Polymer Clay Nirvana !!!!

Wow, did I have a fabulous experience last weekend! I have wanted to attend a polymer clay workshop for a long time especially after winning a free workshop at  Christine Damm's Art On The Farm last year but being unable to attend it due to health issues! I can't tell you how difficult it was for me to turn down that prize!
Most workshops I've seen have been too far away or too expensive for me to attend. Living in Canada does limit the opportunities. However we do have some very talented polymer clay artists here and one of them is Helen Breil who lives in Guelph, Ontario which is a 35 minute drive from my home in Hamilton.

 Helen has taught her techniques all over the world but thankfully for me decided to take this year off travelling and she offered a workshop locally which I was lucky enough to attend.

If you don't know who Helen is (where have you been?) then you have to check out her website or her flickr page here to enjoy her art. She is an amazing artist and a wonderful, generous person.
There were 8 of us in attendance at the workshop and Helen shared many skills and techniques with us. We learned how to create our own texture stamps out of polymer clay which was a new technique for all of us.

Then we spent the rest of the first day learning and practising how to make hollow beads out of polymer clay. I love how these beads look and feel. They're like pillows but are hard and make beautiful jewelry. The following picture is of several hollow pendants that I made this week for a show I'm doing this weekend.

 Sunday morning we concentrated on silk screening on polymer clay and coloring our silk screened clay using mica powders and pan pastels. there are so many great techniques to use with polymer clay and I am thrilled that I was able to attend this workshop and learn from a master of polymer clay art! It's amazing to realize that with 8 different participants we all came up with 8 totally different results. I can only show you what I created at the workshop but believe me everybody did fabulous work. The following are samples of what I created using silk screening and making hollow beads with inclusions of copper earring studs donated by one of the workshop participants. Thanks, Loreen.

 Besides learning new skills and techniques the best part of the workshop was the people who I met and worked with. The camaraderie among us was great and we had so much fun together. I truly love the world of polymer clay and everybody I've met in real life and online has been fabulous and hopefully I'll remain friends with them as I progress through this art form.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about this workshop and seeing the creations resulting from it. Thanks again to a wonderful, warm and gracious artist for sharing her knowledge and opening her home to us!

Many thanks to  Helen Breil!