Polymer Clay Workshops for 2012

The weather turned out to be good for this years Auckland Anniversary Art & Craft Market at Mission Bay, bringing lots of visitors to the market.

My display advertising the 'Introduction to Polymer Clay' and the 'Polymer Clay Mosaics' workshops that I will be running through 2012 attracted a lot of interest. I hope this will follow through with some bookings. The fact that I was actually working on making a mosaic picture seemed to draw in by-standers.

Working on 'Coffee Time' mosaic

It was nice to have some 'regular customers' return to buy from the 'clearance' table, where I was selling off trial pieces and the last of my stock of Art-Brooches and HANGAs. I no longer intend to make these, as this year, I will be concentrating on teaching workshops and creating larger scale mosaic artwork.

Coffee Time at Mission Bay

Auckland Anniversary Art & Craft Market

Monday 30 January 2012 from 10am - 4pm

on the Selwyn Reserve, Mission Bay

'Coffee Time' is the title of my latest polymer clay mosaic, which I have sketched out here. I intend to be working on this mosaic at this years Auckland Anniversary Art & Craft Market at Mission Bay. I am hoping that the 'work in progress' will attract some interest in my display and the workshops I will be advertising for 2012.

If there is anyone in Auckland who wants to learn more about polymer clay, my Introduction to Polymer Clay Workshop could be just what you are looking for. If you like mosaics but do not want the expense of buying traditional mosaic tools and materials, learn more about an alternative on my Polymer Clay Mosaics (Introduction) Workshop. More details can be found under the 'WORKSHOPS' tab - or come and see me on the 30th at Mission Bay (I hope to be in my usual spot, Row 1).

New Year, New Look Studio

'Studio' is used with 'artistic licence'. I have been working on my folding craft table in the apartment - a far cry from the custom built studio at the end of the garden that I once had in the UK. Several house moves later and then the decision to emigrate to New Zealand meant my whole art and craft set up, including tools and materials, was greatly condensed down to a few large cardboard shipping boxes and my trusty folding craft table.

As we are currently living in a rented apartment, any furniture has to be free-standing so, in an attempt to improve my creative working space and make the apartment look more tidy, I have invested in a new desk and a large bookcase, which will become my very 'compact studio'. The photo shows this transformation in progress. The idea is to eventually have some sort of drop down covering on the front, to hide all the clutter when it is not in use.

The immediate advantage I have noticed so far is having my pasta machine at a height suited for use when standing up.  It also means that I can screw the machine down to the shelf it is on, rather than relying on the clamp to hold it in place, which tends to work loose.

I am not sure when this project will get completed, as I am busy preparing teaching aids and advertising material for my 2012 schedule of workshops, but I will eventually post a photo of the finished look.

New Year, New Approach

As 2012 begins, I am looking forward to a year of new opportunities.

Towards the end of last year, I made the decision to try a new approach to creative enterprise. I intend to focus on teaching polymer clay workshops/classes and, to support this, work on selected mosaic artworks to showcase my skills as a polymer clay mosaic artist.

This will be quite a change from my previous production of items in volume, such as the HANGAs and Art-Brooches. I am fired up with enthusiasm and hope this will show through in my work and teaching.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - AND HAPPY CLAYING!

My last post of the year

One of my New Year Resolutions for 2011 was to "enjoy and prosper from my creativity". I have certainly “enjoyed” everything I have done with polymer clay – and have learned so much more in this last year. The “prosper” part has been a little more difficult in the current economic climate. Here I will take the opportunity to review my goals for 2011:

To expand my range of HANGAs in both surface decoration and shape, and to find more sales outlets – I have experimented with many different types of surface decoration and did try out some heart and square shaped HANGAs as well as the original circular shape. I have continued to sell my HANGAs through Craftworld (Westgate) but apart from trying Etsy.com on-line, have still only sold them through craft markets. I have not pursued other outlets, as I intend to wind down production next year, to concentrate on teaching workshops/classes.

Open an Etsy shop to sell my HANGAs, and other pieces of polymer clay art/craft work, to a wider audience – My Esty shop was launched on 1 August, however, I feel a lot more study is required to make this method work for selling, when so many others are selling through the same site. Next year, I may try www.trademe.co.nz (New Zealand website similar to Ebay) but I much prefer the physical interaction with customers at the markets/fairs, than waiting for an on-line sale.

To create some polymer clay mosaic artwork. (This was my original reason for trying this medium, which has somehow got lost as the Art-Brooches and HANGAs developed, when I had less time for creative work) – I have created several polymer clay mosaic pieces that I am proud of and have ideas for many more, which will gradually become realised as time permits.

