Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Here's a link to my "news"..

I don't know how much information I'm "allowed" to give out, but here is a link to the Sculpey website, where they have announced the Regional Trainers for the new product that will be out next year, Studio Home Dimensions.

Sculpey

I'll be going to Chicago in about 2 and 1/2 weeks to learn about this new clay. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll have a lot of fun, meet new friends, come back with lots of ideas, and be certified to teach and certify other students. I'll be gone a week and am very excited. More about this adventure in upcoming weeks..

Crazy for Creativity...

I spent an hour this morning organizing my papers that I use when I make Artist Trading Cards.

I was carrying them around in an old suitcase, (thinking that was organized), but didn't know what kinds of papers I had, so I put them in this cardboard organizer. Now that they are color co-ordinated, it will be easier to get right to what I need.


What's an Artist Trading Card you ask?

Artist Trading Cards (will be referred to as ATCs) are miniature expressions of art, done on the size of a playing card, 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches. They can be painted, drawn, done in mixed media, crayons, pen & ink, recycled materials, fabric and even clay. They must be 3.5 by 2.5 and they should never be sold. (although people do sell them on ebay, I personally would never buy or sell them)..
I've been making and collecting them for about a year now and have received cards from all over the world. I get in swaps and do personal trades. I even have my granddaughter making them with me. She's five and she has a little collection here at my house. It's fun making them with her, she's very prolific, once she starts there is no stopping her.

Designing ATC's has helped me tap into a new realm of creativity and when I'm working on these little works of art, I'm lost in a world of ideas, plans and dreams. I'm happiest when I'm creating. I gather my art supplies, my papers and ribbons and paint, and I place my troubles high up on a shelf.



How creativity helps me get through the day...

Anytime I do anything creative it opens up my mind to another idea. It inspires me to "think outside the box" which I think I'm pretty good at. Being creative is not just doing an art project or making a cake, it's figuring out how to solve a problem, sometimes in unique ways that no one else might have thought of. Here's a great example. Many years ago, my family and I went camping up to Sleeper State Park. When we got to the campsite, the only site left for us was lower th
an the sites around us. My sister was up on a slope, my friends were on the other slope, and there we were, in the valley. Of course, you can guess what happened. A quick storm blew in, bringing a torrent of rain and it literally flooded our camp site. We watched streams of watering gushing down from my sister's and friend's campsites. Within two hours, a small pond of water had settled around our tent. My x-husband wanted to leave, the kids were running around in the puddles making matters worse, but I was thinking of a way to solve this problem.


Earlier in the day, before the rain came, I had wandered into the woods and had come across a sand dune. It was only a few hundred feet from our site. Looking at the puddles, I had an idea. I gathered up all of the kids, gave them buckets and cups and led them to the sand. We ran back and forth tossing sand into the puddles. At first, it looked like it might not work since the sand was just as wet, but soon the puddles disappeared, the wet sand was buried by the dry sand, and we had a dry campsite. That evening, as we sat around the campfire, I had a sense of satisfaction that I, along with an army of energetic kids, had saved the trip.

Creativity doesn't always save the day for me. Trust me, I have my share of problems that I had a hard time solving. But I'm glad I can tap into that creative part of my brain to try to figure out a solution.
Want to be more creative. Check out the creativity links to the left. You may get inspired!

Monday, September 24, 2007




WWW.POLYMERCLAYBABIES.COM
A little bit about me.....

I've been sculpting with polymer clay since 1982..Originally I worked with a salt dough recipe,,which was very time consuming and not too effective. I was just about to give up on the bread dough when I found out about polymer clay. I was at a craft show, trying to sell dough teddy bears and met a woman who had fruit pictures made from white Sculpey. She told me the name and I went searching all over to find it. That was 25 years ago and it wasn't easy to find. I did find the white, then saw in a magazine that there were colors, so I ordered some from the factory.


I still remember the excitement I felt when I got that first shipment of clay. Oven baked clay has been in my house ever since. I used to have a little shop in Garden city Michigan, called "Quaint and Country" where I sold country crafts and taught clay. I have done so many things with my characters, wholesaling them, selling them at craft shows and big trade shows. But, doing production became very tiring over the years, and now I just sell from my website, ebay and word of mouth.
I've always made whimsical dolls, animals and Holiday characters. For the past 4 years, I've been doing cake toppers too.
I am about to start a new adventure with polymer clay. I can't say a lot about it now, but as soon as I get the OK, I'll be sharing all I can.


The purpose of this blog in conjunction with my website is to keep you informed about new products, ideas, share pictures and tutorials, and motivate myself to continue pursuing my dreams. What a great motivator a blog is.


The first thing I'd like to share with you is a picture of my studio. I'm in the CONSTANT process of organizing it and hopefully it will look awesome,,right now, it's a room full of a lot of stuff!!!
So until it's good enough to be photographed for Mary Engelbreit's "Home Companion"
"artist studios"
I'm only going to show little tidbits of my room (basically closeups of tools, clay and other fun things). As the room gets closer to completion, I will show a little more..










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