Whangamata News article: Easter Art Trail always inspirational

That's me, in the centre of the centre photo

Photos from the Easter Art Trail

Here is my set up at 306 Hetherington Road, Whangamata

Easter Arts Trail - Sat 30 & Sun 31 March 2024

Hoping for good weather over the Easter weekend for this event, organised by the Arts Collective Whangamata. 

I will be at Location 1. 306 Hetherington Road, with a range of paintings, mosaics, sculptures, one of a kind pieces and Swirl-StoNZ.

Forgrt-me-not Orb

Have just completed this little orb sculpture, all made from polymer clay over a glass form.

Forget-me-not Orb
Approximately 15cm diameter x 15cm high

Forget-me-nots symbolise true love and respect. When you give someone these tiny blooms, it represents a promise that you will always remember them and will keep them in your thoughts. They are also considered a symbol of fidelity and faithfulness.

The reef or square knot tying the rope around the vase is also known as the Knot of Hercules, love knot or marriage knot. It is a strong knot created by entwining two ropes and is believed to be the origin of the phrase “tying the knot,” used when getting married, since it symbolises binding.

Alphabet Orb - photos

Here is my recently completed piece, titled Alphabet Orb. I will try taking a video of it on my electric turntable, when it is quiet, and add that later.

Alphabet Orb - front and back shots
15cm (6 inches) diametre

Auckland - City of Sails (commission)

Although I am taking a 'creative break' this year, I have managed to finish this piece, which was a commission.

Second Award for 'Aotearoa - land of the long white cloud'

Just found out that as well as selling my sculpture, Aotearoa - land of the long white cloud, it has won the 'Peoples Choice Award' at the Lake House Arts Centre's 'Members Merit Awards' exhibition. I am thrilled that it has won two awards but will be sorry to see it go.

You can read more about it in this earlier post https://clairefairweather.blogspot.com/2018/09/aotearoa-land-of-long-white-cloud.html

Sphere of Happiness

This is my latest dot mosaic sculpture titled 'Sphere of Happiness'.

I was wanting to include words in this next sphere sculpture, which was inspired by a recent customer who requested yellow Swirl-StoNZ because, in colour therapy, yellow is for 'Happiness'. I have chosen to use shades of yellow and orange for the tiles and have included words associated with 'Happiness' by stamping individual letters on some of the circular tiles. You will find the following words spiraling around the sphere: Happy, Joy, Smile, Content, Love, Blessed, Delight, Laugh, Elation, Bliss, Hug, Fortunate, Radiant, Satisfaction, Pleasure, Well-being, Euphoric, Cheer, Enjoyment.

Sphere of Happiness

This piece is one of my entries in the 'Cut in Colour' Mosaic Exhibition, which will run from 2-27 May 2018 at the Estuary Art Centre, Orewa.

Art & Craft Market at Mission Bay - Monday 26 January 2015

I am having a spring clean of my studio, to make room for my new large scale dot mosaics. So, I will be selling off a selection of artwork, sculptures and jewellery, at less than half price, at this event. This is a great opportunity to pick up some unique polymer clay pieces at bargain prices. Get there early because once they are gone, they are gone!

 

The event takes place on the Selwyn Reserve at Mission Bay, Auckland on the 26 January (Auckland Anniversary Monday) from 10am - 4pm.

Members' Merit Awards Exhibition at the Lake House

Unfortunately I did not get my first dot mosaic picture completed to enter in this exhibition (still a long way to go, so it may be just be ready for next years) but I did enter two sculptural pieces, shown below.

Colour Rings
(sculpture with tea light)

Global Reflections
(sculpture with tea light)

I briefly attended the opening of this exhibition before moving on for the Auckland Polymer Clay Guild's last meeting of the year, which just happened to be on the same night.

Rainbow Cauldron

I have just about finished this sculpture, which contains over 900 hand rolled balls of polymer clay in the colours of the rainbow, hence the name 'Rainbow Cauldron'. It will be one of my three entries in the Great Art Sale at the Lake house Arts Centre in Takapuna. The sale runs from 31 July to 31 August 2014. Here are some photos taken from different angles:

Members and Students Exhibition at MAC

This evening was the opening night of this exhibition. Members were allowed to submit two pieces, so I entered my ‘Out of this World’ sculpture and a newly created wall-hanging titled ‘Colour Play’, pictured below, the later had been sold before I left.

