Polymer Clay Classes are Back!

  Polymer clay has become a powerhouse of opportunities for people to express themselves.  It can behave as clay, fabric, paint, and more.  The scope of possibilities can be seen on any bookstore shelf that has more than 5 books on the shelf dedicated to it.  It is accessible to the home hobbyist and super-star artists whose work is found in museums.  Just like any art technique, it is best to start at the bottom and work your way up if you are starting from scratch.  Building a foundation of steps will afford you an arsenal of skills that you can have at your disposal when you decide to create something new.

  The year 1995 was the start of a 20+ year love affair with polymer clay. It became my sole expression of choice.  The clay satisfied any mood I felt or wanted to create in a piece of jewelry, set of unique buttons or small art pieces.  I created my company Ovenfried Beads, and my "claim to fame" was the Stacker Bead.  The volume of Stacker Beads that I made allowed a full and long-lasting line of jewelry that found popularity locally and around the world.  Mokume Gane, surface textures and stamps, and other experimental techniques that have no name are my favorite techniques.  Combining polymer clay pieces with bead embroidery, like here and here, is an extremely fun way to make your clay work pop. The multi-media possibilities are endless.  Just check out the book 400 Polymer Clay Designs and let your mind be blown~!

  Now I am again offering my popular private polymer clay classes for adolescents and adults in the Greater Cincinnati Tri-State area.  My classes are a LOT of fun, but I take them very seriously and want to offer the best instruction. 

Beads made from cane slices from class.

Basic Cane Building   -   Students will learn how to layer different colors of clay to create a cane or loaf, that when sliced, will reveal the same pattern per slice.  (Think of sushi.)  Four layering techniques will be taught, then if time allows, students will be able to experiment.  Use of pasta machine and long blade and piercing tool.  

Go crazy with color or monochromatic for a more subdued effect.

Mokume Gane   -   Mokume Gane is my favorite technique, achieved by layering several contrasting colors of clay into a brick, distorting with piercing tools, and slicing to reveal elegant wood-grain-like organic patterns.  Each slice is different.  Use of pasta machine, long blade, variety of piercing tools.

Extruder Cane Fun  -   Clay extruders provide a way to create small detailed canes.  When the right color combinations are used, eye-popping designs result.  This class will focus on the grid design you see here.  Use of clay extruder and sharp blade.

Commercial and hand-made stamps used in these leaves.

Texture with Pearl Surface   -   Choose commercial stamps, hand-carved stamps and textures from unexpected places.  Add some pearl powder to give a jewel-toned sheen and accentuate the surface shapes.  Use of pasta machine, long blade, stamps and texture tools, a variety of shaped cutters, pearl powder and polyurethane coating.

Stacker Beads   -   Stacker Beads look tough to make, but the technique is simple.  With practice you can make your own Stacker Beads and WOW your friends!  You will create both beads feature above.  All you need is your hands and a long blade. 

   Fine print:  There is no supply list to purchase, as the class fee covers the clay and use of my large selection of tools acquired over the years.  If a student has clay and tools they previously purchased, it is fine to incorporate them into the class, but the class fee remains the same.  You can come to my beautiful home on the West side of Cincinnati or I can come to you.  If I come to you, I will have some space and electric plug requirements, and I only teach in non-smoking environments.  Very young children and rowdy pets are distractions that will slow the process and diminish your experience, so plan accordingly.  Good dexterity is necessary in both hands.  Students keep all of their creations...including beads, buttons, pendants...whatever the student makes. Basic jewelry construction is not covered, but can be a separate class if desired.  I prefer to keep class sizes 1-4.  Cost:  $65 per 4 hour session or $75 per 5 hour session,  per student, ages 10 and up.  The class categories above cannot be combined in one class, but multiple sessions can be scheduled if one desires to learn more than one technique. 

