Such a talent our friend, Paula Gaskill, had for making roses from polymer clay. Don't they just look like spun sugar? Masterful at blending color, she could make them in any color you wanted. It brought her such joy!
I remember one day a couple of years ago, Paula called me to ask me about her roses. "Do you think people would buy them? Should I try and offer some for sale?", she asked. BUT OF COURSE!! I recall telling her, why don't you pierce them side to side on the bottoms, so people can use them to do cagework beading, too, as an option.....so they can also wire them into a design.
She did so and they worked perfectly. Paula got so excited that she set about to making enough for every attendee of last year's annual B'sue Boutiques Workshop, to make sure we had some for our cagework class. She was not able to come but she wanted to be sure that she was represented. Everyone delighted in the little rose treats she sent for each and every one.
Paula was able to come to the first workshop....here is a little collage of special photos:
That's Paula in the top center photo, the one in the middle. That year she had brought us all little polymer clay owl pendants. She really was a master with her clay creations.
She also loved to make mixed media jewelry:
More of those wonderful roses!
Paula also loved to play along for as many Work Table Wednesdays as she could:
Just like the button in the photo, Paula lived her life with joy and had a wonderful sense of humor. She loved her family, she loved children, she loved her jewelry making friends and her craft....so much.
This morning I received some difficult news:
"Hi Brenda, this is Ashley, Paula Gaskill's daughter-in-law. Her husband, Stuart, wanted me to reach out and let you know that sadly she suffered an aneurysm and the family had to let her go peacefully. She was very fond of you, thank you for being a great friend and presence in her life. Stuart asks you to please pass this news along to the ladies in the jewelry group."
I couldn't even react to that news immediately. Paula was not up in years, she still had a lot of living to do. Gone? Really? It cost me a bit to consider it, and then I sat down to figure out how to tell you, her creative friends, in the best way.
Paula would want us to celebrate her and to go on creating and being joyful, as she certainly was. She would not want to see you despair, or let your hands drop down. If you have some of Paula Gaskill's roses, put them in a special place and promise yourself to use them in worthy creations. Don't just save them all back. Use them. This keeps her memory going.
We all have our own way of dealing with loss and the differences between us must be respected. But I must say, I always find the words of John the Apostle comforting when things like this happen:
"He will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning not outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away." --Revelation 21:4
We were never created to be sick or to die. That was not in the original plan. One day what is wrong will be made right and we will see our loved ones, like Paula, again. They are not forgotten by us, nor are they forgotten by the Creator.
Until we meet again......our Paula, the way we should remember her:
Much love to each one of you and especially to the family of Paula Gaskill who are undergoing this loss in the most personal of ways.
We were tired from all the learning, friendship and fun.... but glowing with happiness. B'sue Boutiques Workshops are a time to learn, but to do so in a relaxed atmosphere among friends who seem more like family.
Of course, this was Christi Friesen year, so the 'kids' were bouncing off the walls with excitement to see Christi again. She didn't let them down!
Christie Friesen, for those who don't know, is the Princess of Polymer Clay. She has written, what? 12 books on the subject! She teaches classes in exotic places like Japan and Australia, to name a few! Christi is quite in demand because she demonstrates that TRULY, anyone can play with clay and have success, right out of the gate.
Christi also takes note of everyone in the room and is available to all. She does not disappear into her hotel room at the end of class, but parties hearty, involved in everything everyone else is doing. She does that from early morning til late at night. Let's face it....Christi loves a party!
She even made herself a student in my Vintage Assemblage with Wire class! It looks like she was having a great time, too.
We learned so many things....how to make a little dragon with wings, such that it could easily be made into a brooch OR a figurine, as you like it. We learned how to make molds and use Sculpey Ultra Light Clay. I am so sold on that stuff now that soon I'll have it available at B'sue Boutiques
Everyone loved the Swellegant class! Here is Janet Wilson, of Chickie Girl Jewelry, simply mesmerized by something new.
I was intrigued most by the dye-oxides as, being a vendor of brass stampings, I'd always concentrated on using the Patinas from the SWELLEGANT line:
Now it was my time to learn from the 'master' how much fun the dye oxides are with polymer clay!
This one is made from a mold I made, from one of our brass stampings...
Sculpey Ultra Light treated with metal coating, Tiffany Green Patina, and dye oxides, done in layers and buffed out with a piece of denim.
SO EASY and SO FUN to do! Thank you, Christi!
