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. 

Nature's Vessel and Nature's Creature

Seems like I'm always a little late on blogging about things that are time-sensitive.  I've confessed in the past that it's much more enjoyable to create items than talk about them.  Marketing my work is not one of my strengths, but this show is definitely worth talking about. 

Nature's Vessel

Nature's Creature

The Kennedy Heights Art Center in Cincinnati currently is exhibiting some AMAZING 3-D art in a show called Fibers: The Next Dimension...curated by Carole Staples, a woman whose confidence and encouragement in my own art has helped me really push some boundaries.  Two of my items, Nature's Vessel and Nature's Creature, were juried in to the show.  My work is on display with gorgeous fiber art from Cincinnati folks like Pam Kravetz, Robbie Porter, Robin Kusten Hartmann and Larry McKenna (not sure if I'm spelling his name right...will correct when I find out.).  Photos above depict my two pieces....the felted log on the bottom of the top photo, and the suspended figure on the bottom.  I did not catch the names of the pieces in the spaces my work shares, but I'll just say if you live in the Cincinnati area, you should go check out this show.  It offers a lot of great color and texture therapy and is on display through Saturday, September 26, 2015.

There is also a small gift shop that features gifty items by participating artists (but there is also another amazing gift shop right inside the front door.)  Yes, my pieces are for sale!  Treat yourself to something weird!  My selection of gifts consists of my "Femmes of the Forest" decorative art dolls, beaded portrait brooches (collaboration between me and Heather Zimmerman) and some felted wool cuffs and coffee cozies.

The KHAC has a gorgeous garden on the south side of the property.  Found another Monarch Butterfly today.  All smiles!

Marbling Fabric = Science Art

My newest Etsy listings for marbled fabric mention that I have a deep creative interest in science, namely biology.  Astronomy and geology rank a tight second.  I am fascinated with natural design with fractals and interconnected patterns, fluid dynamics, repetition and shapes/structures.  Patterns and designs that can are similar in minute and large scales are very appealing to me.  If you open a random biology, zoology or other related natural science textbook, you'll see images that can be achieved in a myriad of way artistically, including illustration, painting, or achieved through the "random" use of paint on a liquid.

Marbling fabric is my way of satisfying my need to see natural forces at work with little control from my end.  This is where fluid dynamics and chemistry come to play. The final image is where a moment of movement is frozen in time and preserved.  And that's where one of the hardest parts of marbling come in....knowing when to stop adding dye, stop swirling, stop manipulating, and drop the fabric down.  It is a most gratifying activity, and it's amazing to see what manifests when I know darn well I couldn't have invented it in my head first.  I can visualize (which is a foundation of creating), but I never know how it will end up looking.  Typically when I pull the fabric up off of the base medium, the first thing that comes out of my mouth is "Holy s#%t, that is AMAZING!"  Every time.

Here is a video from Interweave that skipped the prep work and goes straight to the fun part of marbling fabric.


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Below are images of my own marbled fabrics.  These pieces really are little works of art, created by the Universe with a little nudge from me.  If they were hand-designed, painted, illustrated or otherwise created using paint from a brush, a marker or another slow process, they'd be very laborious, thus very expensive.  The fact that it's on fabric adds another dimension of longevity and use...if it gets damp, it won't be destroyed.  It can be sewn, embroidered, embellished, over-dyed, quilted, or otherwise altered by an artist who needs a framework or base to work from. They can also be framed as they are.  If you are interested in seeing more photographs of each of these and designs not shown here, click on the photos to go straight to the Etsy listings.  Purchasing is possible there.  If the act of marbling fabric interests you, there are lots of sites and books out there to help.  I highly recommend you do it outside or on concrete floors.  Give yourself a whole day to it to really immerse yourself into it.  Pun intended!

Final Friday in Cincinnati

This is the main Annex building.  I'll be upstairs.

This is almost as last-minute as you can get, but this Friday, March 29, from 6pm-9:30pm I will be exhibiting and selling my polymer clay jewelry at the Pendleton Art Center in Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati.  It has been  a little while since I was there.  My friend Margie has a gorgeous studio in the Annex, the shorter building directly across the brick alley (aptly named Artist Alley, from what I recall) from the 8 story main building.  There is a neon sign in the second story window...formerly the studio of Frank Satogata....just take the steps to the second floor, and I'm in the first studio, #10.  Margie has work there, as well as wire/metal sculptures from Cincinnati artist John "Wire".  Since this is my "maiden" show in her studio, I will be bringing only my most awesome jewelry....loose beads and buttons may come at a later date.