To see more of my current work and stay tuned to what is happening, follow my AmyEclectic page on Facebook or AmyEclectic on Etsy.  Interested in scheduling a class?  Contact me here. 

Other People's Stacker Beads.....Part 6

(Note: There is an issue with some formatting today, so I cannot present direct links through my text or make the end of it look particularly easy-to-read. Just check out my Etsy shop, which is listed on the sidebar, if you want to get a tutorial of your own.)

So my Stacker Tutorials have been selling like crazy, but I've been getting very few responses as far as follow-up photos by buyers. I suppose some folks just don't want to send pix for whatever reason and that's okay. Some may be taking their time to perfect it before they send them, and that's fine.

Well last week I received photos from a buyer who had received the tutorial less than a week prior. I thought I was looking at my own Stacker beads! I looked at them and marveled at how well she fine-tuned the technique in such a short amount of time.


This "she" I'm talking about is Marty McGraw, of Indiana. She says, "I sell my finished jewelry at Of Switzerland County in Vevay, Indiana (www.vevayin.com), The Artisan Gallery in Madison, IN, Shoppe on Main in Warsaw, KY, Arts-a-Poppin' in Indianapolis, and The Enchanted Sleigh in Centerville, IN. I used to have an Etsy shop, but it's currently not open. I don't have a very impressive web presence!" She may not have much of a web presence, but she does get her stuff OUT THERE where people can touch and feel and see it in person.

There are a couple of things that she demonstrates in the photos that is something I point out in Step 3. If you switch around the order of the 5 colors that you choose, you will get different beads. She also had some great feedback about some other steps. If you don't have the tutorial, these steps will mean nothing, but if you decide to get it, refer back to this.

~ In step 6, pretend the stripes in the ball are going from left to right, 90 degrees compared to the picture in step 5. That is the position that you will roll the ball so that you get the great long striped cone in Step 7.

~ After you cut and created 2 stacker beads, go back and continue step 6-8 with the remaining fat end of the cone. You will get more stacker beads that way. Any small scraps can be rolled into tiny balls to complement the rest, as Marty demonstrated in the second photo.

Thank you VERY much Marty for sending me your pictures and feedback! (And for the excellent feedback! I hope to edit the directions once my current stack of printed tutorials is sold out)

Right now my tutorial is on sale....as of posting this blog, I have 6 left at 20% off!

Classes at Home

On Saturday I taught a beadmaking class to one of my biggest fans as well as two of her friends. It was a total blast! At first I had pre-show jitters...walking around nervously making sure all the clay colors were out, tools were in place, lighting was good, and polymer clay books were arranged. I think I'm going to start advertising more for this kind of getup. Since I ditched my car years ago (yes I miss it for doing shows), transporting pasta rollers, bags of SculpeyIII, ovens, ceramic tiles and my decent-sized collection of polymer related publishings is a Major Pain. But doing it in my place is easy.

My studio is a really interesting place to create, which is probably why I'm so prolific. My apartment has 'belonged' to many artists, and the vibe is great. I like the rawness of it. It's excellent location in downtown Cincinnati with super-easy parking, close proximity of some nice affordable, healthy restaurants and the library make it even more appealing.

So I guess if one would like to take a beadmaking class at my place, just shoot me an email. I'll give you more details.

I'm back. New computer.

I had a blog for a little while. It was kind of fun, but pretty annoying because my million year old Millenium Edition couldn't handle this website and it kicked the bucket and I had to get a new one. Three weeks without a computer really taught me a lot of stuff. Get a lot more work done. My home was cleaner. I started projects that only resided in my head for months or even years. But n0w I'm involved in the internet again, on a much more limited basis regarding my Favorites list of websites I visit often.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of making some Stacker beads and listening to some music from the band Lush. Takes me back I say.

If anyone has advice on how to manipulate uploaded photos, let me know. I'm having a terrible time making this look good. This will likely not be as full of pictures as other people's blogs are. You can go to my Flickr page to see those.