Some also made little owl pendants:
That one is from Janet Wilson, done up in true Chickie Girl style.
Here is Sue Shade's table, and everyone is hard at work. Sue came with her two delightful sisters!
They brought us carrot cake and brownies, too! YUMMY!
Here is a darling fairy box that Annette Carruthers made:
I'd like to thank Annette for taking so many of our group photos.
More pix thanks to Janet Calardo, who has come to every last one of our events!
We all owe a world of thanks to Katie Oskin (of Kater's Acres ) and her husband, Luke (Mr. Katie):
On Friday, there was so much clay baking going on that Katie logged 7 miles on her pedometer! Katie did all the running and baking this year, and honestly I don't know what we would have done without her.
Luke was around for needed support. Katie was so glad to have him there. We all were!
Christi's was a two day class, Friday and Saturday. Then I took Sunday for my class, Vintage Assemblage with Wire.
Many had requested that I introduce in person how to do the vintage Haskell-style assemblage using wire for attachments.
It is truly my passion!
The class paid rapt attention to my lecture and instructions...
We took a lot of candid, off the cuff photos....
But truth be told, they all did VERY well and everyone was very productive!
Here we are discussing a design issue and how to wire on a rose montee!
Later this week, I will have a post for you to show you the amazing pieces that were done in class. I was tremendously impressed that so many got a very quick feel for what needed to be done.
Each kit contained a builder and a backer piece and lots of bibs and bobs to adorn it, including some pretty vintage Czech beads and pearlies! Paula Gaskill, one of our pals who couldn't make it this year, contributed a polymer clay rose that was drilled horizontally through the base, so that it could be wired into the assemblage, if desired.
The goal was NOT to use any glue in the composition...BUT, each kit did include a small tube just in case it was truly needed.
At the end of the day on Sunday, everyone cleaned up their spots and got ready for the party!
That's what you see in one of the first pictures, ME feeding Christi a hunk of her CHOCOLATE CAKE....she is SUCH a chocoholic!
(me, too!)
Tired but quite happy, we all eventually pulled the plug and hit the hay. Every year, though, Mary Reckmeyer has to jump on the bed! This is this year's photo of the annual Mary jumping on the bed thing:
The next morning as many as could met for breakfast one last time....and it was good-bye til next year:
Left to right, Janise Crow, B'sue, Janet Calardo, and Virginia Michelini. Such good friends....
We hate to say good-bye.
Great news, though! We've booked the event for next year already, so mark your calendars for May 19, 20, 21, 2017.
Katie Oskin of Kater's Acres is a protogee of Christi Friesen's, having worked on many projects with her in the past. She is also a Polyform Designer (Polyform being the company that makes Sculpey and Premo, our favorite clays). She will be our polymer clay teacher for next year. You will LOVE her teaching style! I will be teaching a continuance of the Wire Assemblage class. There may be some other surprises along the way, I'll keep you posted about that.
Sign ups will be next February....be sure to join us at the B'sue Boutiques Creative Group to keep abreast of the details as they come up. All business for B'sue Boutiques events and classes is conducted at Facebook and announced first to the Creative Group
We would also like to give a BIG SHOUT OUT of thanks to the Polyform Company, makers of Sculpey and Premo, for providing the polymer clay for our event this year. Thanks, Polyform!!
The first annual B'sue Boutiques Workshop back in May 2014 spawned Bohemian Vibe, an offshoot group to show how great you can combine polymer clay and clay techniques such as taught by Christi Friesen of christifriesen.com
Here are some things such as we learned in that workshop from Christi:
Awesome!
The group was fearless and took off like a shot. We had such a good time with our memories of the workshop, and off we went fearlessly to explore clay projects and challenges each month.
Christi would pop in from time to time and we'd offer a lovely gift, a combination of B'sue stuff and Christi stuff, each month, for participation in the challenges.
But let's face it....sometimes all the great dreams and ideas in the world just can't be sustained. I LOVE LOVE LOVE (did I say LOVE!!!) polymer clay, but my skills are limited. I just do Brenda clay, clay my way, wonky, funky crazy clay. I'd be dissed by most of the clay world, I think. I could care less. It's ABOUT THE FUN.....dang it!
I think Christi would agree, but she IS the consummate clay artist and instructor. She enables everyone to clay on!
so it just seemed logical to close Bohemian Vibe and bring clay back STRONG into the regular Creative Group. Say....have you joined us yet? Come on over and bring your friends!
