Back to Clay Carnival Las Vegas 2012

Let's see, I think I'm caught up, travel wise, so on with Clay Carnival Las Vegas 2012 classes and fun.  For anyone who doesn't know me, I'm a polymer clay artist and Clay Carnival is a yearly polymer clay conference with 8 classes from well known/famous polymer clay artists and lots of fun.

Polymer Clay is a modeling type clay that comes in numerous wonderful colors.  Unlike "earth clays" it does not require a kiln to cure or harden it.  It can be cured or baked in the home oven or toaster oven to a hard plastic, like PVC.  In fact, polymer clay IS PVC Polyvinyl Chloride, the same thing your white or grey plastic plumbing pipes are made of. 

This is my third year at Clay Carnival and every year just seems to get better and better.  My first year I somehow got put in the rowdy room (which is kind of funny, as anyone who knows me knows there probably isn't a less rowdy person in the world, but I sure enjoy being a part of that group).  The rowdy room got its name because it deserved it.  This is a group of gals (happen to all be gals) who are a bit risque and enjoy teasing and laughter and practical jokes.  It's all done in fun, though with no intention to hurt anyone physically or emotionally.  It's really quite cathartic for a "stick in the mud" like me.

My second year at Clay Carnival, I told the "bosses" to just put me wherever they wanted to, as too many people were requesting the rowdy room.  I sure missed the friends I made that first year though, so this year I asked to be put back in the rowdy room.  It's funny how quickly and strongly you can bond with people even after just 4 days of classes together.

Getting ready for classes are the people to the right of me, Janis and Karen.

Missing from the 2 tables behind Janis and Karen:
Lisa, far right with the yellow flower on her balloon hat.

and Donna and Grace, the clown, center and right, respectively.

With Instructor Kim Cavender being "overwhelmed" on the left.

I'm the empty chair (although someone was kind enough to take a picture of me during a class, so I can include myself here, LOL)  

Marianne was sitting beside me (my empty chair), Joyce was behind me, and Randee behind Marianne.  Julie was behind Joyce and Meisha behind Randee.  At the back, standing on the right, is Karin, our Oven Angel.  She calls herself the Oven Witch as she does all the baking and keeps it all organized and is quite adamant about nobody else touching the ovens.  It works out quite well, as there is no question as to what has been cured and what hasn't and what needs to be cured and for how long etc.  Karin takes care of all of it, so we don't have to.  Therefore, we changed her name to "Oven Angel" and all kinds of silly songs cropped up because of it.  I'm not sure of the other three people, I think sitting in the back right corner was Deb, and the table in front had Nicoletta (from France, I think), and I think that is Beth to the right of Nicoletta.

The empty chair on the right was for "Pete"  (here's Pete in the fuchsia shirt, behind Instructor Wendy in the skull tiara):

and next to Pete was Kathi, with the beautiful rainbow hair.

The front table has Patti on the left (as we're looking at the picture) and I'm embarrassed to say I'm not sure, but I think the gal next to Patti is Gail.  If anybody reads this and knows this for sure, please let me know.

Kathi decided the class just wouldn't be complete without a "dueling cameras" shot, LOL.

So, on with the classes.  Day one, our room started with Sarah Shriver making beautifully colored acorns for necklaces or earrings.  As the description for the class is written:  "I love these sweet little shapes! Using manipulated skinner blends to cover molded shapes, we will be able to co

nstruct this adorable set of chubby little acorns. You can mix and match tops and bottoms to get a wide variety of color combinations and set them all off with contrasting twists, dots and beads. If you are feeling adventurous you can trade with a neighbor to bring in an even wider color variation."  

These Acorns (or other shapes) were actually started with "molded" natural acorns of varying sizes and shapes.  Sarah taught us to make these lovely molds, too. 

Lovely skinner blend canes were made to "cover" the molded acorn bases and blended together to make these beautifully colored acorns.  

Sarah's class samples to let us know what we were making.  She does such lovely and intricate "skinner blend" canework.

I was rather "bad" as I spent most of my class time making molds of the various sizes of acorns, as I need them for another personal project I've already started at home, LOL.

Here are the canes I made and my finished acorns, well, almost finished, they need sanded and buffed or something to bring out the shine.

 It was suggested we swap cane slices with our classmates, to get some variation in our finished acorns, but I'm not sure anybody had the time to do so.  It was a fun class and right up my alley, as, you know, I am a cane maker at heart.  I've also had several other classes as well as video instruction from Sarah and am quite comfortable with making her style of canework.



After a lunch break, our instructors were Donna Kato and Leslie Blackford presenting a colaborative project.  We were supposed to have had Dawn/Dee Schiller, who had to cancel due to illness.  We missed Dee's class, but enjoyed Donna and Leslie's replacement project.

While they had been in Europe together for another Clay Carnival, they had enjoyed the many, many pub signs they saw and had been playing with ways to make such pub signs in polymer clay.

This is what they came up with:
Donna Kato handled the sign part with toner copier transfers and both Leslie and Donna showed their way of making the animals.

I chose to make the Peeled Grape Pub, but as usual (I'm well known for being an "overachiever") felt my animal needed a bit more.  Instead of one little grape in his mouth, he had to have a whole BUNCH of grapes.  After all, he's a BEAR, no self respecting bear would only be eating ONE grape, LOL.  I was really pleased with how he turned out.

With that, I'll close today's blog post and return tomorrow with Day 2's classes and projects.  Stay tuned, Smiles, Sue C