Confident Color/ Tropical Flower Inspirations
Two day workshop with Lindly Haunani
Saturday June 5th and Sunday June 6th, 2010
For registration details please visit the New York City Polymer Clay Guild’s web site here
Make a sumptuous tropical floral arrangement using simple polymer clay canes that can be used as a focal point for a necklace or be worn as a brooch. Several of the most amazing, inspiring joys of nature including torch ginger, birds of paradise, orchids, ferns and palm fronds will provide inspiration.
Lindly will walk you through designing and mixing a cohesive color scheme that includes lights, darks, petals, leaves and appropriate background colors for your cane collages.
Then learn how to construct the blended canes and practice some useful sculpting strategies. Pulling the assemblage together, as a series of wearable color sample brooches will be part of the fun learning experience
Join Lindly Haunani, a nationally recognized colorist for a fun and illuminating weekend workshop. While you may know just what colors you like, exactly how to mix them, using them in harmonious combinations can be challenging. Learn how to add impact to your polymer clay work with increased color confidence. Ask questions, be ready to laugh and increase your color confidence.
This workshop is appropriate for a beginner or as a refresher/expansion course for the more experienced polymer clay artist.
Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to teach a workshop for the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild- 
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.
Recently 
“Alison Lee, host of the popular online radio show, CRAFTCAST™, has been a ‘maker’ since learning how to knit at her grandmother’s side, nurturing a life-long love affair with handcrafts that would make her Nannie proud. CRAFTCAST™ began four years ago when Lee, armed with a passion for all things handmade, the gift of gab, a keen ability to put people at ease and a warm sense of humor, began interviewing artists, crafters and individuals engaged in the business of art, posting the radio interviews on her blog. Ms. Lee, who left a successful career as a creative director to pursue her dream of inspiring other ‘makers’, is a pioneer in the world of online talk shows. People around the world are listening, downloading more than 400,000 
If you have ever watched me work, either at a polymer clay retreat or in my studio- you would know that I am not shy about making more than one… and recently I was challenged to expand my series of 
The color of the base clay used to make the spears varies slightly- from a yellower green designed to match a set of double-hole resin beads that I had purchased at a bead show several years ago and wanted to experiment with, to a slightly bluer green that was mixed to co-ordinate with the turquoise tip cane I had on hand.
The first bracelet I made included in the tip segue way a purple cane. A color combination that I have used before- not as an exact copy from nature, but rather to capture the notion of the beautiful slates in actual asparagus tips.
The second bracelet was made using a warmer green for the spears and a red-orange mix of fuchsia for the extreme tips, overlapped with high contrast yellow green cane slices.
And the fourth bracelet? …currently my favorite. Most certainly I am viewing this particular color combination in the context of the series, but most importantly- what I would like to relay to you is…neon pink, turquoise green and yellow green, while not being the natural colors of asparagus, are NOT supposed to work together. The entire time I was adding the cane slices to the spears to make this piece, I felt “uncomfortable” about the color choice. And at the same time propelled to finish making it, beyond looking at the individual pieces, instead string the bracelet up and then putting it aside to look at another day.
If you live in the Washington DC area- or plan to be visiting- I have posted the Fall 2009- Spring 2010 schedule 
Great news.. (at least for me) my upcoming workshop next weekend in Atlanta is totally “‘sold out” and wait list only.
I adore collecting and playing with paint chips…not only are the “free” , they offer the opportunity to play with different color combinations and to make small chip collages of possible color combinations. And nowdays one can play with color chips online…