Today I was going back through some of the photo files we had at Bohemian Vibe and wow, what an archive we built in just a year! I thought it would be a lot of fun to share a smattering of the great work we did with you.
So here comes the slide show...
First up, here's Gloria Allen and her hibiscus pendants (taught to us by fellow member Katie Oksin of Kater's Acres )
Then we had the Secret Garden project, sent over in a PDF for us by Christi....I'm still mad I never got to get to mine.....but look what Tammy Adams did with it!
VERY clever!
Terry Wlaschin shared her funky heart pendants with us among MANY other things....
And Janet Calardo's floral work was a knock out. This is what I called the 'Orange Juice necklace'....love it!
Cindy Peterson is one of the most prolific polymer clay artists I know.
She is makering every day of the week. Aren't her box pendants amazing?
Cindy often adds a dash of humor with her work...
This is her LOVE BEETLE line (among other things)
Cindy learned the faux turquoise technique from clay artist, Tory Hughes...who graciously gave her permission to demonstrate it at the Workshop we just had in May 2015.
I love the work of Janet Wilson, of Chickie Girl Creations.....Janet was all set to join us in May but something came up and she couldn't make it. We all wanted to meet the artist responsible for so much amazing mixed media work and hope to, perhaps next time.
Janet almost always combines clay other media....bits of paper, painted and distressed wood, filigree. Many of her pieces have a message:
Elizabeth Owens-Dwy often shared her handmade poly clay components.....these roses are a knock out!
Here's a beautiful work in progress by Irene Hoffman of Heart's Dezire:
Irene has mastered that cane, I'd say!
And here is a finished, assembled necklace:
You should see it in person!
Polymer clay can be handily used in assemblage, as Janet Calardo demonstrates, below:
Bits of brass mixed with clay components she has made!
We always enjoyed seeing new work from Laurel Steven. The set is the poly clay version of a vintage Hawaiian lei....well...that's MY take on it. Great work!
I made a few things too....I had such fun making these leaf headpins, I can't wait to spend a whole day making them!
And I enjoyed making this pocket pendant so much, it remains one of my favorite pieces from that time:
There WILL be clay at the next Workshop, next May. Christi plans to return if at all possible. But we'll be mixing it up, too, with other media, and I'll be teaching a day of either assemblage or cagework, which is my thing.
There was clay there before Vibe, and there remains more clay. Clay will NOT go away.
Come show us how you mold clay from stampings, how you make your own beads and cabochons, how you make your own amazing focals and combine with bead caps, connectors, findings and fiber such as found at B'sue Boutiques
We don't sell clay there, but we do have some cool accessories and of course...
Yes it's true! Your Inka-Gold colorization product by Viva Decor could actually end up looking like this! OH NO!
I'm nuts about Inka-Gold as a base from which to create custom paints. Imagine how dismayed I was when I got an email from a customer this morning to tell me that this could happen.
Thanks, however, to Cindy Lietz, Polymer Clay Tutor (she has many many clay and product tuts and short lectures on YouTube) the reason is explained and a solution is given.
I'd like to recommend that you check out her video here....or visit her at You Tube where she has many more presentations:
One of the reasons I love this product is because it's a water base, non-toxic product that is the BOMB on metal. It can also be used on polymer clay.
Because of its composition, if you stick your grubby little jewelry-making fingers directly into the jar to use it on a fingertip (and you can, since it's not toxic) you could very well contaminate the whole jar.
One day it's quite possible that you will come back to your tightly-closed Inka-Gold and find the mess you see above.
Personally, this is the only mess I'd want to make with Inka-Gold:
To remedy the situation, Cindy explains you merely have to scrape the moldy stuff off the top with a clay tool and dispose of it.
Should be okay after that, but as for me---after that, I'd probably go ahead and use the stuff up. Since you seal your work when you use it on metal, I don't think you have to worry about transferring any mold spores to the lovely new color on your brass stampings.
Recommended is that you never dip into the jar with your fingers....use a plastic spoon and then transfer it to a plate where you can mix and blend and dip with your fingers to your heart's desire.
Thanks to Brenda Dolberry, who brought this to my attention.
And thanks to Cindy Lietz, the Polymer Clay Tutor, for making a very good video to help us all out! Be sure to take time for it!
I suppose it goes without saying....if you haven't tried the stuff yet, you should!
Here is my video about my discovery of the product and how I use it to mix with intense pigments and mica powders to make my own custom colors....an idea that actually also came from a customer!
