Libzoid Blog

Life intervenes and creativity stalls…

A portion of E’s many piles as she prepares to leave for college tomorrow. /sigh… That’s right, tomorrow. Somehow today, we have to get all her stuff organized and packed up into the van. Growing up, you don’t understand how hard a kid’s growing up and leaving home can be on a parent until you are one.

Nothing’s happening in the studio, and Studio Snapshots are on hold until after we get back from Ohio. I’ll be back around this time next week.

We had a guild Clay Day yesterday.  E had social plans all day and my husband had a long list of errands and chores to tackle, so I sneaked away to get my hands back into some polymer clay.  It was wonderful! I have been so caught up in non-creative stuff lately.  Debbie had an urgent need for Bottles of Hope, which gave me a simple focus of what to do.

When I’ve had a dry spell or life has been keeping me out of the studio for awhile, the question of what to do can be almost paralyzing.  So. it was a relief to have a simple focus determined ahead of time.  I played around with mixing some colors and a couple of basic canes and then I worked on making Bottles of Hope.  It felt fantastic!

Add to the mix a generous dose of rib splitting laughter, and it was a delightful day.  Thanks to everyone who was there.  Ladies, you made my day!

Tags: Bottles of Hope, polymer clay, SCPSG

I just sent out a short email to all Clay ConneCTion 2008 attendees.  If you’re reading this and you didn’t get an email survey from me, please email me through the contact page here and I will send you the survey link.  There’s a drawing for a prize if you answer our survey.

I’m off for a day of teen shopping and silliness in NYC today.  Here’s hoping the rain stops.

Tags: Clay ConneCTion, polymer clay, SCPCG

Artist name: Victoria Pearman

Location: Arizona

Website: Art N The Heart

Blog: Art N The Heart Blog

Do you have a dedicated studio/artistic space? Yes, it measures 15×15′. My studio is located in our home designed by husband, Don. The large space has enough room for 6 artful types to work and play.

What medium(s) do you work in? I am a mixed media artist with current interests in bead weaving, book arts, polymer clay, sculpture and paper arts. I am fairly organized and have storage areas separated by media interests.

What one word would you use to describe your studio? Creative!

What do you think is the best feature of your studio? My long work (15′) counter including work sink and full bath. My counters are always full of “stuff”.

What would you change if you could? If I could change something in the studio, I would add more storage space in the closet.

Can you share an organizational tip? I like using see-thru plastic shoe organizers to house my tubes of beads. They are organized by size and color and hang from the ceiling to floor in the closet. (see photo).

Describe the usual state of your work table? It usually looks like chaos yet I know where everything is. I sometimes find myself working in a very small area of space and that’s when I know it’s time to clean up!

Does your work table face out into the room or toward the wall? I look out into the desert from a window. We placed a bird feeder so I can watch them eat when I’m taking a break.

What’s one drawback of your studio/artistic space? Probably the collection of too much art stuff that I don’t use as often as I should yet hate to get rid of it.

Do you have any studio mascots (pets, mannequin whatever)? I have a bead mascot on my scissors. I am surrounded by the things I make and am inspired when I see them.

Do you have an idea wall or inspiration board? I have an inspiration board that I like to change monthly.

Do you listen to music in your studio? What kind? On occasion I will listen to light jazz. Lots of times, I will “watch” a DVD while working.

Do you display your own work in your studio? Absolutely! My work makes me smile. Other artists’ work? I also have other artists’ work that I admire.

Tags: Studio Snapshot, Victoria Pearman

I’m doing the mom thing.  It’s just one of those times where I’ve had to put my art aside for a bit.  The retreat was wonderful, but it really sapped my energy.  Since the retreat family stuff has pretty much taken up all my energy.  Last week was the end of the summer competitive swim season for our local pool club.  Practices, Time Trials and Championships.  And the weekend has been a whirlwind of picking E up from 7 weeks of working as a dishwasher then counselor at camp, and dropping M off for a final session of camp.

Now we’ve got 10 days until we hit the road to take E out to college and (sniff, sniff) leave her there.  She’s heading out to Ohio, which is a long way away from Connecticut.  She’s our oldest and it’s hard to believe the day is so near.  The time in between is full of doctor’s appointments, shopping, parties and a zillion last minute-y things.

Personally I find it hard to feel super inspired during times like this.  My brain is buzzing with lists instead of designs.  It’ll come back, but in the mean time the studio is quiet.

The Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild’s 6th polymer clay retreat, Clay ConneCTion 2008 was this past weekend at Connecticut College in New London, CT and it was great! Conn College was a new venue for us and I think the consensus was that it was a keeper.

