Fanciful Creatures

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a polymer clay workshop with Doreen Kassel (not my first class with Doreen, and hopefully not my last!), who is a wonderful artist and teacher. The class was in a new space (for me), and sponsored by my friend Michele's Little Bird Creations. In the past I've made bird ornaments with Doreen, and a charming long legged mouse. This time we were working in miniature, making small pieces that can be used as pendants, pins, or even refrigerator magnets.

Above, Doreen (in the foreground) demonstrating. That's Michele in the back. You can see a lineup of samples on Doreen's table, to give you an idea of the size. I'd say most are about 1 1/2".

Doreen helped me do a giraffe, and here are some of the step-by-step photos.

I also did an owl in this format. We added crowns because.....well, why not?

After baking, we applied a wash of brown.

Followed by color.

Doreen also gave us pendant blanks, and guided us in the creation of a sweet little pig:

Here are all three including some profile shots to show you just how dimensional they are.

Michele is having Doreen back in the fall, and if you want to have a great artsy day, join Michele's Meetup group and you'll be notified when you can register for the class. You'll love it!

Other links:  Little Bird Creations Facebook Page

                   Doreen's Blog

                   Doreen's Facebook Page

Pastels!

I already knew that Doreen Kassel was a gifted polymer clay artist, but last weekend I discovered that she is also very skilled at working with pastels.  I took a fun class with her at Michele's Little Bird Creations studio.  I have some pastels, rarely use them, and have never had any instruction in their use, so I was pretty impressed with what I did.

Pat and I sat together (what else is new?) and shared our pastels.  We used all sorts, crayon style, stick, pan, pencil, and according to Doreen, the softer the better.  How did we apply them?  Pretty much direct to paper and then moving them around with our fingers.

 

 

Doreen did a lot of demonstrations.  Very good for a class of newbies to this medium.

 





Two smallish practice pieces:

 

 





After our lunch break I felt confident enough to try two larger pieces.

 

 

 

As you can see, Doreen likes to add some text, cut or torn from magazines.  I like that too!

 





Skinny Legs and All

One of my favorite art experiences of 2012 was attending Art Is You in Connecticut.  And one of my favorite classes there was Sculptural Birds and Beasts Ornaments with Doreen Kassel.  Click HERE to see that post. So when I saw that Doreen was coming to Michele's studio, I signed up immediately.

Yesterday Heidi, Pat and I went downtown and had such a fun day with Michele, Doreen, and four other students, working with polymer clay, and enjoying each other's company.  And many thanks to Heidi's hubby Marty for providing door to door transportation.....both ways!

 

Doreen teaching and demonstrating:



In this class we made sculptural creatures with long skinny legs.....much more detailed than the birds I made at Art Is You.  Here are some of Doreen's spectacular skinny leg pieces (photo from Doreen's site):

 



After conditioning the white polymer clay we ran it through a pasta machine to make very thin sheets, and used them to cover a ball (some of us used glass ornaments, some used papier mache spheres, and some {like me} used compressed paper balls that Doreen gets from France).



Then comes the fun (and challenging) part: deciding what to make and then adding clay to the covered ball to create the features.  The skinny legs were formed from lollipop sticks which were also covered with the clay.  For the arms we used 14 gauge aluminum wire (again, covered with the clay).
I decided to do a mouse.

 

 

 

OK, it doesn't look much like a mouse yet.  But wait.....

 

After a half hour or so in the convection oven, my mouse is ready for paint.

 





Doreen showed us how to make ruffles, puffy sleeves, outsized shoes, and anything else we wanted to add to our creations.  Pat also decided on a mouse, while Heidi did a Pomeranian.  Doreen is so helpful with any problems that come up, and if someone wants to do a creature she doesn't have a sample for (like Heidi's Pom), she will work with that person.  Heidi had never worked with polymer clay before, and her clay Pom looks just like Hunter, the real deal.

Here is Heidi's finished piece, followed by Pat's:

 

 

 

After painting (we used oil paints) and any necessary repairs or additions, the pieces go back into the oven to cure. 

 

 

 

The paint on my mouse was still too wet to allow me to handle it, so I waited until I got home to take pictures of my finished piece.  Well, almost finished.  Those bare legs will definitely get the striped stockings treatment.....just as soon as the white paint dries.

 

 

 

Can you guess what the crown is?

 

 

I won't keep you in suspense.  It's the top part of a Christmas ornament.  Doreen uses so many ornaments in her work, and since not all her pieces are meant to be hung, she always has leftover tops.  Clever woman realized they make the perfect crown.

 

 

I think my royal mouse has mastered that Queen Elizabeth waving-to-the-masses look.







The Sketchbook Project, 2013 Edition

This is my third year of submitting a book to the Sketchbook Project, and it was a close call. Life really got in the way and I wasn't sure I'd get it in the mail on time, but I did. And I got the confirmation email that it was received and catalogued. I look forward to visiting the library in the spring with my also participating friends to see as many books as possible. I have many online art friends I may never get to meet, but every year I do get to enjoy their sketchbooks.

