Musings on Tonya Davidson's Master Muse Program

Tonya Davidson has assembled an amazing group of artists in her Master Muse program. A technique or material is featured in each of the challenges and her merry band of muses responds with some innovative designs- and a detailed tutorial on how to recreate each piece. So far there have been 18 challenges and  her international group of artists (Lora Hart, Kelly Russell, Angela Baudel-Crispin, Donna Penoyer, Barbara Becker Simon, and Ruth Baillie among others) have responded to the call.
The most recent set of challenges has inspired me to give resin a try. All these have used Susan Lenart Kazmer's Ice Resin. I've always been a bit put off by Susan's clown head and pencil stub designs, but looking at some of the other design elements she's created using resin, I've been intrigued, but not quite sure how to incorporate them into metal clay or polymer . Three of the Muses have answered that question for me.

Kelly Russell created a metal clay dragonfly trapped in "amber" using a box design in tinted resin.

Lora Hart created a metal clay speciman container brooch with an ice resin center that is an homage to medieval jewelery design

And Ruth Baillie's Hugh the Chameleon brooch in metal clay with tinted resin accents is whimsical.

One of the  things I love about the challenges is that several different artists all show their take on the same element  or process.  Ruth and Lora both did brooches with hand made findings - and each pin design was unique. And each artist gives some background to their design process, so you get a peek into how their creative juices flow and what inspires them.

So far the Muses have done clasps, steampunk stencilling, torch fired enamel, art clay copper and pmc together, and now ice resin.

The Master Muse website has brief summaries of each project and detailed tutorials are coming soon for purchase on Tonya's Wholelottawhimsy website, and I'm patiently waiting to buy my first (hopefully this week the first 3 tutes will be offered for sale). But in the meantime, I've got an idea for a metal clay and resin pendant, and going to  mix up a batch of ice resin this afternoon and give it a try.

Doing the Happy Dance

About 3 weeks ago, I turned in my "final 3" projects for jurying in Chicago - the last step in becoming a Senior Instructor for Art Clay World. And, along with Gail Moriarty, who also took  the level 2 class with me at Carol Babineau's studio, I've been waiting patiently to hear the outcome. I just received a congratulatory email from Carol.

As my dear mother used to say, "Yippee, Skippee!", sort of a back in the day equivalent of WHOO-HOO!

I've doing some preplanning for my retirement (998 days and counting), and one of the things I'm looking forward to doing is spending much of my time writing and teaching. Achieving the Senior Instructor certification from Art Clay World was one of "those" things that I needed to do to accomplish my retirement dream.

Now I'm looking at the Master Registry Program, a rigorous 5 tier evaluation program based on 50 specific projects, testing one's ability and creativity using metal clay. So far, 14 artists have successfully completed one or more or the tiers, and judging from the map of those in the program,  I'd be the first to enroll from Massachusetts. It's a bit of a scarey endeavor for me, but one that I believe will help me stretch and grow. Julia Rai, the first to sign up for the program, and the first to reach Level III, details her experience in her blog.

Absolutely Everything

well, it's Friday again, and it looks like I'll be stopping by Absolutely Everything in Topsfield MA on my way home again.
This is a dangerous detour for me...and my wallet, as I always find something I just HAVE to HAVE. Today, I'm on the hunt for Style Stones, which I plan on using as texture tools with metal clay. hopefully , I'll find what I'm looking for there and and will be able to post some new pics over the weekend.

this promises to be a busy Weekend - I'm heading out Saturday to Salem, MA to the Peabody Essex Museum and their new Mayan exhibit - got a great writeup last weekend and the premise is fascinating -"ancient Maya viewed their world as inextricably tied to water."

and Sunday I'll be  trying to get a studio back in shape "after the floods" - basement still drenched, but drying slowly, so I'm going to tackle my breezeway room - currently stacked high with seasonal stuff, it's time to clean it out. I'm hoping that between this and next long weekend (thanks to Paul Revere and the Boston marathoners, I have next Monday off), I can turn this nice little room into a 2-3 person teaching studio, at least until the basement studio gets cleared our and cleaned up. Should be interesting- and hopefully I'll find that set of keys that went missing last year in the rubble.

claying with Julie Picarello

after a busy couple of weeks finishing up my Sr Cert Art Clay  projects, I'm rewarding myself with a weekend with Julie Picarello and her mokume gane mixed media workshop through Bead Designers International (check out her amazing work at http://www.yhdesigns.com/).

lots of clay to condition in preparation for this great class and I'm looking forward to getting together with friends and claying for a weekend.

amazing wood sprites

I've been busy since returning from Maryland, Cabin Fever and Synergy, dealing with the after effects of two weeks away from the real job - and from the flooded basement that awaited by return to Massachusetts. This time, because I was away when the basement flooded and we lost power for several days, the sump pump that keeps me relatively dry was not attended to,  the water rose about 8 inches and entered the finished half of the basement. so I've been pumping, wet vacing, dehumidifying and tossing out.

this is the first weekend I've really had to myself, so today, after some metal clay work with Carol Babineau and a Central Ma Polymer Clay guild meeting, I decided to finally check out some of the etsy sites - and came across some incredible polymer clay wood sprites by Chopoli  .

This polymer sculptor from Rosenheim, Germany has quite a talent for combining polymer clay and wood bark. Some of the sprites'  and gnomes' faces are incredibly beautiful and human like, others are pure fantasy.

History at Synergy2

Synergy 2,  the 2010 conference for the International Polymer Clay Association, is being held at the Tremont Grand in Baltimore. This Building was the site of an early Masonic Lodge and is loaded with history and very fancy decor.

on the first night of Synergy2, the old and the new collided for me. As a big fan of Ace of Cakes, a Food Network weekly series about Baltimore -based Charm CIty Cakes, I was thrilled to discover that the Synergy Committee had contracted for a Duff "special " cake.

This cake depicts several polymer clay techniques, including flower canes, beadmaking  and mosaics - and was very yummy (except for the gum paste jewels around the base of the cake, which looked scrumptious, but had the consistency of unflavored, very poofy marshmallows).

After the cake tasting, I visted the ladies room and came face to face with a story related to my home town, Jamestown NY, and the company where my grandmother Haupin spent most of her work life- and where my mother was a Rosie the Riveter during WWII. the plaque and signatures hidden in an alcove explain it all.

Maryland madness

So, I've been in Maryland for almost a week, staying with family and attending Cabin Fever Clay fest. This was my second time attending this whirlwind polymer clay event. It is hard to say which of the 7 classes I attended that I enjoyed the most.

What was great about this year was that there were more "multi-media" offereings, and I really didn't have the self imposed pressure of  completing projects in each class (good thing because I was up late -for me- almost every night watching the Olympics  )

so, in Dayle Doroshow's class I did complete 10 different folded paper books (and polymer covers for 4 of them)

and

 in Laurie Mika's class

 I completed some  very thick mosaic ATC's.