Victoria James' Textures

VictoriaJamesArt has some wonderful new textures available for polymer and metal clay artists.

Taken from nature and woodblock prints, these have my imagination overflowing. Her lava rock texture looks like just what I’ll need to create the wonderful ivory texture tool that Cynthia Thornton shows in the “texturing clay “ section of her Enchanted Adornments .

Email Victoria to order any of the texture sheets shown in her “What’s New” or “Real Textures” sections and let your imagination run wild!

Synergy 2 and CFCF2010 are heating up

February may be cold and bleak here in New England, but down in Maryland, it's full of color!

Combine Cabin Fever Clay Festival (CFCF) with the IPCA's Synergy 2 and you have something for every polymer clay enthusiast.

As with 2008, Kathryn Ottman has pulled together a hands-on , pre-Synergy extravaganza in Laurel, MD, with CFCF2010 . Jana Roberts Benzon, Jeff Dever, Lindly Haunani, Maggie Maggio, Barbara McGuire, Nan Roche, and Cindy Silas are teaching full day pre-conference workshops (Jeff’s is a two day event). Then, beginning Sunday, February 21, Tony Aquino, Maureen Carlson, Louise Fisher Cozzi, Dayle Doroshow, Grant Diffendaffer, Laurie Mika, Kathryn Jo Ottman, Lisa Pavelka, Sarah Shriver, and Ronna Sarvas Weltman teach half-day workshops through Wednesday, February 24th. Check out Polyclayfests’ blog for more details on CFCF 2010’s offerings

Then you can slide on over to the Tremont Plaza Suites Hotel in Baltimore for Synergy2 , the ICPA’s biennial gathering. Start with an opening cocktail reception and presentation by Ford & Forlano Wednesday night. Then on Thursday, the development sessions begin- topics range from inspirations from scientific imagery to marketing strategies with stops along the way on design techniques and collaborations. This year there’s more time to meet with fellow artists, as the sessions are all at the Tremont –and more meals are included. Also this year, the ICPA is sponsoring some hands-on pre and post conference classes, with Seth Savarick, Leslie Blackford, Bettina Welker, Dan Cormier, Tracy Holmes and Robert Dancik.

What more could one ask for on a cold winter’s day?

Enchanted Adornments

Some wonderful books have recently come out in the polymer and metal clay world

Most recently, Cynthia Thornton, of Green Girl Studio fame, has written a lovely, whimsical, mixed-media tome that is part story book-journal, part creativity spark, part project manual.
after reading ENCHANTED ADORNMENTS cover to cover twice, I can only wish that I could see inside her own journals, to delve further into how she translates her imagination into such wonderful designs.

Instead, today, I'm going to start building some of the texture cards and reverse texture stamps she shows how to build in the Essentials section.

The Projects section is divided into 20 chapters, each with a unique story and design. Metal Clay, polymer clay, shrink plastic, resin and wire wrap are all represented. The Inspiration Gallery includes works I've not seen before from 14 well known mixed-media artists