Clay ConneCTion is a 3 day (Friday noon to Sunday afternoon) gathering of approximately 75 polymer clay artists primarily from the east coast, but we always have a few enthusiasts who fly in from far away states. Check-in usually involves meeting one of our professional clowns:

In case you thought I was kidding, that’s Twinkle and Cynthia**. Twinkle helps welcome everyone on Friday and get the event off to a cheerful start. The workroom in our new location is nice and big and bright. Plenty of room for every attendee to have a 6 foot worktable each.

Polymer Clay Express set up a store of polymer clay related goodies at the back of the room. (You can see a tiny bit of it in the back of the photo above) They brought all sorts of goodies, plus some real bargains and even a few giveaways. It always makes me laugh how we all bring so much stuff with us to a retreat and yet, we still find things to buy from Rob & Wilma.

Friday night, as our opening ice breaker event, Tracy and I reprised “Iron Chef Polymer Clay”.

That’s me failing to keep a straight face over something that Tracy said in Chinese. (btw, if you were there, Tracy was really speaking fluent Mandarin Chinese. We both majored in Chinese in college, oh so many years ago. She kept hers up. Mine is beyond rusty, but I can manage to understand a bit of what she’s saying apart from the script, which makes the whole skit even funnier for me.) The secret ingredient this year was dried beans of various shapes and colors. There were so many fantastic bean and polymer clay creations!

Saturday was a very full day. There were more demos, loads of demos.

(that’s Helen demo-ing soldering simple silver bezels Friday afternoon)

This year we moved the demo area to a separate room and I think that worked really well. I don’t know how many demos there were over the course of the weekend, but the schedule looked really full and everyone seemed to be enjoying them. We also held the giant raffle on Saturday, which was a huge success. It was so much fun to put out all the wonderful artist donations, and hear the oohs and aahhs. After the raffle was over I visited one of the two massage therapists we brought in and had a wonderful relaxing massage.  I think I went to dinner after that, but all I remember was being really relaxed.

Saturday night Diane and Debbie ran a group creative challenge called “Creature Feature”. Participants were divided up into teams and given a profile of an imaginary creature. We then had 30 minutes to work together and create a physical representation of our creature. Think polymer clay meets Mr. Potato Head meets junk yard challenge. It was a lot of fun. Here’s one of the creatures.

And here’s my group and our creature “Pilfrey Wugglelump”:

Sunday always goes by super fast. We had the traditional Bottles of Hope Challenge. Debbie roped me in at the last minute to help judge. It’s so hard to pick winners since all the bottles are really beautiful and fun and inventive. Here are the winners (minus Tommie who disappeared at picture time):

Sunday we also raffled off a mosaic tray made from all the 1-inch tiles provided by the retreat attendees.

I’m still so tired that I feel like I am not making too much sense. It was a great time. The creative energy in the work room, the opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones, the demos, the silly activities… all wonderful.  Thanks to everyone who made the weekend so great.
**Thanks also to Cynthia Douglass for providing most of my pictures. I only took a few (the fuzzier ones) with my phone. Most of the time I was busy doing things ,and didn’t manage to even think about taking pictures.  I didn’t manage to do any claying either. I brought all sorts of tools and supplies.  I just never got around to using any of them.  I’m really looking forward to next summer’s Mass/New Hampshire retreat where I get to clay. It’s fun being one of the coordinators, but it’s nice to be a plain attendee too.

Tags: Clay ConneCTion, polymer clay, retreat, SCPCG

This past weekend was the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild’s retreat, and now I need a break. I’ll be back soon with stories about the retreat, but meanwhile The Libzoid Blog is going to pause for a bit. Instead of today’s regularly scheduled new Studio Snapshot, let’s just recap the 18 artists who have been featured so far. There’s a really fun variety of creative spaces here. Thanks to everyone who has participated. I love the peek behind the curtain. I love the messy worktables and the quirkiness. I love the crafty organization (I mean that in both senses of the word).  I love the way the creative spaces reflect the artist and the work.

There will be more great studios to visit starting again next week. One of these days, I’ll even talk about my studio.  As usual, I am looking for more artists who would be willing to share their work space here.   Please contact me if you’d like your studio featured. All mediums welcome and remember, you don’t have to clean up.  Meanwhile, I invite you to revisit the creative spaces of the following artists:

Bettina Welker

Janice Abarbanel

Barbara Fajardo

Patti Kimle

Cynthia Blanton

Melanie Dilday

Trina Williams

Martha Aleo

Barbara McKie

Naama Zamir

Amy Crawley

Kimberly Hodes

Kathi Gose

Lora Hart

Iris Mishly

Tejae Floyde

Sarajane Helm

Susan Kaplan

Tags: Libzoid, Studio Snapshot

I feel like I am running up a sand hill these days, slogging along and not making any discernible progress. The retreat is just a couple of days away. Marvelous donations from the generous community of polymer clay artists continue to arrive. I’m trying to get the last details of the areas I’m responsible for all organized and ready to go. Family life marches on with swim meets and camp and new neighbors moving in and all sorts of other stuff.

