I am taking a 'Creative Break' this year (2019)

Refer to my earlier post of 8 March 2019 for more details.

Videos of my winning piece - Inspiration

Here is 'Inspiration' filmed in daylight

and here it is in the dark

2018 International Polymer Clay Awards - a winner

Just watched the live announcement of the 2018 International Polymer Clay Awards. I was thrilled to get an award for my sculpture, Inspiration, in the following category: Applicant Artists Members Choice for Non-Functional Sculpture and Hanging Art. So now I can reveal the piece.

Inspiration - in daylight and in the dark

Title: 'Inspiration'

Description: The meandering line of small glow in the dark tiles represents the initial inspiration or brainwave. I often get my creative inspiration in the dark of the night. The graded colors that ripple out from this brainwave represent the development of an idea into the whole concept. The choice of shades of turquoise reflects the restful, calm, contemplation that forms part of my inspirational process. Each mosaic tile that covers this sphere is like one small part of a grand plan, and it is very satisfying when they all come together, to create the whole thing. As I was making this sculpture, I was already getting inspiration for my next creation.

Materials: Polymer clay tiles and acrylic paste grout (over stainless steel sphere)

Dimensions: 17 cm (6³/₄ inches) across x 17 cm (6³/₄ inches) high


To view the winners of all the categories in the 2018 International Polymer Clay Awards click here

I am taking a 'Creative Break' this year (2019)

Sometimes there are just too many things vying for your time. You can only do so much and rather than spreading yourself thinly over too many things, it is often better to just concentrate on the most important. Whilst my creative art/craft work is my lifeblood, it is going to have to take a back seat this year, but it will be worth it in the long run.

I do not normally post personal information on my website but this might help to explain why I will not be doing any more creative work for the rest of this year. My post on 8 February 2019 was titled New Year, New Changes and 2019 is certainly going to be a big year of change for me. We (that is me and my husband) are buying a house in Whangamata, which is where we will ultimately retire to. The purchase has just gone unconditional and we settle on 21 March 2019. Unfortunately, because we both have to work in Auckland, at least for the next five years, we will only be able to go down at the weekends and for holidays. The whole house needs modernising and decorating, so plenty of weekend projects to do.

Back in Auckland, we are selling our current property and will then look to rent a small place, closer to where we both work, as a weekday crash-pad. The time-scale for this part of the plan is not definite. So with buying, selling, finding a rental, packing and moving between properties, there is a lot going on in the immediate future. It is definitely not conducive to my creative flow. Once everything gets sorted, it will take some time to get settled into the new lifestyle pattern. I am not sure yet how much time I will have for creative work, and where that will be located, but hopefully by the end of this year it will all fall into place.

Polymer clay mosaics - trending now

I had quite a surprise today, when reading this post on the Polymer Arts Blog about polymer clay mosaics, to find myself mentioned:

https://www.thepolymerarts.com/blog/mosaic-flow/

New Year, New Changes

We are now into February and I have not created any new artwork since before Christmas. We had family visiting from the UK for most of January and at the same time we have been preparing and putting our property up for sale. Although it is frustrating, not being able to get in my studio (which is currently all packed away so it looks like a bedroom again for selling), it is all part of a grand plan. The sale of our property will enable us to buy the house we want to retire to in Whangamata.

Although retirement is quite a number of years away (five if my husband is able to retire at 65), if we are successful in purchasing, we will use it as a holiday home and go down for weekends. This will mean major changes to my current life pattern and probably very little time for creating over the next five years but it is a sacrifice I have to make for the future. Retirement to a lovely little town, with a fantastic beach, community and social scene - and all the time I want to be creative 😊

So you may not see many posts for a while, and I may not have time to create many new pieces, but check the EVENTS tab regularly for any exhibitions/markets that I will be doing this year.

Mission Bay Art & Craft Market - Monday 28 January 2019

After some unexpected drizzle, when setting up and for the first part of the morning, the weather turned out good. By the afternoon there were plenty of visitors to the market and in terms of clearing old stock (in anticipation of moving house), it was a successful day.

Come and say 'Hello' tomorrow - the weather is looking good

I will be selling Swirl-StoNZ plus the last of my 'Studio Clearance' items, ready for moving house in the near future.

A Review of 2018

At the beginning of this year, I set myself just one goal: to continue developing my Swirl-StoNZ. Unfortunately I have not succeeded very well with this. Other creative opportunities have come along to take up my time as well as some important non-creative life plans. Half way through the year I even had to turn down several art opportunities, as I simply did not have enough spare time, but others I really felt I had to take up. My dot mosaics were supposed to take a back seat for this year, while I concentrated on developing my Swirl-StoNZ. Instead they seem to have taken over. 

In summary, I had planned to enter a couple of pieces for the New Zealand National Mosaic Art Exhibition 2018 in September but the Estuary Art Centre also put on another Mosaic Exhibition in May, which I was asked to enter. As this was not in my original plan, I submitted my large ‘Watching the sunrise over Rangitoto’ artwork, which had to be re-mounted on board (as it was originally done on a canvas), re-grouted and framed. I was amazed that it sold on the first day.

I spent a lot of time creating my two pieces for the New Zealand National Mosaic Art Exhibition 2018, as this was the first time I had entered this biennial event, which was held in September at the Estuary Arts Centre, Orewa. I was thrilled to receive first prize in the 3D category for my sphere sculpture ‘Aotearoa – land of the long white cloud’. Although I did not sell this piece at this exhibition, I entered it in the Member’s Merit Awards Exhibition held in November at the Lake House Arts Centre, Takapuna. Not only did I sell this sculpture at this exhibition, it won the People’s Choice Award and I was commissioned to do another similar sculpture, which will be my first project of 2019.

My polymer dot mosaics will also be featured in a second book, titled 'Polymer Journeys 2019', which is due to be published early next year. The submission of photos and text for this involved some work, as well as my one entry for the 2018 International Polymer Clay Awards.

So 2018 has turned out to be a successful year for my dot mosaics, which is good, just not quite what I planned. For 2019, I do still want to develop my Swirl-StoNZ but I also feel I should ‘go with the flow’ and continue with the success of my dot mosaics. If only there were more hours in the day J 

Entry submitted for the 2018 International Polymer Clay Awards

Due to lack of time, I have only been able to create one new piece for this competition. I have been working on it for several months and finally submitted my entry today. Unfortunately, I cannot post any photos until after the end of February 2019, when the judging has taken place.