Van Gogh Meets Jackson Pollock

My boss asked me to do her a great favor last week. She had a bulletin board around 3 feet by 3 feet that she wanted me to paint. "Something nice and colorful" she told me.

I primed the board (which felt like melted cork) with off white latex paint. I used yellow acrylic paint and began to make a "Swirled" sun, radiating pinks, reds, oranges, and whites. Then I flicked paint in greens, pinks, whites, & blue against the board. I just loaded the brush with a color and flicked it with my finger. The final process was yarn dipped in paint that I "splatted" against the board.

I absolutely love this painting. It is colorful and warm. It has inspired me to make a few more variations of it.

Things I'm working on

I'm taking a Color and Design class at Madonna University and our next project is making a mobile. I have never thought of mobiles as an art form, but boy was I wrong. An artist named Alexander Calder ( (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) invented the mobile. Here's a quote from wikipedia...

"The Cirque Calder can be seen as the start of Calder's interest in both wire sculpture and kinetic art. He maintained a sharp eye with respect to the engineering balance of the sculptures and utilized these to develope the kinetic sculptures Duchamp would ultimately dub as "'mobiles". He designed some of the characters in the circus to perform suspended from a thread. However, it was the mixture of his experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture following his visit with Mondrian that lead to his first truly kinetic sculptures, manipulated by means of cranks and pulleys.

By the end of 1931, he had quickly moved on to more delicate sculptures which derived their motion from the air currents in the room. From this, Calder's true "mobiles" were born. At the same time, Calder was also experimenting with self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed "stabiles" by Arp to differentiate them from mobiles."

I have an idea for a mobile for my class. I'm going to use liquid polymer clay and mix it with pigments. Then I'm going to spread the liquid on a cookie sheet and bake it. When it cools it will be colorful, flexible polymer. I'll then cut out the shapes for the mobile. I plan on doing this Saturday, so I'll be posting the phases of that process.

Here's a cool site that has all kinds of mobiles (and no doubt will inspire me)!

Mobiles

Quicky Tutorial

Here is a very quick tutorial on how to make a gingerbread girl holding a cupcake. If you have any experience working with clay this will be very easy. If you have any questions, please email me. I'll be happy to help you out.


Gingerbread Girl...

Form the body and the legs first...




Drape with pink clay....

Form two apron
straps and attach to front of body...



Flatter darker pink



and then pleat it....

Attach apron to front of body...flattened gently....make two tubes for arms and attach to body....
Roll a brown ball and attach to top for the head. Make two small brown balls for the hands....











Add light brown for the base of the cupcake and top it off with frosting. Add white clay to feet and head to give appearance of the gingerbread girl being frosted. Top cupcake with cherry...bake at 275 for 30 minutes..let cool.

Blogging again

It's been awhile, about three months, since I blogged. When I first started this blog, the idea was to record my journey as a Sculpey Studio Certified Trainer. I was so excited and I blogged all about my trip to Chicago, going to Polyform and meeting all of the other clay people. After much contemplation, I decided that I didn't want to go forward with certifying others and I contacted Polyform to tell them of my decision. There are several reasons I came to this decision; the costs to future students, the many costs to me (renting hotels, travel, etc), the disorganization of those behind it, and the fact that I didn't care for the designs I would have to teach. So, although the experience was mostly positive, and I did meet a lot of wonderful people, I gave up my "regional trainer" position. I'm going to continue this blog though. I still am an avid clay artist, I'm going to school to get a Fine Arts Degree and I love to write. Hopefully, a few of you will want to read this blog. Maybe I can inspire a few and entertain the rest.

A Place to Create

I was talking with a co-worker the other day and mentioned that I had to clean my clay room. She was amazed that I had an actual room to create in. I proceeded to tell her that I had all kinds of art supplies, paints, clay, papers, etc. She told me that she would love to have a room that she could call her own, a place to create and keep all of her "stuff".. After our conversation, I started to think about how lucky I am that I do have what I call my studio/clay/art room. For most of my adult life I've had a place to create and keep my art supplies. When my kids were all at home, I had a work station in the basement. When they all left home I lived in an apartment for a short while and my living room and dining area acted as a complete studio for me. I didn't even have a couch, but I did have "stations" as I called them; an area to sew, an area to paint and an area to work on clay. I lived two hours from my closest relatives and friends and spent all of my time designing and making artwork.

