Mingling with Polymer Clay Artists at the Fraser Valley Bead Show

The gals from Strung out on Beads were at that show Cindy!

How I'd love to be taking that mokume gane course. It's a technique I really am fascinated with.

Unfortunately – we aren't heading back for a while as far as I know. I can't do the passes when they're covered with snow. I'm too much of a scaredy cat.

That's funny Aims that I didn't realize they were there! I didn't have a lot of time to browse, was way too tired myself (as you may be able to tell by my photo) and since I was only looking for wire and a few tools I didn't carefully peruse the booths with the beads very well.

Another good reason to go to a Bead Show in the morning when everyone isn't so tired!

Hi there! I just spent the last 15 minutes or so perusing your blog, I love how you have it set up! VERY nice and conducive to reading through lots of posts quickly, fabulous!! Everything you write about is great and very informative even for people who are not a polymer clay artist, but just someone who likes to craft!! :)

I would love to take that MG class also. I have loved Julie's style for awhile now.

Hi Cindy, My Spliced Flower Cane was a big failure. Are there even amounts of clay in the two skinner blend plugs? I did everything the same as the video and it didn't come out right. I had a blob of green in the middle surrounded in white topped with a thin line of blue around the petal. When I squished the log together, my skinner blend was hardly noticeable. Are there any tips you can give me? Help, Honey

@Claycass: I love her style too!

@Helen: That's too bad you're having trouble. Sounds to me like you may have added too much white to your blends and not enough of your color. That's no problem though. When that happens, just cut off a chunk of the white side of your blend before you roll it into a Skinner Blend Cane. There really should be only a little bit of white in the center, with the rest of the cane being the blend. If there is too much white in both blends, you won't see the contrast in the middle when you splice your two canes together.

Another way to avoid this problem, is to use no white at all and use four colors for your blends instead. For example, you could use green and yellow for one blend and turquoise and blue for the other blend. Then for sure there would be a contrast and you would see the stripes in the cane properly.

If this doesn't fix the problem, send me a photo and I can see where you went wrong and set you in the right direction.

Don't despair! It can take a bit of practice to get your canes to look right. The good thing is, you can always use this 'messed up' cane for the many 'scrap cane' projects there are on this site. Click the link by my name to head to a post with some more info on that. Or type the word 'scrap' into the search box at the top of the page for even more articles.

Good luck and let me know how it goes! :-)

Holy Cow! I have a lot of catching up to do! Been gone to Cancun for 2 weeks on my honeymoon! Saw some INCREDIBLE flower cane work in some jewelry shops! Lots of inspiration! And BTW Cindy, if you are in need of some inspiration for color recipe palettes, I took some great flower pics down there!

Cindy – how lovely to see us together! It really was a highlight of the show for me to meet you after following you for the past couple of years. Your online personna is such an inspiration – I can not believe the amount of information you are able to provide and on such a regular basis. You are the Tutor-Queen and it was a real joy to meet you!

There are one or two seats left in Julie's workshop if anyone wants to contact me, just let Cindy know and she can provide you with my private email.

I look forward to hosting a workshop with you as the featured guest instructor Cindy – that would be very cool indeed – cheers!

I'm busy preparing for my local fair mid-November too, hence my lack of input recently. Just wanted to add my ravings about Julie Picarello and how much I admire her work, hear she's writing a book at the moment, due out Autumn 2010. I'm really envious about you being able to meet etc.

@Carrie: I was wondering where you were. Congratulations on getting married!! Hope you had a wonderful time on your Honeymoon. Yes, I would love to use your flower photos for color recipe inspiration! Any beach photos or sunsets etc would be awesome too. Anything you want. I've done palettes before using other members' photos, like the Curiosity Cactus Palette that was created with a photo from Jeanne Collins of Arizona. (See recipes link by my name.) So glad to have you back. Hopefully it won't take you too long to catch up!

@LindaG: Thank you for the kind words. And I agree… we should talk about doing a live workshop. I've been so focused on doing my online teaching, that it'll probably take someone like you to get me back to doing live events. In my earlier days, I used to teach 3 or 4 classes a week. The personal interaction with students in that type of setting is wonderful.

@Polyanya: Still not sure if my schedule will work to meet up with Julie, but I'm crossing my fingers! It sure takes a lot of work to get prepped for doing a Fair doesn't it? Good luck. I hope you have a lot of success with it!

Well I am very envious of that mokome gane workshop – however we have a workshop of our own coming up in January. Helen Cox (well known for putting on 'Play Days' in Britain has invited Sandra McCaw from America to tutor in the Nottingham area on 23rd and 24th January (if anyone is interested there are, I am told, limited place left – just google for 'Helen Cox McCaw Cane') She is demonstrating her fabulous and well known cane.

Meanwhile 'Cindy's girls' are meeting again, and would love anyone else to join us – we are meeting at the NEC on Friday 6th November. There is a sort of walled in garden (surrounded by glass) in the middle of the complex – we reckon to meet at the entrance at 11am (that way anyone who wants to arrive earlier can mooch around the Craft Exhibition that is on. We want there to be more Cindys girls, so I hope you can make it!

@Cindy Lietz: Cindy, every time i see a photo of yours – you very much remind me of Kim Cathral, one of my favourite actresses.

Now that'd be a course I fly out to the west coast for, a personal class with Cinty Lietz!!!!! :)

@Penny: Great news about another meet up! Wish I could be there too. Hey, maybe you could send me one of those buttons and I could pretend. That would be so fun! That will be great for you to meet Sandra McCaw! She is another one of the clay gurus that would be wonderful to meet!

@Nevena: Thank you, you are so sweet. Someone else has told me that before, though I can't really see it myself. Very flattering she is a beautiful actress!

@Ken: That would be fantastic! I of course will let you know if a workshop gets put together. Would be great to put a face to the name!

* Just talked with LindaG and her, Julie and I may just be able to meet for a bite to eat on Friday which would be awesome! Will let you all know all about it later.

I would love to come out to a class, but it's a bit far. Does anyone know of any polymer artists in Calgary (or area) that offer classes?

Thank you Cindy, I am a bit nervous mind. But I am envious of your meet-up I hear she's a lovely person, we actually look alike (speaking of lookie-likies).

Glad to hear you're all meeting up again Penny.

I have a picture I use for auditions, how do you load the photo so it's used next to my comments?

@Cindy Lietz from How To Add Your Own Comment Photo: Thanks I just did it, I hope I added the photo correctly. Thanks Cindy!

Well, I guess I did, because there I am staring back at myself. :P

Elizabeth – I was told by a salesperson at Michael's in Red Deer that there are polymer classes in Calgary. I know there is a group that meets there as well but will have to do some research on that.

If you hear of anything let me know too okay? I might be able to brave driving down in the snow.

Thanks Aims – I'll keep my eyes open for classes in Calgary! I'm glad to know some might exist!

Hey Aims, Elizabeth

I recently moved from Calgary to Swift Current but I 'commute' regularly. I had taught classes on polymer clay in Calgary over the years and there are a few other people who do clay (attached to the doll and minis groups mostly) in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton.

If you guys are still interested we should get together one of the next times I'm in town and do a little claying :)