7 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Polymer Clay Tutor:
This morning reading through the RSS feeds in my Google Reader, I came across fellow polymer clay artist Elaine Robitaille’s post called “7 Things About Me.” You may remember seeing Elaine’s stunning Polymer Clay Pendant from a post on this blog some time back.
Elaine had been tagged as part of a Meme which really is just a digital version of a chain letter that provides bloggers with something new to write about.
Elaine wrote some funny things about herself. But hating to ‘tag’ people as much as I do, she left it up to her readers to tag themselves if they wished.
That got me to thinking… you guys don’t really know too much about me. So here are 7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Cindy Lietz, Your Polymer Clay Tutor:
1) I once was a Trout Farmer. My husband Doug was a marine biologist working at the Vancouver Aquarium when I married him. His dream was to own and run a fish farm and also raise aquatic worms for feed. This led to the two of us operating several different trout farms in British Columbia. Along side of Doug, I fed, gutted and filleted thousands of pounds of fish… and personally delivered live trout to many seafood stores in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Although I do not miss those days ‘living in hip waders and picking scales out of my hair’, he does a little.
2) Several years ago, I wrote and hosted a recycled craft TV show called “The Sophisticated Scrounge”. I taught people how to make Christmas crafts out of recycled materials. The Christmas special aired over 40 times on national television here in Canada and the US Pacific Northwest.
3) I have been married to Doug for 21 years. We waited quite a few years to have kids so they are still pretty young at 12 and 9 years old. I adore them all (the kids and Doug) and really enjoy being a family. Our favorite vacations are camping trips, where Doug does a lot of the cooking on the fire and calls himself Chef Pierre.
4) Was a night school craft teacher. I have taught thousands of students (mostly women but a fair number of men) in card making, handmade paper making, painted wine glasses, glass and ceramic tile mosaic, punched tin, tea bag folding, painted glass ornaments and many more. I taught in 13 different schools, three nights a week for 10 years. Doug made wooden boxes and other craft kits for most of the courses. A lot of prep work went into those classes!
5) Besides my current interest in polymer clay beads, I am also an acrylic artist specializing in working with kids drawings to create keepsake artwork. I’m known as the “Look What I Drawed!” artist. The bear in the picture above is one of my public art pieces done for a Children’s Charity auction. It was created using selected drawings from 300 children. The original drawings were enlarged and traced onto the bear and then painted by me. This life size Spirit Bear sculpture raised $15,000 for the BC Lions Society.
6) I’m not to worried about how I look. Sometimes I wear make-up, sometimes I don’t. Although I prefer cute clothes, I can be seen in just about anything. Always feel better with a new hair cut, a great pair of jeans and running shoes of course! I own a pair with pirates on them and a red plaid pair that seem to get worn more than any other shoes in the closet.
7) My studio is almost always a mess! Especially when it gets busy. I do love it to be organized though and will occasionally put everything away in its labled spot. But stuff slowly starts ‘sneaking’ back out. Because I’ve worked with so many different mediums and have recycled just about everything, I love to hold onto items and materials that could have a potential use someday. My friends and family think of me as ‘the keeper of stuff’ and my studio as a delivery location for things they can’t find a home for. Don’t get me wrong though, I really do like getting all those “gifts” and treasures… just wish I had a bigger studio.
Now that you know more about my “mixed media” background, hopefully you’ll be able to better understand my eclectic style as a polymer clay artist. There are still many more things you don’t know about me. But I’ll leave those stories for another day!
I always enjoy getting a peek into the person behind the crafty blogs. Great post! Thanks for sharing. :)
P.S. I think the trout farmer thing is cool!
Thank you Christie! It is great to see you! Congrats on the new baby BTW… bet you really have your hands full now. Thanks for dropping by!