When I married my second husband I had a room where I kept all of my clay and paints, etc. It was nice to be able to shut the door at the end of the day knowing that whatever I was working on would sit safely there till morning. But there were problems. When I wasn't home, any visitor who came to our home, felt compelled to sit in my room and play with my art supplies. In my x-husband's culture, someone who came to our house could take what they wanted. It was shameful to say, "stay out of that room"... We had many fights over this cultural difference. Many of my creations were painted over, disassembled, or literally smashed by his nephews and nieces. When they weren't snooping around in my clay room, they were taking food home with them out of our refridgerator. I finally had to remove myself from the situation and finally the marriage.

Now I have a room that is fairly organized. I'm surrounded by all of my art supplies, pens, pencils, glues, clay, papers, paints and all the goodies I need to create. It still isn't the dream studio I have envisioned in my mind, but it's the best I have now and I appreciate it. When my room is clean and tidy, I have a greater ability to relax in that room and sculpt and paint and glue. I listen to music. My cat sits on a shelf and watches me. It's pretty close to heaven.

Regardless if you work on your kitchen table, have a corner in the basement or are blessed with a designer studio, enjoy!

Long time No Post

Just a quick note to say that I've been MIA because of a horrible computer virus. It tore up my computer and my boyfriend had to reformat for me. (lesson learned,,DO not click on links from people,,even if you kind of think you know them!)

I'll be posting some new stuff tomorrow. Hope someone missed me!

Polymer Clay Community

I have been using polymer clay since 1982 and started teaching it in 1987. Polymer clay has been in my home since and I assume it'll be there when I die. I've joked with my kids that at my funeral I want everyone to take home a clay souvenir. (they don't think it's funny, but I'm serious about it)..

Through my experience and journey with clay I've never joined a clay group, a swap or taken a class. I just love it so much, I dove in and found it was something I was good at. I've never considered myself an elitist or part of the "art" community when it comes to clay. I do my thing, you do yours. I admire other people's work and am inspired by some. A lot of people know who I am because of all of the shows I've done and now, because of the Internet. I still have a day job though, cause I've never been quite able to only live on my clay alone. It supplements my income and satisfies my creative cravings.

So, it really amazes me at all of the negative postings I've read on some clay forums in regard to the Polyform/Donna Dewberry partnership. A lot of clay "divas" are mad that they weren't consulted or chosen to be a part of the decisions of the clay and some complain about the certification. Some didn't bother applying for it, so they have nothing to whine about. Others did, but were cynical and negative. I personally applied cause I didn't want to miss out on it and thought it would be fun. If something comes of it, cool. If not, I'm not going to be disappointed.

When I read the comments that people make on the boards, I wonder where their egos come from. Some of the complaints: that they weren't chosen to be a part of it, they weren't consulted about the new clay , they doubt the competence of the manufacturers , they make fun of the trainers and they even have made fun of the names of the clay colors. I've noticed an arrogance mixed in with a lot of ignorance and wrong assumptions.

I've not made any comments on my own on the boards. It's a waste of time to argue and try to justify what Polyform has done. My goodness, they've been in business for 30 plus years and they sell clay around the world. The polymer diva's who buy clay couldn't have kept them in business that long. Too bad these complainers couldn't have taken the factory tour with me. They'd soon realize that the thousands and thousands of bars of clay that were EVERYWHERE weren't being sold to just an elite few.

My opinion is that polymer clay is what it is to the person that is using it. If you make stunningly beautiful canes and it takes you hours to complete a piece then I can see how you would feel that your piece is valuable and an expression of art. Maybe it can go into the Smithsonian Museum. Or maybe you are like me and make cute little characters that make people smile. Finally, you might be a 6 year old cutting out a Christmas ornament and baking it for your mother. Each one of us feels our work is meaningful. It's not the median we use, but what we do with it.

Clay is like crayons. Some people scribble and others make beautiful artwork.

Here are two links to show what can be done with crayons....

