On my way home from a lovely visit to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. I hadn’t been here for four years and have really missed the unique landscapes of this beautiful area.  My wonderful friend, hostess and organizer extraordinaire, Annie Hooten, gathered a lovely group of artists to share three workshops with me.

Day One- we learned 10 different book structures based on easy folding techniques and captured between polymer clay covers.

Day Two- Messengers and Storytellers came into being in extraordinary ways. The art work these artists produced was powerful and each artist had a unique voice that shined through their work.

Day Three- Rattles and Rattle Beads– we had a great time designing art rattles and rattle jewelry- lots of time to play and design.

A big Thanks to Connie, Kathy, Beth, Karen, Cynde, Ruth, Donna, Caren,  Glo, Kate and especially Annie and her lovely man Ed.Thanks for all the fun, laughter, willingness to dive right in, and for sharing your talent and inspiration with me!

Thanks Annie and Ed for this beautiful picture  from last night and a great dinner!

This time next week I will be in the middle of teaching at the wonderful ArtFest. It will be bittersweet because after 13 years, Teesha Moore has decided this will be the last one as she moves into what I am sure will be other exciting endeavors.  I hope to cross paths with many of you there.

I’ll be teaching two different workshops Friday and Saturday and will also have a booth of brand new artwork at the Friday night  sale. Please stop by my booth to say hello!

I’ll be showing my fabric collages /wall hangings that inspired all the new jewelry that I’ll have there too.

This is a new necklace made of polymer clay domed  disks. Each of the “rounds” can be worn separately as a single pendant or brooch.  And they can mixed and matched to make a dramatic “statement” necklace.

I’m in Florida visiting my 88 year old mom (who came to France last year on her own!) and while here I had the pleasure last weekend of teaching for the Tallahassee Polymer Clay Guild at the Lemoyne Art Center.  What a delight!

We had three days of classes spanning a wide array of techniques and projects. We started off with Messengers and Storytellers – such a variety of great interpretations of the techniques and very unusual pieces. Next day was Rattles and Rattle Beads- lots of color and unusual shapes. On Monday we made a powerful group of Unfolding Pyramids. Each Pyramid had a different theme and interpretation. These were really powerful.

Thanks to Barbara Forbes Lyons- organizer, artist and woman extraordinaire and to all the ladies- you were so fun to be with and talented and inspiring.  I learned so much from you all and had a most wonderful time.Thank you!

You may remember from my earlier post that a couple friends and I challenged each with a “task” to have accomplished by the next time we met. My original challenge was three new earring designs. I finally did it but I have to say I was only mildly happy with one design, and not happy with the other two. Then I was uninspired to make more and paralyzed to do anything for a few days.

I have talked before about my “sideways” approach to Polymer Clay. I still adore the medium but now sometimes find my inspiration by coming at it from a mixed media angle.

I have a rather large personal collection of earrings from 30 years ago- most of which I don’t wear anymore.  So I decided to cut them up, take them apart and see what parts might go with polymer – “repurpose” those parts along with new polymer clay bits and baubs.  Now this was exciting to me.

I’ve made 20 new pairs of earrings- here’s a few for you to see.

I’ve had time off in the last couple weeks to make some new pieces. Also had a couple play days with friends and we not only brainstormed and problem solved on projects but set “challenges” for each other to work on.

My challenges are to make 3 new earring designs (haven’t done that yet) and to design something wearable using a  certain focal bead we both decided on (haven’t done that yet) and to start to work on a new idea for a piece that will take alot of time and thought  (haven’t started on that yet).

I guess you  get the picture of where I am on these “challenges” but hey! I have a bit more time to do them ( 5 days- for the first two) and I have been working on other things . Hopefully will check in again soon with the “challenge pieces”.

So here’s a peak of what I have been making.