October's meeting bead

I sanded and buffed Barb's bead that she will be demoing at October's meeting. I just used the coarse then fine sanding blocks and then went to the buffer.

The bead is based on a technique from Donna Kato's Surface Techniques book.

Janice

Two of our members are featured on Polymer Clay Daily!

Congratulations to Wendy and Bev. Polymer Clay Daily posted a very nice blurb about their Cabezel molds on September 22. You can see the link here here.

We're honoured to have such talented members in our Guild and it's nice to see others recognizing the talent.

Today's lesson - Silk Screening

Hi Everyone,

We were honoured to have our very own Janice V teach us how to silk screen today. She did a wonderful job and thanks to her generosity with the supplies we all came away with screens that we liked and can re-use. This first photo shows the materials that are used. Essentially a black and white image is copied onto a transparency. This is then placed over the light sensitive undeveloped screen, covered in a dark bag, and then taken into the sun. Stand facing the sun for half a minute or so and then bring the kit back into the room, plunk in water for 10 minutes, scrub away whatever wants to come off, and presto - a wonderful silk screen!

Janice is in love with inro boxes and brought along several of her samples that she's embellished with silk screening. These, according to her (and only her) are "not very good". The rest of us think otherwise.




We all spent our 30 seconds out in the sun waiting for the plates to be exposed. Then we set the screens and dried them. Once they were completed we were able to use them to squeegee paint onto clay. Here are a couple of samples after they've been painted. They show some of the differences in playing with colours and clay.


I didn't get a decent photo of Barb's amazing colour interference acrylic paint - it was neat to see what it did on different colours of clay. Everyone had a wonderful time. Janice and her excellent teaching skills demystified the process that looks intimidating on paper.


This last image really shows the impact of white balance in a digital camera. It's exactly the same piece, but the camera settings on the first one were true and were taken only after I noticed that the photo on the right made the clay look really blue. For those that are never satisfied with their colours in the digital cameras (particularly for indoor shots), I'd highly recommend a camera that allows for changing the white balance.

You can buy the StencilPro kits at http://www.cbridge.com/. Janice doesn't recommend the high resolution screens.

Next month's class is from Donna Kato's surface techniques. It'll be taught by Barb B. Materials list and other information to follow.

Cheers,

Sandy

Donna Kato Classses

These rings show the techniques learned.
Pods, zippers, canes.

BIG Beads and fine rings.

Samples of finished products by the students.

Like Wendy has stated, the bracelets are wonderful but not something that can be accomplished without alot of practice.. unless, of course, your name is Janice.

Another great tip from Donna was how she stores her canes. In Ammo boxes (for bullet storage)! I have sourced out a Canadian supplier. Check them out.

Cabela's shotgun cases

I called the gun store (Giovanni's) that I know, here in Toronto (on Wilson Av) and they said they do have some ammo boxes (but I didn't clarify if they were the ones shown above). Cheryl and I were going to check them out the other day but the store was closed when we arrived. Must go back.

All in all, a great weekend class. Gail

Kato Workshop

I had a wonderful time on the week-end learning from one of the greats, Donna Kato. When all was said and done I had a wonderful collection of tiny canes and a lot of new methods and ways of doing things. Donna taught us how to make pods and beads and a great way to store Skinner blends. She also taught us how to make her gorgeous, chunky bracelets but I don't think I'm alone in admitting that this lesson was a lot harder than it looked and only after weeks of practice would I be able to make anything that even began to resemble one of Donna's bracelets !!!

Teaser

Here is a little teaser of the finished projects from Donna Kato's class.

Donna Kato Workshop

Tomorrow is the start of the Donna Kato workshop in Toronto. I am getting quite excited at the thought of learning new techniques from Donna. I've never had the opportunity to take a class from her but I've heard that she is an amazing teacher. We'll be learning all about creating pods and bracelets. I can hardly wait. I will take some photos and tell you all about it when it's over.

Wendy O