A Halloween Treat

One of the awesome and imaginative artists at Sandy Camp was Dawn Schiller. Dawn sculpts amazing figures with lots of personality. I love all the details and the expressive and unique nature of each little character. She states on her web site http://www.oddfae.com/



"Among my creations you'll find treefolk and witches, merfolk and wizards...fugitives from fairy tales; Figments of the Imagination, Odd Fae, the slightly-off-center, Autumn Things, the Green Man and Others....all having very little to do with the real world and everything to do with giggles 'n' snickers and Things that go Bump in the Night". Dawn was kind enough to give us a glimpse into her process by giving a workshop on creating tiny face pins. I bought a couple of her pin frames and feel inspired to make some characters of my own one of these days. Famous last words. Anyway, thanks Dawn for giving us a chance to see your process and for giving us these expressive and interesting sculptures.

Here you can see Dawn hard at work on one of her character pins. Kathy Davis, a collaborator on the skull below,  is seen in the background looking this direction.

Close up of the character taking shape. He looks quite satisfied with himself. I'm not so sure about the guy hiding behind Dawn's tools in the upper left part of the photo.

Don't you love this wonderful skull  collaboratively made by Dawn and Kathy for the Opportunity Drawing?

Hope you have a Happy Halloween.

Bottles of Hope

The Bottles of Hope Program began in 1999 by Diane Gregoire, a polymer clay artist who had survived breast cancer and a member of the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild. While sitting for hours during treatments, she noticed all the empty medicine bottles being thrown away and the idea was born.
We take these bottles, all from medications that are non-toxic, such as Heparin or sterile water, clean them, remove the tops and labels, and decorate them with imaginative polymer clay designs. Patients receiving these bottles, and the staff that cares for them, are so touched by the thought behind them that they become cherished tokens of the care of strangers. Some bottles have optional notes inside them with wishes for good health, poems, or inspirational messages.
At Sandy Camp this year, our guild made over 80 bottles for patients at Moores Cancer Center here in San Diego. You can see the creativity that went into each one.

Thanks to all the participants.

Sandy Camp

Ahoy mateys!
Just came back from several days of fun at Sandy Camp, the San Diego Polymer Clay Guild's annual retreat. We had so many talented artists all together under one tent, creating awesome and diverse works in jewelry, sculpture and an assortment of other things like Bottles of Hope, tiny boxes for treasure, and clay picture frames.
Our theme this year was Pirates. arg! Marie Segal, clay artist extraordinaire, made everyone on the organizing committee these beautiful and intricate heart necklaces. Aren't they awesome? Pirate treasure indeed. Thank you Marie for all the work you put into making these. I love mine and will treasure it as will everyone else on the committee, for sure. Marie's generosity and thoughtfulness didn't stop there. She also made us hoop earrings with the cutest parrot perched on one hoop you can see below. We were quite a crew of bejeweled pirate wenches thanks to you Marie. Check out Marie's blog by clicking on the link: Art From My Heart found on the right.

Here is "Mad Dog Marie" with the cutest little pirate at Sandy Camp. 

Northwest road trip

Sorry for not posting for a couple weeks, but I've been on the road. We needed to check on things at our house in WA and decided to drive. It was almost boarder to boarder and although that meant a long time in the car, we got to see our son, old friends, and outstanding scenery along the way. The west coast is stunningly beautiful and I felt so fortunate to see some gorgeous vistas and terrain as we drove along. Landscapes have found there way into my clay work and you can see by these photos that there is much food for thought.

Light House

Lake Quinault, Olympic National Forest

Rainy weather provided some interesting photos

Ruby Beach

The rain did not deter us from going back to this magical place. Found the huge banana slugs in the forest on the way down to the beach too.

Crater Lake

See the cute little tour guide we had at this lookout? He is at the top edge of the sign.

Copper Cuff #2

Making these cuffs is fun and challenging. Lining up the mini bolts with all the holes is critical, otherwise adjusting them with a pliers distorts the threads. The brass layer is some screen my friend Patti gave me. Thanks Patti, I love that stuff. The top piece of metal is sewn on with thin wire. Having a drill press would help with this type of project since there is a lot of drilling, but where would we put it. Maybe one in the living room could double as a lamp or something.

Brown & Aqua Cuff

Don't know why these color combinations keep inspiring my jewelry. I sure make a lot with brown and aqua. Must be the beautiful ocean and sky colors found here and maybe dirt. Or should I say the terra firma? Or earth and air? Who knows how much our surroundings influence us? More than we can say. Anyway, here is the latest.

Faux Stone

As part of the faux stone venture I've been working on, turquoise had to be included. A lapidary guy, that really knows a lot about rocks, saw the faux stones and said he would know the difference right away. So, now I'll just call them aqua faux stones. They are still lighter then the real thing and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to imitate rock. What do you think?