Watching Horror Movies & Making Clay

Well, I've been home for a week now and haven't done much with regional trainer information. I'm supposed to contact Donna Dewberry and give her three training dates and start working on some sample boards. Being gone for a week set me back a week.

One thing that I absolutely have to do is finish a cake topper that is going to Ireland. That'll be done by tomorrow..maybe even shipped. The bride wants a snowman bride and groom cause she is getting married right around Christmas. As soon as I finish it, I'll post a picture.

One of the coolest things that happened when I went to Chicago was that I got to tour the Polyform factory. (did I mention that?) I have been buying clay from them since 1982 so it was fun to step inside the inner sanctum and see where they manufacture polymer clay. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the factory part of the building, but I did take some pictures of the office areas. There were a lot of samples in different offices and the waiting rooms. I even saw on of the samples they purchased from me.

Some of the Regional Trainers with Donna in the Polyform Board Room..



Samples of different projects from Polymer Clay

One of the many projects I did for Polyform..this was the last one they purchased from me.



One of the nicest things that polyform did for us was continually give us bars of clay as we trained. We were given 34 bars of the new clay in the beginning days of training, then an additional 10 to 20 bars. On the last day they surprised us by giving us an additional 34 bars of clay, a very generous gift. I'm patiently waiting for my box of clay to arrive, since it was too much to carry home on the train. I also received 34 bars of the new clay about 5 weeks ago. I'm considered one of their "designers" and we "designers" receive free samples periodically to try out new clays and give our feedback on them. We also received some awesome clay tools and a dozen beautiful texture sheets. These items will not be available to the public till December or January.
Posing with some of the trainers as we tried out the new clay and tools.

If you enjoy using polymer clay, you will really like the new clay, called Studio by Sculpey. It is soft, colors are great and it is VERY durable. One of the trainers stepped on a wooden frame that was decorated with clay leaves and nothing broke. The clay is a bit flexible and can be rolled out very thin. It is sure to be well received.

Horror Movies??

The title of this blog is "watching horror movies" and that's where I'm off to now. Nothing like watching a cheesy 60's horror flick on a Friday night. I might even pop some popcorn...

Adventures in Chicago-land..

When I first got the notice that Sculpey was starting a new education program, partnering with Donna Dewberry, I quickly scanned over the email, thought about it for a moment or two, then put it out of my mind. It wasn't till I received another email that the deadline had been extended that I started to give it some serious thought. Procrastinator that I am, I waited till two days before the deadline, filled out my application and tossed it in the mail. I don't even think it got there in time, but a few months later I received a phone call from Donna Dewberry.

Donna's website.

She wanted to interview me. This was not the first time I had spoken to her. I had met her several years ago at a convention in Chicago and as we talked we found out we had something in common; we both started out in salt dough, then moved on to clay. The big difference between us,,she developed the One-stroke painting method and became very wealthy. I continued in clay and DIDN"T become wealthy. (no biggie,,I am not that driven :)

To make a long story short, she loved my enthusiasm and I was chosen to be an alternate for the new education program that she and sculpey developed. However, one of the original 12 backed out of the program,giving me the opportunity to be the final regional trainer.

The program in a nutshell is this...I and 11 others were "certified" last week in Chicago by Donna Dewberry and Sculpey.

Sculpey website

Our function is to certify other teachers who will in turn teach others polymer clay. It's an "i can do this" program. A lot of people look at polymer clay and fear it. These classes make it very easy for a beginner to do a project from start to finish and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Time will tell how well this program will work. I'm excited about it as I've always been a big fan of polymer clay and have taught classes on and off for years. If anyone is interested in knowing more about the program, please email me. I will be talking about it on this blog also.