This past weekend the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild hosted Dan Cormier for his Building Better Beads workshop. It was a great workshop, one of the best I have ever taken and I have taken a lot of workshops. Dan is extremely generous with sharing his techniques, but the most valuable part of the workshop for me was listening to the careful and considered way he approaches the whole process. He is truly a master craftsman. It shows in his work, but it is truly evident in the details and attention he applies to every step.
Considering how technical and focused the techniques are, Dan made the workshop entertaining. Everyone left urging Dan to come back to Connecticut for another workshop. I looked around the room several times and I was struck by the relative quiet. Our guild is a very chatty bunch, but there were long stretches of hushed concentration. And lots of excited smiles. What could be better than that?
So, thanks Dan for instructing and inspiring us, for showing us that a drive for perfection takes patience and hard work, but it’s within our reach. I cannot wait to bring the techniques you showed us to my combination of silver and polymer clay. I am particularly excited about the prospect of adding more dimension to my pieces. As I have been concentrating on pieces which use sheet sterling as a base, my work has become much more two dimensional. Dan Cormier’s technique for creating dimensional and relational forms I can replicate consistently is exactly the tool set I needed. Now I am off to explore on my own.
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Yep, incredible class with Dan, Libby. I don’t consider myself all that practiced and used to using clay in the way that experienced clayers are. Just having it in your hands more often, working with it, I think your brain and fingers become more subconsciously knowledgeable about how to work the clay. I haven’t put that kind of time in yet. But the Building Better Beads class I think gave me a quantum jump on things. Wheeeee!!!
One of the fun things about classes like Dan’s, where you can learn so much, in just trying to replicate what he’s taught, you can be in a very good place artistically. But it gets fun to see how someone like you takes the same information, and already it’s morphing into YOUR take on it, and how you can use the same information, but in your own style.
Looking forward to seeing the evolution!
I noticed the hushed concentration too, even me!… ‘Hushed’ is not usually a word used in connection with our group of clay addicts. *grin*
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