And we sell the stuff here, in the Mica Powders category at B'sue Boutiques:
Even JORDAN can't wait to come! He is still proud of his little octopi made at the class last year!
Well I guess that's a starfish!
It will SOON be time for the SECOND ANNUAL B'sue Boutiques Workshop Retreat at Das Dutch Haus Inn in Columbiana, Ohio!
Get on the dibs list by contacting me at [email protected] for a long weekend of fun you will NEVER forget!
We have a variety of projects on tap: First, Friday night meet and greet with treats and goodies galore and LOTS of B'sue gifties!
Saturday will be a day of polymer clay play with Katie Oskin of Kater's Acres and Cindy Peterson of Howling Dog Jewelry.
Katie will be teaching storybook beads which include some sculpturing techniques, whale tails which made awesome beads AND pendants, and an articulated Chinese Dragon. Katie is also an instructor/designer for the Polyform Company, makers of Sculpey and Premo. They will also kindly be providing all the clay we need for our worshop. We appreciate that so much!
Cindy will be demonstrating and teaching the faux turquoise technique from Tory Hughes, with her express permission!
On Sunday we'll have a two hour project class with Marcia Tuzzolino and Irene Hoffman of the B'sue Boutiques Design Team:
The rest of the day will be spent with B'sue......I'll be teaching RESPONSIBLE REPURPOSING, which is how to examine vintage jewelry for value instead of tear down value....and discover another great income stream for your business!
Each who can will bring a bag, box, or baggie! of old jewelry so that we can examine it and see if among us we have any hidden treasures....then, how to find their value and sell them. We will also talk about what you might have that would be great for you to use to make something else, and how you might do that.
I'll have lots of goodies and beverages and some cool deals on special buys brought in for the event. ;-)
Monday morning BREAKFAST MEETING to discuss our the premise of the Build a Line Challenge and what works for you in selling your handmade pieces.
Then, any who would like to come along can come back to the B'sue shop and be the studio audience for two videos we'll be making, first with Marcia and Irene, and another with Katie Oskin, who we regularly feature on our B'sue Boutiques You Tube Channel
This is the badge I will soon be loading onto this blog, and when I do it will be clickable to the event:
Thanks to Tammy Adams of the Paisley Lizard at Etsy for designing my sweet badge! Tammy is a member of the Build a Line Challenge Class....don't forget our next two blog hops, Feb 20 (this Friday) and March 20 for the grand finale!
Please email me at [email protected] to get on the dibs list for this event. That's no obligation to come, just gives you dibs at seeing the contract when it comes out next week, getting your ticket paid, and making your arrangments to come. It will be placed on a special private Facebook page so you will be able to network with others who are coming or trying to make arrangements, even find a room mate to split hotel costs or find a travel buddy!
Yesterday's video project centered on the dilemma some have in working with hollow-backed vintage style stampings, especially when they'd like to design them into pendants.
Sometimes the pieces are just a little too lightweight with that bumped up back. WHAT TO DO?
While you CAN fill them with resin....and I've done that a bunch of times....
You have to wait for the resin to set up.
Why not use polymer clay?
This video will show you just how to achieve that:
Polymer clay is very effective, it's very inexpensive and it bakes up quickly....and voila, you're done.
To get the hanging aglets into the piece so you can have the delight of adding charms, chain and dangles to the design, you simply will use shortened and bent eyepins, or a bit of 20 gauge wire.
Very easy! Watch me do it in the video!
More shots of my one finished necklace:
The stamping that I used is of course available at B'sue Boutiques
Because I had to hurry through getting ready for the tutorial, my backs are not as smooth as I'd like, but you get the idea:
Got some little bits baked in there, ugh. It's just the back, but I like my backs looking good. Not so bad that I will not use them, however. AND, as you can see....they are signed. VERY simple to do with clay.
Here are the fronts of these two:
As you can see I put the hanging aglets in different places here.....it's fun to experiment!
AND, I did the big heart stamping that I showed you in the video, too:
As I built up the clay in the hollow back I decided to use a little extra and push on the clay to make it come over the sides. I textured it and lined it up a bit, and it made sort of a funky bezel.
Here is the back, which I impressed with a Lisa Pavelka texture stamp, the Tooled Leather one, which is my fave:
And again, you can see that I have signed it.
It's not perfect but I have a good start on a new idea for that heart. I used inks and Perfect Pearls by Ranger to create the subtle color.
It will be fun to make and choose the right beads and dangles to add to the heart. A little frayed old crochet lace or fiber might be kind of cool, too!