I followed the link and got to your page!! I think its very very cool you pay it forward by teaching and empowering people with creative juices – not forgetting your trout farmer days! =)
Thank you very much Cordelia! It would be difficult to forget the Trout Farm Days… they were quite memorable! ;-)
Especially the time I had given the live ones I was delivering, a little too much Oxygen, and when I opened the lid of the tank on the truck, they all jumped out onto the street! It must have looked funny, me chasing super jumpy fish down the lane trying to get them back into the truck!
Cindy,
You are such an amazingly awesome woman. I just don’t know where you get your energy or how you possibly can squeeze the time it must take for all that you do into your 24 hour days. You truly are a superwoman!!! It sounds like you have had a brilliant life so far. I just admire you so very much. I feel so very blessed to have found you in this big ole’ world, and to be able to learn from you. You are such a positive inspiration to me. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with all of us. :) :) :) I pray that you will continue to be blessed always!!!
Hugs to you,
Cindy E.
Thank you CindyE! :-) As always your support and kindness is a pleasure!!
Wow!!! You really are amazing. I love the bear; what a fantastic idea. My dad and mum (both artists too) used to collect all our art. Recently he presented me with a package of all the drawing I did as a child and later years. One of them was a picture entitled ‘My mother’ which my dad entered in the Lions International child art competition and I won first place at 7 yrs old. I learned to make paper mache figures from my mum and did some stained glass. I haven’t done a lot with clay but I hope too. You are a great inspiration. Thanks so much.
You sound like you had a pretty creative life Cheryl! I loved hearing the contest story. My daughter won a coloring contest when she was four and it sure gave her confidence in art. I bet it also set you up for a crafty life! Bet your childhood art is very special to you. That is why I make them into paintings for people, cause they really are so valuable to a family. Nothing is more precious than childhood artwork!
Thank you for commenting!
LOL!!! Do you sleep?
LOL!! Yeah I sleep. I don’t do anything much else but work and sleep though. Not a whole lot of housework going on! LOL!!!
Cindy I would give my eyeteeth to see a video of your studio posted here. It must be a feast for the eyes.
Too tell you the truth Jocelyn, If you saw it right now, it would probably ‘hurt’ your eyes, rather than be a ‘feast’ for them! :-)
Cindy
Could you share a link to where we could find this special online or the name of the channel producing it, so one could contact and ask if the video could be purchased? Would love to see this!
QUOTE
2) Several years ago, I wrote and hosted a recycled craft TV show called “The Sophisticated Scrounge”. I taught people how to make Christmas crafts out of recycled materials. The Christmas special aired over 40 times on national television here in Canada and the US Pacific Northwest.
@Jocelyn: Doug said he would render the video for the web, one of these days and post it to the blog. So you will eventually be able to see it here. Haven’t seen that video myself for a long time. Bet I look younger. (Positive I look younger!) ;-)
So Doug, what do you think, is now getting close to ‘one of these day’ ??
:D
Thanks for reminder Sherry. As time permits, I am still working away at getting all of the original tutorial videos converted over to a format that plays directly on iPads and other mobile devices. So until I get that job completed, the fun stuff will have to wait. Keep bugging me though, so I don’t forget.
PS: Some time you should ask Cindy about the video she did from way way back… when she got in front of the camera and sang her rendition of… “Let’s Give ‘Em Something To Talk About.” It’s definitely a classic }:-p
HA – Now that’s something I’d pay to see!!
Cool beans, please thank Doug for me!
Forgot my password and requesteda a new one, but when I enter the new one, it keeps coming up as an error. HELP!
Hi Gail – Not to worry. I will email you about this and help get this resolved.
Cindy, a great post! I read it for the first time today. Talking about your studio, mine is a mess too. On the Saturday “Art Bead Scene” blog, the studio of Tari Sasser at Creative Impressions In Clay was shown. She is a very brave lady to show her studio. I think after you look at it, you should show us your studio. It would be an inspriation to us all. I showed Tari’s studio pics to my husband so he would not complain about my “infamous back room” anymore.
