My First Polymer: Denise Graham

Sometime before 1997 I watched the Carol Duvall Show fairly regularly. Donna Kato appeared occasionally with the polymer clay FIMO. I don't remember what project or technique Donna had shown on Carol's show, but I was intrigued by the material. When I did finally locate FIMO, I selected blue and yellow, probably because I could then have 3 colors, or maybe those were the only colors available. 

When I broke open the packages and started working with the clay it was dry, brittle and near impossible to condition. I had no idea how to improve the consistency of the clay, and remember my hands were sore from trying to squish the clay into submission. I used a wooden brayer to sheet the clay and made a few little beads for book mark accents that you see here.

The difficulty in using the clay was a real turn off. I didn't again attempt the clay until my son took an after school sculpting class and brought home Sculpey. The ease of using this brand of clay hooked me. I dug out my pasta machine which I had received as a bridal shower gift and began using it for polymer. The first holiday show I did with polymer holiday pins was such a hit, I stayed up past midnight making turkey pins to increase my supply at the show. I worked in Sculpey for a while before discovering Premo, my go-to clay for almost every project.  The rest, as they say, is history!

Members Seen...Laura Tabakman

While perusing my many blogs I spotted a familiar "face." PPCG member Laura Tabakman's necklaces were featured today on perlerouge.canalblog.com as the coup de coeur de la semaine ("the favorite of the week"). Well-deserved recognition!

-- posted by Rebecca

How My Obsession Began

by Rebecca, a.k.a., Artybecca

I made my first necklace in 1971 with “love beads” and have made jewelry ever since. Fast forward to 2007, on a car trip through West Virginia. We stopped at Tamarack, a West Virginia art center, and I saw a book featuring pretty beads and jewelry on the cover. I was shocked to learn they were made of polymer clay. I had no idea it could make such beautiful things!

Somewhere around 2004 I couldn’t find beads in magenta and hot pink so I thought of making them out of polymer clay. I bought clay at Michael’s but didn’t know anything about working with clay (and didn’t even know there were things I needed to know). As a result, my beads were sad and misshapen and I concluded that polymer clay was not the answer.

I bought the book – Polymer Clay Creative Traditions by West Virginian Judy Belcher -- and read every word. I got a pasta machine, bought clay, and started experimenting.

I just recently looked though the book again and discovered that works by several members of the Pittsburgh Polymer Clay Guild – people who are now my friends! -- are in it. If I hadn’t found that book, I might not know a bunch of great ladies and might not be happily obsessed with polymer clay beads today!

Studio Mojo

PPCG member Denise Graham shares this information...

Cynthia Tinapple of Polymer Clay Daily has a new monthly subscription-based premium newsletter called StudioMojo. It's for polymer clay power-users who want to take their polymer art, business, and creative "mojo" to the next level. It will feature artist interviews, product reviews, links, stories and rants that will bring you closer to the polymer clay insiders. All for a fraction of the cost of workshops and conferences! 
Right now there's a $6.99 per month Early Bird Registration. The link to subscribe is:   http://eepurl.com/cMSMI

Workshop Creations!

Here's a sampling of finished work from our workshop with Ronna Sarvas Weltman. We did pendants, rings, enigmatic writing, vegan gut, and a whole lot more!

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Wendy Casperson

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Deanna Miller

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Denise Graham

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Diane Dick

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Irene Hill

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Rebecca Watkins

 

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Selma Andrews

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 Stephania Harden Martin

First day of Ronna's workshop!

Today was the first day of our workshop with Ronna Sarvas Weltman.

She showed us a method of making marbleized clay and how to make a variety of shapes for beads -- round, cones, disks, "bowls" -- plus eye pin loops, clasps, and dangles out of wire, as well as a clever way of creating a sturdy bail for the back of a pendant by hiding a metal bead under a strip of clay. We saw lots of tools to help form the shapes and others to add interesting finishes. After lunch we practiced with wire and some of the new clay shapes. Tomorrow we'll learn more component-making tips and then begin putting our new knowledge into practice.

April Clay Day Demo: Beads

For our April demo, Rebecca demonstrated how to make simple beads:

1. Make a sheet of clay
2. Roll it up into a tube to create the center core
3. Cover the outside of the core with a single decorated sheet
4. Cut the core into equal pieces
5. Roll each piece into a ball
6. Pierce and place on a rack to go into the oven

Now, that's a pretty short list of steps, but within each step are multiple variations you can make to put your own creativity into the set. You might want to create mix-and-match shapes in different sizes, or flatten or stretch the ball to create oblongs or lentils. You can pinch the ends of your cut pieces to hide the clay in the core, or you can use a cane, a jellyroll, or a layered tube for your center core and let it remain visible. Instead of a decorated sheet you can cover the core with individual pieces of clay. There are a million possibilities!

For the demo on this day, Rebecca had purple and gold scraps so they became the source materials for the decorated sheet shown below. The scraps, along with some translucent clay, were rolled into a sheet until a pretty blend, sort of like an abstract watercolor painting, was achieved.

Below is the decorated sheet that was created with purple and gold scrap clay rolled flat, then sliced into strips, and laid on the base sheet with a tiny space in between the strips. The sheet of strips was run through the pasta machine several times to let the base clay (black in the sample below) squeeze up through the strips and create a third stripe in the pattern.

Then that sheet was applied lengthwise around the core, and then the core was cut into several pieces and shaped.

Here is what they became...

...and this.