To get some polymer clay art/craft work in a few selected galleries, to establish some credibility here in New Zealand – I have exhibited polymer clay work twice in the gallery at the Mairangi Arts Centre. Next year I will need to look at other galleries, particularly as the New Zealand Art Guild, with its exhibiting opportunities, sadly closed down last week.

Try teaching some polymer clay workshops, initially through the Mairangi Arts Centre, to introduce others to the joy of working with this fantastic medium – I am currently preparing material for two different workshops (Introduction to Polymer Clay and Polymer Clay Mosaics). I accepted a number of dates for Spring 2012, to do Saturday workshops at the Mairangi Arts Centre but for some reason (which they have failed to explain to me) these were not published in their brochure, so I am now working on running these myself and creating my own publicity.

HOPING 2012 IS A PROSPEROUS YEAR FOR EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY THE POLYMER CLAYER ARTISTS AROUND THE WORLD

Six different methods for making polymer clay mosaics

I have sketched out this flower design to use in an excercise to show different methods for creating polymer clay mosaics. I have six different methods, which I will show to students who take my 'Polymer Clay Mosaics - Introduction' workshop. So, I am currently working on making this same design using each of the six methods, to illustrate and for comparision.

One down, two to go

This was the first of three Christmas Night Markets, held at the Mairangi Arts Centre. (I still find it hard to get used to Christmas in New Zealand being warm, with light evenings - so different to the colder weather and dark nights in the UK). The market will also be on the following two Saturdays, 10th and 17th December, from 6.15pm - 8.15pm.

Delay to start of 2012 polymer clay workshops

Last week I received a summons for Jury Service on 16 January 2012 and I could be required to serve for three weeks. My schedule of polymer clay workshops for 2012 was due to start on 7 February but due to me having to do Jury Service, this will now have to be put back a month, so will be starting from 6 March 2012. See 'WORKSHOPS' tab at the top of the page, for more details.

My first 'Stroppel' cane

The 'Stroppel cane' has generated a lot of interest (in the Clay-Polymer Yahoo Group). It was introduced recently by Alice Stroppel, as a way of using up scrap canes - so I thought I would give it a try. I do not have many scrap canes but I just added some blobs of coloured clay as well. It was great fun to do, as you do not know how it will turn out. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos during the construction process, as I was having such fun. Here is my first Stroppel cane, which I am really pleased with.

The two slices are the ends of the long sides that I trimmed off, when making the cane a rectangular shape.

I  then ran all my trimmings through the pasta machine, so the pattern has stretched (see above); pieced them together and cut out a few shapes (shown below). This is just from the scrap - from a cane made of scraps!

I love this technique, as it is so easy to do. I will have to include it in my teaching workshops, giving full credit to Alice Stroppel of course. As for what I make with my Stroppel cane - I have some ideas but I am waiting for some more black clay to arrive first.

Colour mixing experiments

After reading about colour mixing with polymer clay, I decided to make some sample colour wheels. I was particularly interested to see the difference in secondary and tertiary colours produced by using the primary colours of light as well as of paint.

 1                                      2                                      3

1. The left hand colour wheel has been made using the primary colours of light: magenta, yellow and cyan (using Premo polymer clay the colours were Fuschia, Cadmium Yellow and Turquoise). I was amazed that a better 'true' red could be created with the Fuschia and Cadmium Yellow than the Premo reds available in ready mixed packets.

2. The central colour wheel has been made using the primary colours of paint: red, yellow and blue (using Premo polymer clay the colours were Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow and Ultramarine Blue). [Note: it would have been better to have used Zinc Yellow but I did not have enough of this at the time].

I definately agree with what I have read, that the primary colours of light rather than of paint give a brighter, better range of colurs with polymer clay. If I decide to buy larger bricks of polymer clay in a limited range of colours, I will definitely go for the primary colours of light.

3. The right hand colour wheel has also been made using the primary colours of paint: red, yellow and blue (using Premo polymer clay the colours were Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow and Cobalt Blue). This shows the difference in colours created by, in this case, using a cooler rather than a warmer blue.

My experiments stopped here as I felt I was using up too much of my precious polymer clay. It is obvious that the warmth or coolness of a colour can have an effect on the final colour mix and I have also learnt that some colours are more intensive than others, so it is not necessarily a simple equal quantities of two primary colours = the expected secondary colour. I understand now why the books suggest making colour chips and recording the quantities of the various colours mixed. This could be a very time consuming exercise but one day I would like to create a comprehensive colour chart, showing all the colour combinations.