Half of the donations for the retreat raffle laid out.  They need to be checked and labeled.

The plans to make a quantity of fun new work before the retreat have fizzled. The plan to work on some sort of exciting project for Progress & Possibilities have stalled. All I can say is thank heaven for central air conditioning because if I was sweltering in this heat and dealing with things, I’d be a puddle of ineffective goo.

That’s a pile of box bezels in need of bails, finishing and polymer clay inserts, none of which is likely to happen before Friday morning.

Oh well, back to my lists.

Tags: blocks, creativity, polymer clay, SCPCG

Artist name: Susan Kaplan
Location: Alaska

Website: Kaplan Creations Jewelry

Blog: Kaplan Creations

My Space: Denali Beads

Do you have a dedicated studio/artistic space? Yes, I have a terrific space!

Where is it located? In a separate structure located behind my house.

Is it a large or small space? It is about as large as a standard bedroom, about 12′ by 14′

What medium(s) do you work in? Do you have a separate area for each? I work in glass (lampworking and fusing), PMC, polymer clay, and metals. I have a large area for all of the glasswork. The PMC, polymer, and metal work all share an area. Most of the time I’m working on glass pieces, so I’ve let those supplies spread out all over the place. I also have a separate area in the house where I work on designing jewelry and fabricating the finished pieces. In this area I have a worktable and lots of storage for beads and other items.

What one word would you use to describe your studio? Inspiring

What do you think is the best feature of your studio? large windows overlooking a wooded area

What would you change if you could? I would put in tanked oxygen instead of using an oxygen concentrator so I could work on boro glass.

Can you share an organizational tip? I frequently go to thrift shops and garage sales, and buy anything that might work as an organizer for my tools or supplies. For example, I found an old CD holder that I use to hold relatively small sheets of glass (organized by color); an old multi-drawer storage unit holds bits of dichroic glass (organized by color); desk drawer or eating utensil organizers hold polymer clay canes, and a variety of old glasses hold glass rods (organized by colors and length).

Describe the usual state of your work table? A cluttered mess consisting of bits of glass, pieces of clay, metal scraps, and other odds and ends.

Does your work table face out into the room or toward the wall? I have 3 work areas. The main area faces the windows and the view is gorgeous (especially in the winter).

What’s one drawback of your studio/artistic space? There is no running water. I get around this by keeping large water jugs of water inside. However, this is inconvenient, especially in the winter when the snow going out to the studio reaches about 12″ in depth.

Do you have any studio mascots (pets, mannequin whatever)? I have part of my turtle collection (glass, ceramic, stone, anything but real turtles) on the window ledge.

Do you have an idea wall or inspiration board? I have a place on the fireplace mantle where I keep some inspirational items. Most of these are things made by other artists, usually small glass sculptures and small blown glass vessels.

Do you listen to music in your studio? What kind? I have many CDs out in my studio, but almost always listen to Boston, Meatloaf, or Queen.

Do you display your own work in your studio? Other artists’ work? I display some of my own work, and some beads that I have purchased from other artists.

What’s one quirk or unusual feature of your studio? I have had moose come to visit (see picture of mom and baby moose).

What’s the best thing about working in my studio? Usually everyone leaves me alone!

Tags: beads, glass, jewelry, pmc, polymer clay, Studio Snapshot, Susan Kaplan

This is a bag chock full of old beads I sent back to camp with E. I made most (if not all) of these beads between 2001 and 2005. The majority probably date around 2004 or so as that was a time I was really focused on bead making. And to be completely honest, I didn’t let my daughter rummage around in the really old beginner bead pile. They were a bit too cringe worthy.

E is working at a summer sleep away camp and she was home for a day and a night off. She told me that she had run a couple of small beading clinics. ( I’m hoping this is an early sign that she’s inherited some of my bead fascination.  E is not the jewelry wearing daughter.) She casually asked me if I had any extra beads I’d be willing to donate to camp. I managed to restrain myself from leaping across the table and hugging her. LOL So, right before we had to leave to drive her back to camp, I let her dig through my boxes of old beads while I sat at my bench drilling out the holes on some of them so they’d fit onto 1 mm elastic cord.

She even got really excited about some of the beads! It was all I could do not to jump for joy.

It’s great that these old beads that were just languishing in my bead boxes will have a new life with the kids at camp.