Libzoid Blog

I didn’t really intend for this to be a once a month blog. I’ll have to do better in the future. I am back from Ravensdale, tired and so sad that it is all over. It was a fantastic conference. While it was a bit smaller than the last Ravensdale, it was by no means small. One thing I really appreciated this time was how approachable all the instructors were. I had a chance to see and speak with most of them even though I only took classes from a few. It was wonderful as always to see and spend creative time with so many of my polymer clay friends. Ok, I’ll ramble on about some of the details:

Classes
I started my week with a 2 day Bezel studio with Judy Kuskin. I have admired Judy’s work for a long time and it was a real pleasure to spend 2 days with her. She is a wonderful teacher, very organized and sharing. It was a delight to learn to solder with some basic tools I can affordably and safely use in my studio. The other students were great fun and the time went by too quickly. One thing I particularly oved was that every student brought their own polymer veneers to the class giving each person’s finished necklace a unique flavor.

Mid week I had a 1 day workshop with Dan Cormier called Craftsmanship Without Compromise. It was exactly what I had been hoping for when I attended his demo on how he works from the design to completion of a project at the 2003 Ravensdale. Dan shared all his methods for creating unique, reproducible and relational forms as well as all the steps to achieve a flawless finish. His commitment to excellence at every step along the way really shows in his finished pieces. It was an exhausting class and a reminder that truly professional work takes a lot of hard work, patience and focus.

I had a 2 day color studio with Maggie Maggio and Lindly Haunani for the end of the week. The first day was building a personal color collage for the day and learning the beginning of how to reproduce beautiful colors that related to each other from that collage. Unfortunately the pace of the week caught up with me and I had to skip the second day of the workshop. My mental and physical energy gave out from overstimulation and lack of sleep. I really should know better than to schedule myself that heavily and I paid for it.

Saturday was Demo Day and I attended really interesting demos by Kathy Davis (epoxy resin clay - cool stuff!), Jayne Hoffman (twist beads - the things she can do with a knitting needle, LOL) and Patti Kimle (molds - I’ll never scoff at a package of Bake & Bend again). Lots of great ideas in a format perfectly appropriate to the end of the week.

The Auction
One of the most fun events at Ravensdale is the Auction. This includes the non-raffle of piles of interesting supplies and gorgeous artist donations and the auction of work by instructors. Tracy Holmes does a great job as announcer/auctioneer keeping things moving and entertaining. Occasional joke items make their way into the auction. In 2003 it was a wild pair of ugly socks worn by Meredith Arnold which were purchased by Sarah Shriver. This year, Sarah brought back the socks which were in turn purchased by Jeff Dever. There were other hilarious gag items in this year’s auction mixed in with the serious pieces. I scored a wonderful mixed-media necklace by Julia Sober. I really admire Julia’s work and she’s such a fun person, the piece is doubly special for me.

The Rave
The Rave exhibit was gorgeous! It is such a thrill to see my own work displayed so beautifully. I had 2 pieces in this time, A Sliver of Lime and Scribbles in Sand. The work in the exhibit was varied and beautiful, and displayed with great thought and professionalism. I hope they put up pictures of the exhibit on the Northwest Guild website soon.

Home Again
I am home now, recovering from the sensory overload and lack of sleep and very excited by all the pounding and noise coming from my basement. Work has officially begun on my new studio space and I am SO excited. I will try to take pictures later. Really.

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