Jeffery Robert

The Crayon Artist


Now let's all stop arguing about the medium and start creating with it.:)

Ups Nightmare and Snowbabies in Ireland

Now I know why I only use USPS to ship. The reason; United Parcel Service is inept and rude.

Today I got the chance to "attempt" to pick up my big box from Polyform. It's been waiting at the UPS station in Detroit for about 5 days. The driver only left me a final attempt notice on Friday night,,failed to leave me the first and second attempt notice.

Anyway, I live about 8 or 9 miles from the UPS location in Detroit, and it's not the nicest of areas. It's funny, cause it's directly across the street from the neighborhood I grew up in back in 1960s. I could see my front yard as I turned into the UPS parking lot. The lot was busy with big UPS trucks and people with packages; however, those people with packages were finding out (as did I) that the office hours were 11:00 am to 7 pm.
It was 9:30 am..a wasted trip for me and three other customers.

I guess it wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't taken me 26 minutes to drive 8 miles. I wasn't prepared for the road crew that had completely taken over the main route to UPS. Warren Avenue is undergoing major road repair and it was horrible driving. I drive a little metro and it was stop and go along the way with huge tractors and machinery turning, backing up, stopping. There was a slight drop off to the right of the road that I was trying like heck to avoid. Someone has an accident and there were cops everywhere, glass, ambulances. Construction workers were measuring out lengths of the road and were standing in the middle of traffic. I actually was relieved when I crossed from Dearborn (where all this construction was) to Detroit. The graffiti scribbled on burned out buildings was looking pretty good compared to the nightmarish traffic I had just endured. So, when I discovered that I had just wasted gas and 30 minutes of my time because UPS was closed, I started to get upset. I think I may have been swearing to myself as I pulled out of the congested driveway and headed back home (avoiding Warren Avenue)..

I called UPS and complained about the driver's inefficiency and was tossed around to different departments. Finally, someone from the Detroit station called me back and told me that I had to be home to sign for the package. When I informed her that I had to be at work, she told me that most people don't have packages sent to their home if they weren't going to be there.
An argument ensued and before I knew it, she had hung up on me.

By then, I had started to feel my chest tighten up and I called customer service. I'm usually an easy going person, but UPS's unwillingness to help me out and inability to proclaim it's fault in this matter, made me mad.

Thank God, the customer service woman did her best and suggested that the package be sent to my job. I liked this idea, and from now on, all packages sent to me will be delivered to my work address. After I receive my package, I'll take pictures of some of the projects and all that wonderful clay and post it here...


Ok, for some happier news...

My Snowman cake topper arrived in Ireland safe and sound.

The couple who ordered the topper sent me a check in Euros and my bank wouldn't cash it. I was supposed to send it back to my customer so they could send me another form of payment. I hadn't mailed the topper, and time went by, so I sent the check and the topper to Ireland. Shipping was around $15.00 and it arrived in 5 days. I sent the buyers an invoice through paypal and even though they didn't have an account, by evening they had signed up and paid me in full.
Leap of faith on my part to send something across the ocean without payment. I am not the sharpest business person, so luckily it worked out.

I've shipped clay pieces to Australia, the North Pole, England, Germany, and South America, and, now, Ireland. My clay babies have traveled more than I have.

Step by step picture tutorial

Here's a quick and easy way to make a turkey. You can adjust the size by adding more quantities of clay. I've included a penny in the pictures to give you an idea of size.

First you roll a ball of brown clay about the size of a walnut...



Then roll smaller ball of yellow, one of red, one of orange and one of brown...






Roll the smaller balls into snakes....


Then, twist all the colors together,,kind of like a candy cane...





Smooth the candy cane and break into 7 equal pieces (we will call these feathers)






Roll out each feather smoothly in your hand and bring to a point. Flatten slightly. Place one on top, one on each side, then fill in the back with the remaining feathers. Put slight pressure to attach to back.

Roll out a tube about 1/2 inch long, this is the neck and head. Attach to middle front of body.
Add a yellow beak, red wattle...
Back in oven for 20 minutes at 265 degrees..let cool.

You can use this as a decoration on your table, or make several and use for each person's place setting.

If you have any questions, email me at garritygal@yahoo.com.