@Bette L: Wow, that was surprising to see! Although I’ve got quite a bit of clutter myself (being in such a cramped space,) it’s still weird to see someone else’s mess! I’ll bet it’s freeing, though. Just puttin’ it out there! I’m wondering, though — where does she clay?
@Bette L and Phaedrakat: Hehehe Yeah I saw that! Wow, mine isn’t that bad. Well… not quite. Maybe I’ll get Doug to take some photos some time. We’ll see. :-)
@Bette L: It was a brave act Bette. It became a wildly popular topic on Art Bead Scene :) All artist’s have creative clutter, some more than others. It inspired others to start the spring cleaning and maybe not feel so bad about what happens when you are creating. The mounting piles become insignificant. Or as Fred Babb said “Time Becomes Meaningless in the Face of Creativity.” I’ve been working on cleaning the mess but now the weather is warm and the outdoors is calling. Thanks for including me in your conversation! Have a great day!
@Tari S.: I think you’re incredibly brave, and inspirational! I agree that a large percentage of artists have “creative clutter.” I’ll bet your post gave these women a sigh of relief. I know I thought, “Whew! I’m not the only one.” When you’re a creative person, you tend to find things that you want to transform or add to your art. It’s difficult to find places to store all this stuff. Even when you have the room, you still have to have the time to put it all away. Thank you for showing us your studio; I’ve got my spring cleaning planned for next week. (Actually, getting my “studio proper” set up.) The weather outside IS inviting, let’s hope I’m able to keep my plans. BTW, your work is beautiful. Of course you’d prefer creating those gorgeous buttons instead of fighting with a big bookshelf! Thanks again :)
@Tari Sasser: I agree with Phaedrakat you are brave Tari and your work is gorgeous! Thanks for taking the time from creating to comment. I really appreciate that!
Cindy -I just read this !! You are now 3D -a real live person LOL. The mess we all make is the creative side having fun. No need to apologize about it. If we didn’t make a mess -we couldn’t create…….Love and hugs
@pattw: Did you happen to see this? Cindy re-posted just recently. It makes her even more “live” — Polymer Clay Tutor Video Interview
Ha! My work area is a mess! If you’d care to see it, I actually posted pictures of it on Facebook. I couldn’t belive the comments it generated..!! :) I know now, I am not alone and I am in good company! hehehe!!
Clay On,
~Lisa :)
Hi Cindy, since I had not seen this blog topic before I thought I would post my question here, as I am sure others would love to get more background about our favorite polymer clay tutor! :-)
I found it searching for Vancouver. I thought you were in the Vancouver area but was not sure. I will be in Vancouver for an international conference in early June and I am taking a couple extra vacation days at the end. I like to visit the local bead shops in the places I travel and hope you can recommend one or two favorites. Also, I would appreciate suggestions for any not-to-be-missed sites for nature lovers and photographers. I’m thinking the Sea-to-Sky Highway. Also, if it’s too early for wildflowers, which of the several gardens there is probably the best to visit then?
I just have a couple of days and don’t need a long list, so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Hi Bertha, make sure to let us know when you are in town, if we are around it would be cool to meet up with you! As far as great places to go, pretty much any tourist guide will help. Everything here as far as site seeing is gorgeous and I think you will really enjoy it. The Sea-to-Sky Highway will get you to many beautiful places all the way up to Whistler. On your way you can go to Capilano Rock and Gem (my favorite bead and jewelry supply shop) and see the Capilano suspension bridge. The Vandusen Gardens are incredible and Stanley Park is a must see. Hope that helps and that you really enjoy your trip!
Hi Cindy, thanks for the advice! I did look at some tourist guides but there are so many options I thought I would see what a local would put at the top of the list! ;-)
You are so kind to invite me to contact you! The conference starts the first weekend in June and I will send you an e-mail when I am sure of my free time. Thanks again!