Enjoy the video. I make them just for you, you know!
And we added a WHOLE BUNCH of new stuff to B'sue Boutiques this week, so why dontcha come on over and visit?
Last week when I stopped to get my mail at the box downtown, I noticed some lovely red leaves had fallen in the walkway.
My first reaction was....."So soon?" But I realized, as has happened far too many summers, that summer is so filled with work and things to do to reorganize our business, or in the past, traveling, doing shows.....that it pretty much came and went without notice.
I must say, it's important to me to take time for Autumn. To me it is one of the most glorious things God has made, part of the cycle of natural life. Just like everything He has done, he does Autumn up to a turn, even its little imperfections are perfect. I make myself stop and ruminate.
I brought the leaf home and pinned it to a cork board, where as you can see, the colors migrated a bit, it curled, dried, some of the colors more intense than others and in some ways, less so.
At the Bohemian Vibe Facebook group, where we mix media, brass stampings et al with polymer clay, the challenge for September was to make a parure.
A parure is a set of jewelry with three pieces or more, that go together.
The last two months have been my own personal business challenge as we opened the NEW B'sue Boutiques at Volusion. I've told quite a few people that moving our large unwieldy supplies website was a lot like childbirth....and it was. We have been refinining and moving things around on it ever since we redirected the domain. The process has been daunting, but we're getting it right this time.
Evidently those who follow us and shop with us think so too, as we passed the 500 orders mark---a first milestone---a day ago.
THEN: We discovered we needed to re-network and move all the business computers. We found a woman-run company to work with us, and I feel quite content that FINALLY all the tech stuff in this place will at long last, be as it should be.
GIFTS: I just can't seem to get to that parure for Bohemian Vibe. I LOVE POLYMER CLAY, and was so thrilled when Christi Friesen suggested we start this group together and see what would happen combining her techniques and approaches to clay work with things we sell at B'sue Boutiques and she sells at christifriesen.com
The more I learn about clay the more I love it, but the more I doubt I 'quite' have the gift. Or at least......if I do, the gift is quite far away just yet.
Katie Oskin of Kater's Acres and I have become good friends. She lifts me up and I have enjoyed having her here to shoot video for her to show on my YouTube channel three times since I met her in May.
Here is the video we did yesterday:
And she brought me some gifts:
Beautiful Skinner-blend leaves she had made with Lisa Pavelka cutters. Even a little acorn she'd made with one of our caps!
THEN she MADE me some gifts:
All from the video, and now mine.....Katie is so generous.
So, methinks....PERHAPS I can whip out some sort of a LEAF parure for the Bohemian vibe challenge. Maybe. I'm inspired, anyway. Leaves? Yeah, I think I can do this.
Some blended clay....might not be the way someone really deep into the art of working with clay would do it, but I will tell you something I do know about myself.
I really don't care about that.
It's about what *I* will discover. Not about what they think. ;-)
I particularly like this cutter, it comes from a large set of flower and leaf cutters by Makins Clay. We will have them at B'sue Boutiques soon.
I have another cutter from another set that I often use, I am not sure who makes it, but if you play with clay, you probably have it, I see it used alot.
So I made a bunch of clay headpins....leaves:
I am making some smaller leaves as well.....and I'll also need to figure out what sort of beads I want to make:
Katie demonstrates in the video how to make that spiral bead a bit differently than I do, she winds it around her finger. My way was always to form around a wooden skewer, I got very nice uniform ones that way....but they had a tendency to stick and sometimes you would impale your fingers trying to get them off the skewers.
OUCH!
ANYWAY, though my parure is far from finished I am starting to believe again that the gift for clay IS there, that meeting this challenge was a good idea even though pressed for time....
And that somehow I'll get this down. I sort of have a vision about it, now.
This is a Facebook group which is also a project board collaboration between me, Brenda Sue Lansdowne of B'sue Boutiques and Christi Friesen, polymer clay princess extraordinaire, of Christi Friesen
It's a pretty cool person who can have a website whose name is just THEIR name. But then, Christi Friesen is EVERYWHERE.
This month's challenge at Bohemian Vibe is to make flowers in polymer clay and then combine them with some stuff from B'sue Boutiques and some stuff from La Friesen's place (Christi, of course) and maybe some stuff you have stashed, some fiber, some chain, some 'found' or responsibly repurposed stuff.
