Openwork Tutorials, Revision 2

I am happy to report that after multiple experiments I was finally able to find a way to reduce the waiting step in my Openwork Pendants and Openwork Bracelets tutorials from up to a few days to a couple of hours.   The Openwork Pendants tutorial now also has a separate troubleshooting section with explanations about possible errors and how to avoid or correct them.

If you purchased any of these tutorials through my shop on etsy (etsy.com/shop/PolymerClayTutorials), please expect to see an email from me with the new file attached.  If you do not receive an email within the next two days, please contact me.

I demonstrated the new version of the Openwork Pendants technique at Philadelphia Polymer Clay Guild this Sunday.  The pendant I showed during this demo was ready in less than an hour.  Yay!

Pictures from Fandango 2015

Fandango 2015 Retreat on Lake Yale near Leesburg, FL

Below are a few pictures I took during my classes at Fandango this year.  These are work-in-progress faux cloisonne pieces that my students were working on in the class.

 There were fifty ladies in my classes over the course of three days.  Each of them made more than one beautiful faux cloisonne piece.  I wish I took pictures of all of them.

There are a few more pictures from this retreat in my photo album on Facebook.

Register for my class!

Registration is now open for Master Camp 2015 (July 8-13, 2015 in Laurel, MD.) Instructors include: Jana Roberts Benzon, Dan Cormier, Jeffrey Lloyd Dever, Lindly Haunani, Tracy Holmes, Anke Humpert, Doreen-Gay-Kassel, Jana Lehmann and me.  The event is hosted by Kathryn Ottman.

In my 2-day class I will show how to build my wonder-stamps and how to use them with polymer clay.

For years, I’ve been searching for a way to turn my own designs into stamps. Sculpting or carving them out of polymer clay was an obvious first choice, but the stamps turned out too crude and small details were impossible to recreate.

Then, I tried ordering custom rubber stamps online. The cost was a bit too high for me and the turn-around time was way too long. As for the stamps, they were better than my first ones, but still not detailed enough. In my search for the perfect stamp, I even considered 3D-printing at some point (which did not work out either).

Finally, one day, I came up with an idea that produced stamps with thin, tall and strong walls. These could be created on my own time, and with no cost at all. With these, I was ready to conquer many different techniques. My own faux cloisonné – check! Back-filling – check! Sutton slice – have never been easier! Mokume-gane – any design is possible! But, making the stamps themselves was too cumbersome to explain to somebody else.

It took me another year to put the polishing touches on this technique. Finally, I am ready to present it!

Spaces are still available and it is time to register. Follow this link to the registration form:
 https://creativeartsfests.wufoo.com/forms/znmjqnl176o6ft/

The pictures in this post show the pendants made in a few of many polymer clay techniques using my wonder-stamps.