I had chosen the theme "Travelog" because I envisioned doing sketches and watercolors wherever I went. Trouble is, I really didn't go many places and didn't do too much sketching. However, I did take a lot of classes, go on several retreats, and made a lot of art. So I transformed my book into a travelog of my projects.

My original cover (no picture) was of passport stamps but I covered that with a collage made of scraps from many of the things I did.

 

 

 

The inside of the front cover lists key words in my artistic journey:

 

 

My travels were more mental and emotional than physical (I didn't get much further than NJ and CT), but travels they were.

This was a crayon resist experiment that could have gone better, but it taught me something, so not a failure at all.

 

 

A class with Dina Wakley inspired me to do more bird paintings at home.  (This should really be the last photo, but since blogger has been giving me fits for two days, I'm leaving well enough alone, and it can stay where it landed.)

 

 

 Learning a bit about zentangling was something I very much enjoyed.

 

 Making stamps from a variety of materials, including this foamy type stuff:

 

 I did try to sketch an everyday object now and then:

 

Lettering classes with Joanne Sharpe, both in person and online really did improve my writing: 



I took a wonderful class with Doreen Kassel.  We made animal ornaments by covering plain glass ones with polymer clay, adding features, baking them, then painting them with oils.  Since I couldn't include one in the sketchbook, I did my best to draw one that I did.  I LOVE this little bird!

 

 



 

The workshops I've taken with Lynne Perrella and Ann Bagby have been a great influence.  I am mad for stencils! 

 

What I learned from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is how a very simple hand carved stamp can be used in many ways on different surfaces:

 

 

An example of how I've learned to incorporate scraps from projects into a new piece, and how stenciling is one way to blend them into a cohesive work.

 

These pages are just a sampling of what I've been doing this year, but I didn't have time to include every class, every project, every experiment.  Or every wonderful teacher!  Seth Apter, Laurie Mika, Leighanna Light, Michelle Ward, Michael DeMeng, Sandra Koterba, Dyan Reaveley, Ingrid Dijkers, and Dawn DeVries Sokol all taught me so much, and I wish I had had the time to do pages in my sketchbook to prove that point.

 

 

 

Two Birds and a Shrine

My Adventures With Polymer Clay

 

Two of the classes I took at Art Is You involved working with polymer clay.  While I am not exactly a polymer clay virgin, I'm also no expert.  Things I learned:  well conditioned clay is a must, as is an oven that keeps accurate temperatures.

 

First up, Mini Shadow Box Shrine with Laurie Mika.  Wonderful class, great teacher, and my fellow students were so very talented.  Laurie provided the shrine (a nicely deep shadow box), very clear and in depth instruction, stamps for texturizing, mica powders and paints for color, and we only had to show up with pre-conditioned clay, some basic clay tools, and assorted doo dads (optional) to use as decoration (if we wished....remember the word optional).

 

Here is what my shrine looked like at the end of class.  I couldn't decide what to place inside the shrine, so I waited until I got home for that step.  Everything except the costume jewelry on the top is clay.



 

At home I added some decorative paper to the back (the white part you see showing above), then built it up a bit with cork and attached a pin.  I may change that, but I wanted to see how it looked completed.  Fortunately, I can open the back and do whatever I want to the inside.

 

 The little triangles on top and bottom were supposed to be clay tiles, but I didn't measure them well, and they didn't fit.  At home I filled those spaces with rust colored micro beads.

 An angled view so you can see the depth of the shadow box.  The outside was painted then stamped with permanent black ink.

This is a close up of the top of the shrine so you can see those micro beads.

 

Here is Laurie discussing what each of us created.  Most of us finished our pieces, or came close to it; others left with a work in progress.  Finished or not, I think they all are awesome.

 

 

Check them out!

 

 

 

Two words I seldom use are delightful and whimsical, but both aptly describe my second polymer clay class, Sculpural Birds and Beasts Ornaments with Doreen Kassel.  The second I saw the illustrations that accompanied the description of the class I was hooked.  It was the first class I registered for.

 

We took plain glass ornaments and covered them with a thin layer of clay.  Then, with Doreen's assistance we added clay to form the features of our animals.  I stuck to the birds, but there was a dog, a cat, a cow, and even the man in the moon.  Here are some of the samples Doreen brought in.  One is more impressive than the next.  She is an inspiring teacher.

 

 

 

Here are my two guys, a bluebird and an owl, followed by a closer look at the owl.  After baking, we colored the creatures with oil paint, which results in the most beautiful kind of glowing effect.

 

 

A few more owls, done by my classmates.

 

 

 

 

My friend Pat working on her man in the moon.  You can see her completed owl on the table.

 



 

 

Next up, more metal!