The photo above is something I started working on beginning of the week. It's a pocket pendant. Not done yet, I have to add the neckline, but! THE POCKET IS NOW FILLED. Little glass pearls on wire, little poly clay flowers I MADE, even a tiny rose....which I have not done before! and a small repurposed tiny dress clip with a star on it.
Not all I did this week....last month we were doing faces, so I did a last one from a mold....here's my moon maiden:
So now I just have to decide on the appropriate bead caps and matching poly clay beads which I made from the scraps....and finish her up!
How did I make that crescent? Well, I'll tell ya....I LOVE old cooky cutters. You can alter them, reshape them and once in a bit you find one that is just so perfect. Well this was one of the just so perfect kind. I'd like to research how I might get some of my old cutters remade so I could share them.
I also did this pretty piece on the same crescent:
Hey. I'm gettin' really good at making those skinny poly clay snakes. Well, pretty good, anyway! So there's another one to finish.
And then I made some disc-dish type flowers from cutters and a green/pearl Skinner blend I made, and I mis-shaped them on purpose....and will wire them to this heart base:
Before I do that, though I may add a little more color to the dish flowers. That's what I'm calling them, dish flowers.
Or I might wire in these, which I also made today:
My first leaf headpins! The heart base has holes in it so you can wire stuff, this is something I used to do long ago.....goes my being an assemblage artist first and foremost, I think!
The pattern is made by rolling the clay over an old piece of lace I had leftover from my wedding dress. I had A LOT of lace left over from my wedding dress. That was 39 years ago. You should see it. Looks like I just bought it. Wow!
Here are the headpins:
They are made from clay that I cut out with cutters but then 'adjusted' by adding veins and molding a bit in my hand. Then like Katie Oskin showed us a while back, I stuck an EYEPIN into the ends, as the curved eye holds better. If you just put in a straight piece of wire it can just pull out. An eye won't.
For the longest time I have been looking at rose tuts and wanted to make a rose. So I made a shabby cabbage rose:
It's my first and a good start but can't say it delights me. They'll get better! I will make many more til they do!
These are small 'dish' flowers. Used a cutter, then put them over the smallest sized ball tool in the set that I carry at the site. I bent them and crimped them a bit, brushed them with a little Perfect Pearls before baking. You can see how they are three different sizes and will sort of nest. I put one set together with two bits and a little pearl on wire.
Here's another look at my big dish flowers.
Not done with these yet. I used a green/pearl/white Skinner blend, and burnt umber acrylic paint on top, but to my mind they need a little dark gold, either Swellegant Brass Metal Coating which you can use as an accent paint, or some Gilder's Paste.
All I can say is, polymer clay is pretty addictive. Why don't you come and join us at Bohemian Vibe We are a really focused group, it's a jewelry making group and there are some pretty set criteria, because we are there to LEARN as well as cheer one another on!
You can also come and join us at the B'sue Boutiques Creative Group All mixed media jewelry makers in any medium are invited, you can share your photos and your selling links to your handmade OR vintage pieces for sale. We have a lot of technique discussions as well as business discussions at the Creative Group, and I promote the work using goods from B'sue Boutiques on a special Pinterest board which will soon be connected to the front page of my website, as well:
I have an inspiration board of all sorts of poly clay work for Vibers....if you love clay, check it out....all sorts of work that will appeal to the ones in our group, from nature photos to vintage jewelry to clay tutorials and designs:
Katie Oskin of Kater's Acres came to visit yesterday, as well as to film a NEW video on making petal canes from Skinner blend (polymer clay). In the fun and the mayhem, I FORGOT to get out the camera, so did my best to capture a picture of us from the video. CHEEZE, sometimes it's hard to get one that way where we both look great. So anyway....this is us at the beginning of the video! LOL
Here is a photo of Parker, Katie's little mascot who travels with her EVERYWHERE, and some of the cute creations made from the technique taught in yesterday's video.
Katie loves to make micro canes, where, as she says, "you don't need five pounds of clay!"
This is a Skinner blend bull's eye cane ready to be cut into four equal pieces. When cutting a cane, always stand and do it looking straight down on it, for best success, Katie says....emphatically!
Yes, ma'am!
More highlights from Katie Day....this photo is a tiny bit blurry but you get the point! ANOTHER bull's eye can from Katie, this one she made for Javi and I to play with, later!
That's gonna be spectacular, if we can just follow instructions properly!
Here are some completed pieces, ready to be baked in cornstarch, which provides a lot of protection for delicately formed flowers and beads, too!
