Here’s a short video preview of some of the new work that I’ll be showing at the Sept. 15th Open Studio at Alison’s:

Something new, just for fun – I worked with some polymer clay after taking some small molds from little carved bone faces. I had to use polymer clay to hold the detail since earthenware is not fine enough. Here are a couple of results – I love the little round faces! I’ve already used them on some Spirit Boxes and some Shard Pins. The pendant is a cast copy of one that a good friend gave me for my birthday – you can see how the polymer clay retains the details of the original. The one in the photo is the clay copy – looks real!!

Here are the first five – these little guys are really growing on me – they are kind of addictive to make!

Here’s the little promo for the Spirit Box workshop – I made in it a sepia tone – not sure why but it is interesting:

The topics for the last three workshops of the year are done, and, wow, I can’t wait. There are two new ones, a transfer workshop and a spirit box workshop. Here’s a sneak preview of the spirit box session:

And here’s the complete schedule – brochure to come next week:

Tonight I planned out my Collage on Canvas workshop by going through the steps by myself in the studio – this example collage is not quite finished, but I think that it will be both possible and fun to create this project with our group in two hours on Sunday, Sept. 9th. I’m encouraging participants to bring their own central images,but will have lots to choose from if they don’t. I love what they always come up with – all different, even using the same steps and process. Here’s the video we’ll use to get started:

This was an amazing creative experience – taking the shard faces and pendants we made in Part One of the clay workshop and enhancing them with beads and cord and embellishments. Ann Pearce, friend and jewelry designer, took the participants through each step, helping them choose beads and colors and wires to transform their earthenware pieces into beautiful one-of-a-kind art to wear. This is definitely a workshop I’d like to repeat. If the videos inspire you and you’d like to participate next time, send me an email!

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I facilitated a hands-on workshop for all the the art teachers in North East ISD this afternoon – we looked at some things from Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like an Artist, and then made some sketchbooks and did collages and drawings. Working with 50 art teachers is like herding cats – interesting but chaotic. They did a lot of good work despite the randomness. I had to talk REALLY LOUD. Everybody,including me, had a lot of fun, and it was great to see some of my old compadres again.I taught art in that district for over 35 years. Yikes!
Thanks to Gloria Hill, the district art consultant, for inviting me.