Back Again.....

Hi everyone,

   Well, I am finally back in the land of the living....things have been crazy busy!  Went to Va to "play" with the girls at the prison...we were supposed to play with glass clay but it didn't come in so we played with polymer....and then the next day we went to the National Harbour to celebrate Carol's birthday....it was a fun day with the girls.....then I came home to find out I was late doing my Master Muse project! So, I got a week extension, whew! You can see the finished necklace on Tonya's site. It was a fun project but it was time consuming.....all that time for the resin layers to cure!

   Then I needed to work on the bracelets for the Metal Clay Artist Magazine...which had its own problems....working with new mediums on a deadline is not the smartest thing I have ever done! And I did it two times in a row....should I try for three?  No! 

   Then I had the three day class at Carol's....we had a good time! We started out making tearaways and everyones came out great, first time out! Yeah! It was nice that the tearaways all worked smoothly and the girls all made more later on....we then moved on to decals, mokume gane and resin plates. We played with glitter and colored pencils and acrylic paint. We also did copper and bronze clay sheets with our new tearaway texture plates to include in our frames. On day two, we started on the PMC+ frames.....there was a wide range of designs and some changed while we were building them. I was hoping to get in some more polymer done in the afternoon but everyones frames were complicated.....way to go girls!...pushing the envelope! I was really proud of the way they went for what they wanted to do...complicated or not! I was trying to keep up with them on my demo piece by they blew by me!  The third day we assembled all the polymer, glass and copper sheets into the fired frames. Once that part was done, we added the resins. Whew! What a busy three days! On the fourth day I had to do a make-up class for two students who missed part of the weekend and then I had to fix the bracelets for the Metal Clay article....the next day I drove home....got stuck behind traffic for miles, waiting for the state of Maryland to sweep the streets....crazy! You would think they could do that at night.....

    So, I finally finished up the article for Metal Clay Artist Magazine....antiqued the bracelets in a fun way....you will have to get the magazine to see what was done! Hope you like them!

    Now I have to get ready for Bead and Button....my friend, Nikki Thornburg, has offered me a space for my beads for sale. So, if you are looking for me and my beads, that's where you will find the beads. I will be in class. This year I am a student! I am taking a glass casting class, some enamel classes, a painting enamels on glass with Vicki Hallmark and a couple of crystal beaded element classes with Leslee Frumin. Should be a fun and tiring week. I am looking forward to seeing a lot of my friends that I haven't seen in a while. 

    When I get back from Bead and Button, I will be getting ready for the PMC Conference....I am doing a talk about surface techniques with Barbara Becker Simon. Should be fun to watch!  Hope to see you there!  Until then, have fun in your studios! Kelly

The photos are as follows....a cool plant in Carol and George's backyard with a "pearl" of a raindrop.....the second photo is the resin project for the Master Muse....and last, but not least, the demo piece I made in class..."Time's up"....my son Morgan thought that name would work well. Hope you like them....K