And here is a single flower....the white 'stuff' is just a bit of cornstarch:
OOOOH PRETTY!
Katie also made me a micro cane (I believe she calls this her glowing leaf? You can get tutorials for it at her website!) and a matching pendant to finish into a necklace.
And some more she left for me and Javi to fight over.....LOL! No, we won't fight over them, but Javi DOES love purple!
That's what she did with the scrap clay after making the canes for the flowers!
WELL....I suppose by now you're saying, hey, you can post that video for us any time now!
Okay, I will. First, go grab a sandwich, a bag of pretzels or a cuppa joe...and maybe something to take notes, because my videos are virtual class tutorials. They are free, content filled, so yeah, you're gonna want to tune in and stay with us. You would if you paid for a class, right?
So this one is ON THE HOUSE:
ENJOY! We hope Katie will be able to make it back in September for another visit and video.
You know, we all need a hobby....and I guess my hobby is polymer clay. It resides among what I do for a living, selecting and vending rich designer-vintage style components. I don't sell polymer clay but I DO sell a few tools you will find handy.
The Sculpey Ball Tool Kit is a MUST-HAVE and it's so inexpensive, it's ridiculous. You'll see all the ways it can be used in the video:
I love learning to work with clay, and so when Christi Friesen visited us last May for the workshop, we decided to collaborate on a special clay group that was devoted to jewelry making in the Bohemian vintage style. It's called Bohemian Vibe! and you can come and join us here:
Christi herself will be taking the lead with her own projects for the group in October of this year, then January, April, and July of next year.
Next May we will be meeting again (Christi will join us for a bit via SKYPE) for more clay, Bohemian Vibe projects and responsible repurposing. Katie will be teaching some of the classes; we have room for 35 and there is a lot of interest! If YOU are interested, come join us at Bohemian Vibe! at Facebook now and either observe or participate, as you like. The contracts for the event will come out in February, and will be held at Das Dutch Haus, a lovely country inn, in Columbiana, Ohio.
Meantime, Javi and I will be carrying on here in the shop playing with clay---check out her workspace:
She's always got a new video on her IPAD, trying to learn a new technique... she LOVES polymer clay. Here is something she recently made from stamped clay:
And here's a whole plateful of beads and bits I gotta get busy with!
IF YOU play with clay, you need to understand that clay is clay but clay POPS when you add bits and pieces and filigree from B'sue Boutiques
And when your order is 40.00 or more, you know what? You can ASK for free stuff, a little bag of this and that from my own stash that I'm sharing as long as supplies last. If you ask for it, I can usually come up with something for you! just say GIMME FREE STUFF in the customer comments box at the website checkout (not in the coupon box) and our shippers will send you some!
You know me, I love to play with paint, color, patina and metal. It's kind of hey, this is what I do.
I've been doing it for a good 25 years. I remember throwing tiny watch parts and glitter in resin applied to the top of texture paints on heavy watercolor paper twenty years ago. I remember sore fingers and hands as I tried to make sense of Fimo. And don't even get me STARTED with Friendly Plastic. My biggest sadness is that I sold all my pieces and have nothing to show you.
I guess I may have to find some new-fangled way to reprise something, one day.
My biggest and best new love is polymer clay....well, old love that keeps getting ressurrected.
Wonky clay beads and worm-like spirals. HEY, now. DON'T YOU LAUGH at those worm-like spirals....they have formed many a focal on successful work.
I rarely make a piece that is entirely all one type of media, or all one type of clay work. In the piece above we have distressed rusty black patina metal from B'sue Boutiques we have bits and pieces buried in resin, we have bits of chain and repurposed old Czech beads....and yeah. We have those spiral beads made of poly clay.
When I invited my pal, Christi Friesen, Polymer Clay Princess Extraordinaire, to come to Ohio and preach the Christi Gospel of Clay to my pals from the B'sue Boutiques Creative Group, I did it for my heart....my love of this medium. I also did it for my pals, because I knew some of them loved it, too.
But CHEEZE LOUISE....it was a leap of faith, because nobody but a big box wants to be selling polymer clay, and I don't. WHY? Well the stuff has a shelf life. The big boxes are always selling it to ditch the old stuff and as a loss leader. It's weighty to ship and we have low flat fee shipping at B'sue Boutiques
You really can't retail the stuff in this environment and you have to because you don't make anything much on it, everything taken into account, anyway! AND....shipping it in hot weather can make it go hard, like, pre-baked. Sometimes.
