polymer Clay Guild which will be auctioned off next month. I plan on donating a bracelet too.

Cane 1 - part 2

Well here is the rest of my cane. I scanned it into the computer and put it together to see what it might look like if the reduction works. I hope it looks that good. As I said I was inspired by Carol Simmons' work as I found in the new Color Book. Well I may have been inspired by her but I can see I have a log way to go. I searched the Internet to see if I could find some more examples of her work and I found this link to her William Morris inspired cane. I don't think anyone will confuse my cane with one of hers. Her detail is exquisite.

cane #1

Ok so I spent the first two days deciding on my color formulas and conditioning what I hope will be enough clay for three canes. (I don't think I am going to make it) As I said I am posting some pictures of the creation of this cane. Sorry about the lousy photos but I didn't want to take time out to set up lights just to take these pictures. I have to say working with these canes is a lot easier than face canes. Of course I am trying to follow my pattern but I don't think it will matter as much as when I am constructing a face. (At least I hope it won't) You can see where I marked with an arrow (about pic #7) where I did not do a good job packing the cane and there is a bit of a dip. Now for this cane I am hoping that it won't detract from the cane. Had this been say an eye and I had a dip my face could easily end up with a scorned look on her face. Of course it has been a while since I did a complex cane like this one so lets keep our fingers crossed that what I say is true. The first one I did from Jana Roberts Benzon's Arabesque Caning DVD. (A great DVD for caning and reducing) You can also see between the last two pics that I performed some "surgery" on my cane in order to add a dark green line. It called to me that it need this. It also helps smooth out some of the bumps. The first picture show how I build my canes. I put my pattern under glass and build up on this. For latter pictures I moved the cane under the light for the photos.

Stay tuned for more pics!