 

Colour Play

 

I have also made some PINZ, in a circular design with the same colours, to coordinate with ‘Colour Play’. I like the idea of having small affordable pieces, reflecting the main exhibition piece, for sale in the gallery store. This will be my first public showing of PINZ by Claire, so I will be interested to see what reaction I get.

 

PINZ by Claire

 

I have been busy

I have not posted for a while but have been busy. Since returning from the conference in Malta, I have been working on some pieces for forthcoming exhibitions: Rainbow Cauldron (sculpture), Global Reflections (sculpture) and ‘Colour Play’ (a sculptural wall-hanging); pictures will be posted when they are complete.

 

This is the beginning of Rainbow Cauldron - the rainbow coloured bubbling balls are yet to be added:

 

 

"Hold on th your Dreams"

"Hold on to your Dreams"

I created this sculpture to use an unwanted display prop (the black hand). The title of this piece reflects how I feel at the moment, waiting to hear if my grant application to attend the EuroSynergy Conference in Malta has been successful. 

 

The letters were cut from a rainbow Skinner Blend, created using Fuschia, Cadmium Yellow and Turquoise Premo polymer clay. The photos below show how I created the blended sheet.

Triangles of Fushia, Cadmium Yellow and Turquoise polymer clay

 

After a few passes through the pasta machine the colours start to blend

With further passes the colours blend more 

When I was happy with the blending, I traced and cut out the letters

The baked letters were then pressed onto a black backing sheet of clay

 

My latest sculpture...Out of this World!

I had great fun at the end of last year creating this sculpture, which I have finally managed to successfully photograph in the dark.

Out of this World - in daylight

Out of this World - in the dark

This is one of three entries I will be submitting for the International Polymer Clay Awards. Below is a description about the sculpture:

Out of this World – A stainless steel dish forms the base of this sculpture. The inside surface has been covered with a layer if retro cane slices, starting fairly square and geometric at the outer edge and becoming more organic towards the centre. Nodules and and stems develop out of the amorphous mass in the centre, with alien flowers sprouting, with the same centric patterns from the retro canes. The whole sculpture looks totally different in the dark, as glow in the dark polymer clay has been used to highlight selected areas. You may find it fascinating, eerie or just out-of-this-world?

My first post of 2014

This year I want to continue teaching polymer clay but for my own personal creative work I just want to "do what inspires me", as I spent so much of last year preparing teaching material and samples. In particular I want to:

1. Focus on one-off artworks/sculptures to sell through galleries, gallery stores and selected shops.
2. Experiment with lighting, starting with translucent polymer clay covered candle holders and then larger scale electric lighting (this may involve some non-polymer clay materials for larger scale pieces but it something that really inspires me).
3. Try and win an international polymer clay award, to add credibility to my teaching ability.
4. Expand locations to teach polymer clay workshops. 

"With all my love" - work in progress

This is a piece I am currently working on. I have covered a heart-shaped wall hanging ornament with strips of polymer clay showing different surface techniques (skinner blend, marbled, retro cane and rolled metal leaf). I then plan to add a tied ribbon, made from polymer clay, with the wording "With all my love" on it. I will post a photo of the finished piece, when it is done.

A disasterous Friday

I started work today on a new sculptural piece. After sketching out a plan, I began creating a whole range of graded shades of clay, from purple and blue through to green and turquoise, for mosaic tiles to cover a ceramic form (the Maori 'fish hook' symbol).

 

I had decided to apply the mosaic tiles unbaked, so they would mould to the curved shape of the sculpture better. At the end of the afternoon, I decided to part bake the piece (which was not finished) that I had been working on most of the day. Then disaster struck...

 

Somehow, in the short distance from my work table to the oven, the piece toppled over, falling off the baking tile and smashing all over the floor. I will not repeat what I said, suffice to say I had just ruined a days work.

Golden Wave - nearly finished

My work on this sculpture has been very sporadic. I had to wait for the Viva Decor Precious Metal Colour (gold) to come from America, which I have used on the inner surface of the wave. It took quite a few coats but looks good, very metallic and better than in the photo. On the website I ordered it from, it said that this product was hard to remove but I discovered that it comes off if wiped with alcohol.

So I feel I need to give this sculpture a finishing coat. I could use Sculpey Glaze but am concerned that it is not that durable so perhaps Envirotex Lite resin would be better, but I am scared of spoiling it, so I keep putting it off.

I have been working

'Golden Wave' - in progress

It has been a while since I have posted what I have been working on. This because it has mostly been preparing samples and material for my workshops but here is a sculptural piece I have started. It will be called 'Golden Wave'. I will post a photo when it is finished but I cannot say when that will be yet.