SO...why in the HEY am I doing POLY CLAY?
I told you. I love the stuff. And let's get real. As far as organic style polymer clay is concerned, it does not get better than Christi Friesen. She is an amazing instructor, and look at her, she's a nut.
SO AM I. Nuts are drawn to each other, nuts are kindly and fun, especially creative nuts. I wish all instructors were this sort of creative nut, if they were there would be no ego, only learning, only nurturing, only mass explosions of more creativity.
As Christi demonstrated her techniques at the workshop, it was as if I intuitively KNEW what she would do next. Not saying I could do it so well as she did....but I GOT it. My brain goes the same way.
But if not, the upshot is simple. After Christi left, nobody wanted the party to be over. EVER. So we turned the event group secret board, where we planned the first event....into a very special PROJECT board. It is a collaboration between Christi Friesen and myself, and it's called BOHEMIAN VIBE. Christi's involvement will last at least a year and she will be producing four special projects to lead and instruct the group. She also plans to come back and visit us in May 2016.
In May 2015 we are instructing ourselves, the party goes on! and my hope is that we have this party EVERY YEAR til we are all toothless and senile and can't do it anymore. AND MAY THAT BE A VERY LONG TIME FROM NOW.
ANYWAY! Our first challenge was to make a face, which brings me to the whole purpose of this blog post, which is already turning out to be waaay longer than my usual blog post but....I digress....
THE PROCESS:
Okay, so *I* was actually the rare genius who came up with the idea, yay troops, let's make a face out of clay! Christi was still on the road and I had to come up with something (she is the midst of a year long world tour) so in my innate polymer clay wisdom I came up with a face.
I mean hey, I'd read TUTORIALS. How hard could it be?
And they are darling little faces/heads....but I wanted something elegant and Art Nouveau-ish. At Bohemian Vibe we are combining old world, vintage looks, metal bits, found items, fiber and all that----with clay! So yeah, I wanted something 'pretty'.
WELL! All I can say is hey, I have a ton of respect now for a sculptor who makes something pretty out of clay. I'm not even going to show you the hideous mess I worked on for hours.
Reminds me of the words from Elton John's YOUR SONG: "If I were a sculptor.....but then again, no.." Let's make than no a NO.
Doing a wonderful face takes determination and practice...and patience. I wasn't gifted with a whole lot of patience, sorry. So...here I am, guys, I GOT NOTHING.
And since now I had been the brilliant ditz to suggest such as thing as MAKE A FACE...EGAD!!! I had to perform....so! I whipped out a vintage French stamping I had put aside, and I made a ding-dang MOLD from it.
Then the PROCESS began.
Out of the mold, I cut the clay piece back with my handy dandy exacto knife til it it became cameo-like.
Some of the details weren't quite exact, like the hair. So I make little rolled snakes and made her hair. AMAZEMENT! She DIDN'T come out looking like Medusa!
Lemme show ya...
I made the lady in white clay, and I used my fave vintage heart cooky cutter for the background. I stamped the heart with some fave stamps, baked them separately, then when they were cool I put Liquid Sculpey as a glue between them and rebaked.
Then I got out my inks, paints and Gilder's paste and went after it, distressing, adding color, distressing some more. I even put glitter in her hair. Next time I might not do that.
Then I glazed her with Sculpey Satin. Later in the day, I set her little curls with tiny sparkling crystals.
And the next day.....she came to life as a necklace:
Okay.....so NOW I HAVE SOMETHING.
It's not bad for a first shot, in fact, it's pretty sweet. I like this necklace! I feel encouraged.....the first thing I did, didn't work out so well, but HEY! I CAN work with a mold and tweak it, and make it go sorta-kinda the way I want.
Next time I would do the color on the pieces before attaching them. Not sure I can bake them that way, but it would have been better to do them separately. Not to worry, there are glues that will work. I'd probably use E, I have before and no prob.
And I would be more careful with the distressing as I got some scratches here and there, which I would rather not have. Sure, it's distressed and supposed to have that old vintage look, so it's okay in this case. Still, I'd rather avoid that next time.
One last thing, I'd make sure the pupil of her eye was facing a bit more forward. It's okay this time since it's small, but the fish eye look just doesn't cut it for a pretty lady.
Hmmmm......wonder what my next brilliant idea will be for a BOHEMIAN VIBE group challenge? Christi doesn't take the reigns til October.
Oh well, not the first time I've pulled a rabbit out of my hat. The FACE rabbit was a big one!
