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If caning be the food of love, clay on!

I've been claying since around 2012 and absolutely love it. Polymer clay is so versatile and I'm always trying to find new and fun ways to create designs. I find inspiration for my clay everywhere; in colours, shapes, patterns, nature and structures. Join me in my ramblings about my world with polymer clay.

America........ A week of claying....and I saw a groundhog!!!

10/28/2019

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What a week. Seven days in the company of a good friend, a good ‘claying’ friend at that, her husband who brought us wine, a cuddly dog, and a whole workshop dedicated to claying; and the most important thing, actually free time to indulge in the claying! As is my way I had a far too large a list of what I wanted to do, and Donna did too, so we were bound to feel a week wasn’t long enough, but what we did do was plant seeds, creative seeds that can be pursued at leisure. I saw a painting of trees and decided that this was what I wanted to do most. So, as I wanted stripy trees I went for a technique taught by the wonderful Debbie Crothers, of making lots of vaneers and cutting them into little strips. I went for main,y yellow, Donna for pinks and purples, and we both went to bed soooooo unhappy with what we had made.
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We spent the second day making them into stripes, and wow, we were really pleased with them! Just goes to show, sometimes you just have to have a little faith. After that we played about with backgrounds and back filling, and ended up with something that, although not perfect, has definite potential. I can’t wait to carry on with ‘operation trees’ when I get home.
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What else did we work on? Well, my list included a horse cane, a number of new canes to make a turtle, lampwork beads, design a new rose cane, translucent canes, and making a couple of pens. Hmmmm, the horse cane has a mane and one ear so far, we did a number of canes and made a turtle shell, but the rest are for another time. It’s not as if we spent long doing anything else; Al, Donnas husband suggested showing me the beach......I hate beaches and water, and said could we go to Michaels instead. For non Americans, Michaels is an amazing craft shop. We also went to the local dairy farm that sold ice cream. There were so many flavours I had to go four times. It would have been rude not to.
Back to clay (although the walnut and maple ice cream is still in my mind), we looked at painted Mexican wood carvings of animals, look them up on Pinterest, they’re incredible, and a wonderful inspiration for canes. After spending far too long trying to decide which ones we wanted to attempt to make, we ended up with these. This is a photo of them packed ready to bring home.
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When I’ve covered the turtle I’ll post a picture. I have a few days once I’m home before I return to work, and I have plans for solid claying!

Everywhere you go there’s clay inspiration. America is wonderful at celebrating holidays, and they have Thanksgiving and Halloween coming up. Nearly every porch has some sort of display, makes great viewing when travelling anywhere. And yes,I was so excited to see so many porches, just like in the American films! Look at the pumpkins in one shop we visited. Those colours!
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Spending time at JFK airport gives me time to write the blog, but also I’ve promised Donna that I’ll get onto Instagram. I have absolutely no idea what it is, or why I need it, but I think I’m just kicking against doing any more technical stuff, after all, I am writing a blog, that’s almost surreal! Anyway, she is a great friend, and encourages me to do things out of my comfort zone, so, I promised, so will go look up what it is and how to join. Before I go, just a reminder that everyone who subscribes to this blog (a little box on the top right of this page) will be put in a draw at the end of this week to win a free ticket to the Polymer Clay Adventure 2020.
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To find out more about this wonderful adventure where 23 polymer clay artists have put together tutorials of the projects above click on https://gumroad.com/a/40744051 If you register before January, it’s a special discounted price. And don’t forget, a free seat, courtesy of Ilysa and Kira, will go to someone picked randomly from my subscribers. Good luck!
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Pat the flat cow is launched!

10/20/2019

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How excited am I??? I've been asked to be part of the Polymer Clay Adventure 2019.
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This is an online virtual polymer clay retreat where 23 polymer clay artists (including me - see the little happy dance!) provide video tutorials of their projects, showing exactly how to make them. 
It's been an incredible adventure for me, being a newby to this, and the biggest challenge as been keeping my mouth shut about it. But no more, let the shouting begin!
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My project is Pat the flat cow. She's a free standing model of a cow using a design based on Zentangles, those amazing doodles that have elevated doodling to a form of art. There are 8 videos showing you step-by-step how I make her, and you can get carried away and make her some flatmates!  Look at some of the other wonderful tutorials that are part of the adventure; my friends Aoife Smith-Murphy and Syndee Holt are also involved, Syndee making beautiful lacy bangles, and Aoife showing you how to make a gorgeous black, white and gold kaleidoscope cane which turns into an incense burner. 
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To find out more about this, click on the link below:  
​https://gumroad.com/a/40744051 
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Also, I have a free seat to give away. Make sure you subscribe to my mailing list (at the top of the page) to be put in the draw at the end of the month.

​You may win a free admission to the polymer clay adventure! 