Who knows....if you come and mention you saw this blog, I may just have a special goodie for you.  I accept cash and checks with photo i.d.

If you don't want to wait for or pay for valet parking, the new Horseshoe Casino a couple of blocks away has free parking after 6pm.

Hope to see you there. 

(Updated March 29..... Tonight I had a great time up in Margie's studio.  It's such a warm and comfortable room with such a neat variety of items inside.  I plan on being there again for Final Friday on April 26.  Thank you to all who visited and purchased some of my work!)

Cover that naked wrist, wench!

This bracelet below is a stretchy bracelet I made a while back that I just put in my Clearance section in my Etsy shop.  The little bumpy red Czech glass beads between the thin polymer disks match the reddish-pink perfectly.  That's why I used them.

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This fiery bracelet is made from some beads that I made while toying around with my Stacker bead technique.  I love to make cylindrical beads.  LOVE IT!  And I LOVE to use red, orange and yellow together.  I'd do it all the time if I could.

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Sometimes scraps make beautiful stripes.  This bracelet's beads were made from a pile of scraps that, when rolled into a long cane, was then twisted to get these great beads.  If you don't know how to get your beads the same length without wasting hours with a ruler (like I used to do), consider a Marxit.  It's one of the most important tools for beadmakers who make sets of beads. 

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Ok, this bracelet, even though it's not red, orange and yellow, just really sings to me. It's too bad I don't have a "look" with jewelry....honestly, I rarely wear it unless you can barely notice it....but if I did, this bracelet would be part of my grown-up, nearing
middle age "artist look".

                               


In any case, I could go on and on about stories about the bracelets I make.  I make a lot of them because more often than not, I only make enough beads in a set TO make a bracelet, and sometimes a pair of earrings to go with it.  This week I added 12 bracelets to my Polymer Clay Jewelry section on Etsy.  I'm also having a Mother's Day sale for all of us who want something nice but would like (or need) a deal.

My jewelry is already very affordable .... I don't have a big ego about my work and think that I need to charge a hundred dollars for something (Well, my Bead Embroidery work is another story.  But that stuff is on sale, too.)  ANYWAY, if you shop in my shop, and enter the promo coupon code "MOM30" at checkout where you're supposed to, you will get 30% off EVERYTHING you buy.  That includes my Stacker bead tutorials, which I can send to you via email as a PDF, or via "snail mail".  (If you get the snail mail version, I send two free Stacker Beads as an example to study.) I'm also extending the sale to May 18, because I know that there are folks like me who procrastinate.  We're all human.

What does your tree look like?

A few days ago I went to the laundromat to clean my clothes, and while the wash cycle was going, I took a walk at Stanberry Park in Cincinnati. Colorful fall leaves and photographs were my main treasures. The photos above are from a huge tree that has been carved through the decades. I didn't notice any obviously new carvings, but one thing that was so obvious was the age of the carvings. About 10 feet high, old lovers' initials were stretched and spread out. The bark continued to grow, and the lines filled in. Almost the whole circumference of the trunk is covered in scars. If you have a chance to check it out, I recommend it.

The photos of the carvings inspire me to think about what kind of scars or carvings there are in my own personal spiritual tree. What events, relationships, dates, times and places have left a permanant mark on my own history? How deep are they carved, and how legible are they? Equally important...what kind of tree is it? Trees are so symbolic in so many way, and the answers are completely subjective.

New OTR Bead Painting

Here is my newest "bead painting". I would write an elegant description about it, but I am totally exhausted from a 9 hour road trip from Washington DC. Click on the title "New OTR Bead Painting", and you will be taken directly to the Etsy ad where I posted it. Yes, it is for sale.

I will write more about my trip this weekend. As for now, I need a shower and a nap!

Downtown at Night

Walking downtown is one of my favorite relaxing thing to do. I don't do it often, as I usually prefer to walk with John and not alone. We were walking from his place to mine last night. My camera is constantly with me, so when I see opportunities for cool photographs, I totally take advantage, even if people wonder what the hell is so interesting. There are so many beautiful things that I'm afraid I'll miss something really important. Or something I'll want to re-visit once the need for inspiration arises.

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.