Time to check in....

Hi everyone,

    Well, I have finally recovered from all the craziness of the last couple of weeks....I had a great time and now all I want to do is play with some new ideas...as if I didn't have enough to be going on with already!  I am trying to settle down to one or two main projects and the other bits will just have to happen when I get some time. I talked with the editors of Art Jewelry this past week and may have three step-by-step articles to write for them...two rings and a brooch with polymer and metal clay....I am still working on my own step-by-steps for myself and am looking into setting up a sale page or getting an Etsy site.  Any advice would be welcome!  

     Tomorrow, I am going back to VA. to play at Carol Hamilton's studio, at The Workhouse (it used to be an old prison, nuff said...) and we are going to try out some of the goodies she got at Synergy to see if they work well with metal clay.  It is going to be a long day! (while I was writing this, my trip just got extended to two days! I will be hanging out with Terresa and the Moth! Yeah! Always fun!) Debbie (my pirate girl) and Terresa are joining us!  We are in trouble if any wine shows up!  

     Well, have to get to work, since tomorrow is for playing....hope everyone is having fun in their own studios (I am tempted to go and sit outside, since it is so nice out) and I will talk with you later this week and show you some photos of what we are playing with tomorrow.....have fun til then...Kelly

     Comments for the photos...The first is our lovely Christi Friesen, being her playful self....next is the lovely Melaine Muir from Scotland (her work was written up today on Polymer Clay Daily....go see!) and last is the brooch idea I will be writing a version of for the step-by-step for Art Jewelry, which now belongs to Carol Hamilton and was commented on by Wendy Rosen.  Thought is was beautiful....I must say, I agree!  The bottom corner is bronze clay! Enjoy!

yes, I know....

   Ok, no comments about that last post of one line!  I said I was shattered, maybe now you will believe it!  I have been in learning mode since two Thursdays ago....12 days running.....I came home last night from the last day of class and slept until 3:30 today.....feeling a little better but I don't trust myself to handle big machinery or drive anywhere....yesterday I tried to go forward by putting the car in reverse!  Lucky I made it home!  

    I started out this crazy two weeks with Gordon's class in VA. and had a great time...then had a day off before starting in with the Synergy Conference....The seminars were fun and the hotel had great food and coffee (which was needed more and more as time went on) but the up and down was a bit much on us old ladies....yes, I am almost 49 and this week I felt at least 30 years older on some days....but there was sooooo much eye candy that it was worth it!  Some really beautiful polymer work. I got a small pendant bead from one of my good friends, Barbara McGuire...mokume gane and in pinks, reds, peach and 22kt gold....just beautiful.  I met a lot of new people and met some that are on my Facebook page that I didn't know before....I was lucky enough to be included in Cynthia Tinapple's slide show about new trends for polymer clay....mixed media section (and then I realized that I have also been in slide shows for lectures at SNAG and the PMC Conferences, and now the polymer conference, so maybe I am not doing as badly as I thought!)... mixed media indeed! Love it!  

   I also got to hang out with Gordon some more since he came up to the conference with Carol Hamilton and the Pirate...Debbie, as we call her! And Tonya Davidson from Whole Lotta Whimsy and Robert Dancik (we missed Mr. Tim McCrieght, god, I hope I spelled his name right!) hung out with us and all the meeting and smooshing and making new friends and new deals...my brain may explode if I think too much on this! I know I have forgotten someone! I also got inducted into the Tabernacle of Clay with a secret handshake. Although, on the last night of the conference, so did everyone else....and I did get a sneaky photo or two of Miss Libzoid! and my dear friend Melanie Muir from Scotland (she even gave me a credit in the British version of American Craft magazine...woo hoo!)  

   I was so tired that for the first day of Dan's class, I just took notes but brought all my stuff for the second day and Libby let me use her pasta machine (no, my Dream Machine didn't come in in time)...and played with some of the techniques that he taught. Can't show you all the photos, that would be naughty but when I get my silly pieces baked, I will show you what I made...right now, the pieces and the toaster oven are in the car, were they will stay until someone (Ed...), brings then back in.  

