Colorful Art Jewelry Magazine…

I just received the  newest issue  of Art Jewelry Magazine  (January 2010)  in the mail today and there are several items of interest to the polymer enthusiast…

A Conversation with Kathleen Dustin

• Go Big with Lightweight Polymer Clay by Seth Savarick
• Announcement of two upcoming Polymer events this February= Synergy2: Exploring Connections and 3rd Annual Cabin Fever Clay Fest Conference

…And a very nice mention of  our book Polymer Clay Color Inspirations. Hope you are having a colorful, peaceful holiday weekend.

Colorful Sneak Peek…

Here is a sneak peek = kalediescoped image – via KrazyDad’s online kaleidoscope tool of the collaborative piece that Leslie Blackford and myself have made for the upcoming Synergy2 exhibit (both online and in Baltimore this February). It was certainly a lot of fun to make.

The excitement about this exhibit is building- you can participate in an online contest to identify the artists who participated in Laurie Mikas collaborative “quilt” here. 

Colour Lovers…

I am delighted to see our new book- Polymer Clay Color Inspirations- included in today’s “Eclectic Color Roundup“   – on the Colour Lovers blog.

Colour Lovers is a very interesting and dynamic site = Color + Design Community for Creative Inspiration (last count 259,353 members) and includes forums, patterns,palettes, trends, a blog and a store.

One of the recent posts that I particularily enjoyed was on the Colors of Frida Kahlo.

Colorful Reading…

When visiting a  blog entitled “Rogue Elephant” – I wasn’t surprised to find that the author, Warren Feld, wouldn’t by shy about posting his point of view (along with a sense of humor). While there are dozens of articles in the archives, the one I found most interesting =

 

“Rethinking the Teaching of Color to Beaders and Jewelry Makers  OR How Jewelry Designers Should Approach Color “….

 Note: not a “quick” read rather a 45 page PDF- which makes for colorful reading. I would be interested to hear your reactions.

Colorful “Super-Sized”…

At the First Synergy conference in Baltimore I attended a presentation by Robert Dancik on Cold Connections- and as the room filled up to standing room only, I began to wonder just how he was going to demonstrate riveting to a crowd of that size…. and he did it be super sizing his demo materials! Even the people on the back could see an eight inch by two foot rivet tube.

 

A couple of weeks ago as I was preparing color samples for a workshop- I decided to take Roberts lead and “super sized” my samples so they would be easier for a large group to see. Instead of using a 3/4″ Kemper cutter to make some tasting tiles- I used a 2″ Ateco square cutter. These cutters are available as a set of six (1 3/8′ – 2 5/8″) and may be ordered from Polymer Clay Express.

Next time you make color samples you may want to try super sizing them- it doesn’t take that much more clay if you roll your sheets thin on a pasta machine and they are much easier to see- either in your studio or part of a class presentation.  If you are working along with the exercises in our (Maggie Maggio and myself) book- Polymer Clay Color Inspirations- having the tasting tiles in chapter Four/ Choosing Your Colors for a Project Palette   ”super sized” would make them easier to see and use.

Color Analysis…

I came across this interesting color analysis of  “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” on Justin Hilden’s site. Some  time ago… I did a color analysis of “The Yellow Submarine” for a film class I was taking…a very different set of color themes indeed!

Hope you enjoyed your Halloween.

Colorful Links…

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to teach a workshop for the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild- Dancing with the Rainbow- . Two of the artists in the group have posted about their experiences on their blogs

• Amy Crawley = Moon Room Musings
• Karen Park = Art and Tea

The European polymer clay community has a new web site- Voila!  This week their design focus is “Colour” 

It has been delightful to read Jeanette Kandray’s new blog- as she works through the exercises and projects in Polymer Clay Color Inspirations- which includes her experiments with Kato clay primaries.

Our  book is featured in the November 09 issue of Crafternews- a newly launched crafts newsletter - the “Read Full Article” link brings readers to a summary of the book, sample pages, and links to reviews.

Colorful IPhone…

I can still remember when specifying a specific color  to a printer one would browse through a Panatone Fan deck to find the swatch that most closely matched the color of an object or part of a design. Then…if one had a powerful enough computer, access to a scanner and Panatone’s (then pricey) color matching software- things were  a lot easier.

And – now- for less than ten dollars- $9.99 – you can have MyPanatone availble on your Iphone or IPod Touch!

“Who says you can’t take it with you? Not Pantone. Now with the myPANTONE for iPhone and iPod Touch app you have access to a variety of PANTONE® color libraries and the ability to build color palettes and share them with colleagues and clients. myPANTONE offers graphic, web, fashion and apparel designers a way to take PANTONE colors with you wherever you go. Can’t remember what a color looks like, now you can have Portable Color Memory™.”

There is an app walk through available  on Youtube here. 

Colorful Gratitude…

This afternoon I have spent several hours replenishing my stock of earrings, packing for a workshop in Connecticut, answering email and Celebrating!

Twenty years ago was the first time I “touched” polymer clay. I remember watching the sun come and hearing the jets begin to take off from National airport – after an all night session of trying to figure out how to condition FIMO on my pasta  machine to fashion a CityZenCane inspired watermelon cane. Little did I know on that  day/early morning just how much my life would change (and evolve over the next twenty years)  …

• the week before would be the last time I made homemade pasta with embedded home-grown fresh herbs  on that machine
• the  opportunity to directly participate in a burgeoning world-wide  community of fellow polymer artists  would enfold
• to ability  explore “hands-on” via polymer  my lifelong passion as an artist for color and repeated pattern would continue to propel and enthrall me

Wishing everyone a colorful and wonderful weekend…

Cabin Fever 2010 update…

I’ll be teaching a pre-conference workshop at Clay Fest before heading to Synergy2 in Baltimore.  Please join us!

The CFCF early bird deadline has been extended until 30 October.  The CFCF workshops are being taught by Tony Aquino, Maureen Carlson, Louise Fischer Cozzi, Grant Diffendaffer, Dayle Doroshow, Laurie Mika, Kathryn Jo Ottman, Lisa Pavelka, Sarah Shriver, and Ronna Sarvas Weltman have spaces available for you but they are filling fast, so get your registrations in soon.  An updated workshop schedule is available on the Cabin Fever site.

Pre-conference workshops instructors include a 2-day Master class with Jeffrey Lloyd Dever (FULL), and one day workshops from Lindly Haunani (FULL), Nan Roche, Maggie Maggio, Cindy Silas, and newly added Jana Roberts Benzon.

Nowhere else can you get hands-on workshops from so many talented and experienced instructors in one place in the middle of winter!  And a portion of every registration will be donated to the Polymer Clay Project!  The Holiday Inn hotel is just 20 minutes from the BWI airport and downtown Baltimore off of Interstate 95!  Take hands-on workshops in Laurel and head to Baltimore for the Synergy sessions