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. 

To Knit or Not to Knit

Sometime during my twenties, or maybe early 30's, I asked my mom to teach me how to crochet.  She wasn't an obsessed crochet-er...she could do it, but rarely if ever, finished a project.  There were various zig-zag chunks of afghans in boxes.  So I knew she could do it.  Like her, I also have lots of unfinished projects.  Don't we all!

At the time, my creative world was about polymer clay, beads and fabric.  Before that, painting, drawing, writing.  Anything involving yarn didn't interest me.  None of my friends at the time were knitters or crocheters, so it didn't really cross my mind to try.

Anyway, mom and I sat down on the edge of my bed and she brought out a couple of crochet hooks and some yarn.  She was very clear in her instruction...she wasn't bad at explaining things, and she was very patient, except when I tried to do it myself.  My hands were all knarled up in a tense knot.  I just could not mimic the technique she was trying to show me.  After about 10 minutes of frustration, she stood up and said, "That's it!  I can't teach you how to do this!  Your hands are not doing what they need to do!  You should stick with the clay!"  (Or something like that).  Then she left the room, and from that moment forward, I was never EVER going to try to do ANYTHING with yarn.  Clay was my thing, always would be my thing, period.

Fast foward to the very present recent past.

So now I've been making polymer clay beads for 17 years this month.  I have a great stash of beads, a great stash of fabric, and all sorts of other things.  There's a really great rhythm going on in my creative world.  I can make beads, make jewelry, create bead embroidered items, whatever.  It is very hard for me to get bored around here.

My friend Terry is opening a new fabric and yarn store in Cincinnati called Silk Road Textiles.  YARN STORE?  You mean I have to help knitters and crocheters?  I don't know jack about it.  Fabric I can handle.  I have made a lot of things with fabric...mainly arty stuff.  I know fabric.  But yarn....wow, I have a lot of work to do.

So I decided it was time to go to an uncomfortable place in my mind.  I need to learn how to knit.  I said it.  I have to knit!  Time to face my fears and move forward.

My friend Carrie showed me in about 5 minutes how to do it...the basic knit stitch. Casting on was nothing. Knitting one row was nothing. But for some reason, I couldn't get past that first row. Was it really a lack of understanding the technique, or was it something else? I don't know, but I do know that even after I bought my first knitting needles and inexpensive yarn at Hobby Lobby and started to try it, I still put it down for several weeks.  Ovenfried Beads business had a major jump in business, and that was my priority at the time.

Then a couple of days ago, I decided, after meeting with a Rowan yarn rep for over 4 hours with Terry, (and a text from my friend Susan, who is the knitting queen), it was time to get to work.

SO, now I'm totally addicted (spent many hours in the last 3 days knitting, but I don't have much to show for it, as you'll see below) and hope to someday actually make something well.  I'm not hurrying my expectations, though.  As I start kicking butt helping Terry get the store ready to open, I will have much less free time to just play.  But now I have something new to bring with me to the laundromat.  I don't plan on putting anything on Etsy until I'm about 60 and have been knitting for 20 years.  So for now, you'll just have to visit the store to see my progress.  :)

The following photos are the first swatches I made, in chronological order.  These were all made in the last 3-4 days.

But before I sign off, I just want to say that if there is anything you think you can't do, you will never know unless you really try it and commit to practicing it. 

First dinky piece with hole.  I pulled this off the needle before I knew how to cast off.
We'll see how long THIS lasts.

Another better attempt.

 

Sweetie is my captive audience. She really did sit like this while I was knitting yesterday.

Somehow, I was adding on without realizing it until my 12-15 starting stitches ended up almost 30.  With the help of my friend Shari and the Knitting for Dummies videos on Youtube, I learned how to keep the sides straight.

I had this fancy gradated yarn, but it's kind of rough, and even though I maintained 36 stitches for much of this piece, it's still a triangle.

This is much better.  Not sure how I maintained 15 stitches and had that "flap" on the end appear (believe me, I counted), but I have to say it's looking much better.  This piece is going to grow, as it's a yarn I can see well and is manageable to really practice with.  Maybe it will be my first scarf.  For me, of course.