   And in the last, but not least division, I have been talking with Carol Hamilton about teaching a polymer class combined with metal clay in her studio at the Workhouse sometime this spring and for those of you who live or just want to go to Florida, I may be teaching there also...things are in the wind.  Also, my crazy piece for the Master's Muse (Whole Lotta Whimsy) should be up sometime in the beginning of March!  A step-by-step in don't do as I do, do as I say!  My dad used to always say that to us kids and now I have gone and made something of it....who knows what he will say of that???  Anyway, that is way more than enough for now...might be time for a nap and maybe some meatloaf and baked potatoes for dinner, yum!  Have fun, Kelly  well, here we are being let in by the fancy doorman and then, there is Miss Libby and Gordon, doing what we all should be doing, taking a small nap! So, goodnight, sweet reader!

  

Shattered but alive!

Just a couple of fun photos....

Hi everyone,

   I am going to get some sleep in a bit but thought I would post a couple of fun photos...and, Libby, tomorrow you better watch out!  There may be this redhead sneaking up behind you....! 

   I am at the Synergy Conference this week and Ford and Forlano started it off with a nice slide show and it was topped off with a cake from Ace of Cakes. There is supposed to be a photo of the cake on PolymerClayDaily in the next day or two....I will take more photos tomorrow...the hotel is fab! Just stunning!  Anyway, have fun this week ad I will try to be good and post everynight!  You can see other photos on Libby Mills blog...Libzoid.com.  Hope you like mine, Kelly    

   P.S. The first is my good friend, Gloria, in a huge chair! (Gloria's feet really couldn't touch the floor!) and the second is the mural in one of the ladies room's ....talk about a fancy restroom!  

Last but not least, even though it is first...

A little peek of some of the characters in the class and the head character himself!!  

A little bit more...

Hi again,

      First, the photos in the last post are in a backwards order.....Sorry, Roxanne and Terresa.... and I forgot to post the photo of the first funny image I saw on the way to the workshop....should have been a clue!  and then I am going to show you some of the pieces I made....and last, but not least, the project from the class...abit different from Gordon's but that is ok....have fun this week,Kelly 

And now, halftime!!!!

Hi everyone,

   I almost hit the enter button after the title but stopped myself just in time! Yeah!  I had a great time in Virginia at the prison!  I went down on Thursday for the guild meeting and had Chinese dinner before we went to the Mexican restaurant. We got to see a bunch of Gordon's pieces before class and talked a few girls into coming to the class and join in the fun!  Hopefully, Heidi didn't regret not going snowboarding!  I am going to post the little pig she made and hopefully she won't mind! I am also going to show you what I had to look at for three days every time I looked up from what I was doing!  I made a lot of copper and bronze sheets to use in my polymer/pmc pendants. Gordon was a very patient teacher considering we had 20 loud, chatty women!  That man has hidden talents!  I am looking forward to talking with him this week at the Synergy Conference here in Baltimore! 

    We also had a great time at Carol Hamilton's house for dinner and drinks on Saturday night! I haven't laughed that hard in years....my side actually hurt!  Thanks everyone! I must have needed it!  Jeanette LeBlanc (hope I spelled her name right or she will probably write something in the magazine about me that isn't nice!) not really, but she is quiet and quick!  I thought I was going to wet my pants a couple of times after she had just zinged someone.....we are tight like that! Right, Carol?  And for all this I was lucky enough to stay with my good friend Terresa Leopold and her hubby, Cory.... he was a pretty good sport! I wasn't even afraid f her dog, Miko....although, I have never been dissed by a pooch!  And Kim Joy, what more can I say, another quiet but quick zinger!  

     Gordon and Carol had a contest for us within the class context that was fun. The basis was that you had to combine two different clays in the same piece. Denise, Debbie (the young lady in red and white prison garb!) Roxanne and Susan won the prizes of packs of bronze and copper clay!  Lucky girls! We also had breakfast and lunch made for us all three days....not bad, right! Great way to take a class....eat when you have a break while something is drying and making the most of the time!  Like I said, great class!  

     So, I won't be posting between now and next Tuesday at the earliest....I am going to Synergy and then a two day class on Sunday and Monday!  I am hoping to pick up my DREAM machine at the conference...way excited! 

     Hope you like these photos....first is Roxanne's, next is Heidi's, and third...what can I say...a room with a view!  Enjoy! Kelly