​and this will work :) 

I'm off to America on Monday.
I have a wonderful friend, Donna Baratta, whom I met in France at another polymer clay workshop. Sometimes you find someone in life who you just click with, and she's one for me. We get together every year for a week of pure clay indulgence; we spend months before our time together planning what we're going to do, and the list is always far too long to be completed in a week, but hey, who needs sleep!
We plan to cover a vase, make some pens, work on more canes with translucent clay, and spend some time making complex canes; those canes that that cooking/work/dog walks/phone calls/travelling etc stop you doing. We're going to be focussed, totally, on our clay. I......CAN'T.....WAIT! 
The problem is, what to pack. Donna has a washing machine so I don't have to take too many clothes, and I have a fear of not having enough clay. I've seen her stack of clay, it's enormous, but there's a little voice in my head saying "but you use a lot, there might not be enough, you could just take a little fimo, you wanted to condition it, go on, just a few blocks"
So, I'm taking a small amount of clay in my suitcase. However, it was very old and crumbly, so this is how I condition clay that's been at the back of my cupboard for several years and has become very dry.
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As you can see, even slicing it with a blade it crumbles, so I bought a blender, a cheap one that I could use just for clay.
The blender cut the clay into tiny pieces, which you can ball together in your hands.

I was staying at Penny Vingoe's house a couple of years ago, for those who don't know, Penny runs Clayaround, where I buy all my clay and clay accessories from. Staying there was like being a kid in a sweetie shop. So much clay!! Anyway, she had an arbour press (the blue thing in the picture), which she used to squash the clay to make it more malleable.  
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Press the clay down so it's flat, then tear it in half, stack the two halves on top of each other, and press down again. It's very satisfying, you'll never need a therapist if you do this! After a while of doing this the clay will be soft enough to put through the pasta machine.

As you can see, I'm just taking a little clay to America!

So, my next post will be from across the pond. I'm aiming to make a dog cane, so watch this space!



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Ireland: I came, I went, they conquered!

10/8/2019

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What an AMAZING weekend I've just had in Ireland, teaching the Irish polymer clay guild how to make patchwork bunnies and chickens. A nicer, more fun and enthusiastic bunch of clayers I've yet to meet.  Here we all are, minus Aoife (the chairperson of the guild who is in the photo being held up by Laura!).
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However, I'm getting ahead of myself. First came the preparation.
In my usual over-the-top-don't-leave-anything-to-chance way, I tried to prepare completely before I left. My one worry was that people wouldn't have time to complete their project, so I tried to prepare as much as possible before I went, not anything that was a particular skill, just the boring parts. Cutting out triangles of clay to make a rainbow blend is quite easy for one...…………….
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​    Slightly more time consuming         for 11

    Then, I decided that the clay was too oily, so I needed to 'leach' some of the oil out to make it more workable. This involved putting sheets of white copy paper on the clay and weighting it down.

I don't want to see another rainbow blend for a while!
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Then the bunny and chicken bodies...…….....if any customs person had opened my case I would have had a lot of funny looks. 

I stayed with Aoife and her family. I'm incredibly lucky with my Irish friends, both Laura and Aoife host me and allow me to take over their kitchen tables with my clay, and even involve their children! Considering I'm not thought of as particularly good with children, I find Aoife's and Laura's ones lovely. Perhaps I'm just better with Irish children!

​The workshop was great - (I don't mean my teaching, although a friend of mine describes me as not being humble at all, so perhaps I do!). The Irish sense of humour is second to none, I've finally met people as loud as me, enthusiastic and a little crazy, and totally totally genuine.

I've been to a lot of workshops and always enjoyed myself and learnt a lot; however I've never understood people who complain. I go to the most wonderfully run workshops, with tutors who are so generous with their knowledge, and come away feeling honoured to have been part of it. Yet there's always someone who moans. They didn't like the tutorial, the tutor went too fast/slow, the room was too hot or not lit well enough, or the coffee didn't taste nice. These moaners almost put me off becoming a tutor, I have a real fear of not being good enough or liked, but I've got a wonderful newspaper clipping on my pinboard at home by Jamie Oliver who quotes Theodore Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena..... and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly"

Google the complete quote, it's great.
So, with Theodore's words ringing in my ear, I (as my mother used to tell me to) 'girded my loins', and went to Ireland to teach. If anyone complained, I didn't hear them!!!

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​Everyone who knows me know that I'm absolutely rubbish at remembering people's names. Poor Rosemary was called Margaret for two days. I ended up making myself a sticky label to remind me of her name, and every time I called her Margaret she put it on her head to correct me! I love Rosemary/Margaret!

A few more photos of the bunnies and chickens, and their creators. Sorry Aoife, Laura and Niamh, I didn't get a photo of you with your creations, although Niamh's is the lovely green one shown. 

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And finally, the last word has to go to my two new friends. Sophie and Kristina are two children (don't ask me their ages, I've forgotten!) who accompany me when I'm doing clay at their house, and show incredible talent. The thing with children is that they don't over-think things; they just do it.
Consequently the barriers to creativity that us adults have don't apply, or don't to such an extent, and both Sophie and Kristina are very talented clayers. 
​Here is a couple of dragons that Kristina made on the morning that I left Ireland. She's inspired by Birdy Heywood, the original and best 'dragon lady'. If you want to make a dragon, contact Birdy, she does 1:1 dragon workshops at her home.
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Right, the rambling has to stop. I'm working tomorrow, the 'proper job' that pays for clay, so I'd better get some sleep. Only 13 more days and I'm off to America to spend a week with my lovely friend Donna Baratta. So excited. A whole week of nothing but clay with a talented clayer and good friend. 
Happy days!
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Oh, if you've read this far, firstly well done! and secondly, if you'd like notifications of the next polymer clay ramble, please sign up to the mailing list. Once I've worked out how it works,  I'll send you emails letting you know when a new post is up!
However, don't hold your breath...…….technology is NOT my friend!
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    Helen Cruickshank

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