Every week I am going to start featuring a different artist from the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy. There is so much talent and diversity that I really wanted to share them with you. I think you will really enjoy seeing everyones work and hopefully it will inspire you. This first feature is by Stormy Designs and she has been inspired by Christi Friesen as you can see by the photo of Taffy the dragon.

I wanted to share some photos of her work and you can see more by checking out her etsy shop at http://www.stormydesigns.etsy.com

Well we are back from our first polymer clay retreat and it was a blast! I arrived on Friday and was happy to see that Barbara Forbes-Lyons was there, Barbara did an interview with us at Synergy and you will get to see that in a later episode of Polymer Clay TV. It was nice to finally get to spend some time together and get to know each other better because at Synergy there just wasn’t the opportunity. Barbara came with a very talented artist named Ellen and they were claying like crazy all weekend, making amazing art. They decided not to take the classes but to take the opportunity to clay and just enjoy the experience.

One of the amazing things about the retreat was that you could really go for only the day if you wanted to or you could just clay or you could take classes with Sarah Shriver, Christi Friesen and Maureen Carlson. The way it worked was the students stayed in their class all three days and the teachers moved to the different classrooms. It was so cool to see what everyone was making and we have lots of footage and photos to share with you. The energy was great which kept me going until 11:00 at night and that was pretty amazing considering I am usually in bed by 9PM. The beds were terrible and I barely slept so I needed the energy to keep me going and it did.

Friday night there was a flamingo fashion show that had me cracking up so hard. The beak of the Flamingo and assorted accessories were made with polymer clay, you will see more of it on Polymer Clay TV. Then there was the brown bag swap, which was a lot of fun also. Kira arrived Saturday morning and she got a bunch of photos which we will be sharing with you. Saturday night there was a live auction and there was lots of goodies to bid on, I bought some silk screens which you will be seeing on a future episode of Polymer Clay TV and Polymer Clay Classroom.

Sunday brought the Bottle of Hope challenge and there were some amazing entries. We photographed and filmed those as well. There was a raffle that I participated in and I will try to find out who the winners were as we had to head out early Sunday to get the show ready for this week. It was a great experience and we want to thank Rhonda & Nita for everything and for making the event such a success. They are in the process of coordinating next years event so make sure to watch the website for details.

This week on Polymer Clay Podcast we will be sharing some more of our experiences at the Orlando Clay Fandango and we hope you will join us on Friday.

Today we have an early new episode of Polymer Clay TV as we will be heading out of town to attend the Orlando Clay Fandango tomorrow.
They have this really cool thing called a day tripper pass, so if you are in the area and just want to come spend the day at the event and get the retreat experience, come on down, we would love to meet you! We will have a ton of footage to share when we return.

You can check out more of Christi Friesen’s work at her website and she will be teaching at the Fandango so I am sure we will have some more footage of her but enjoy the interview!

We did an interview with Ann & Karen Mitchell while we were at CHA and we share that in this episode as well as our regular scheduled programming mokume gane demo. Enjoy!

Make sure to check out Polymer Clay Classroom for the Mokume Gane Egg class.

Here is a photo of the finished vest and the necklace Ann & Karen had on display.

 Online Videos by Veoh.com

Today at 1PM  eastern time zone,I will be in the Etsy virtual lab, you can read all about it in yesterdays post and I hope you will join me there. I have been busy editing and everything should be finished today. Since I am leaving on Friday to go to the Orlando Clay Fandango I will be posting the video early. Not sure exactly what time but Polymer Clay TV should be available earlier than usual, so check back for that.

This week on Polymer Clay TV we start off with an interview with Christi Friesen who you probably know from the critters she creates. Christi shares some of her upcoming plans and the release date of her latest book. After Christi Kira and I share the mokume gane technique with you. It is a fun technique that is easy to master and create a wide variety of things with. We made eggs with the technique with Easter just around the corner. After our demo we have an interview with Ann & Karen Mitchell and they share how they got started creating with polymer clay. They were working on a vest made with polymer clay at CHA and you will get to see it on the video. Hopefully I can get a hold of the finished vest and share a photo with you when I do.

We still have tons of video to share so the upcoming videos will be a little longer than normal so if you are watching the videos on You Tube you will not be able to view the last 2 videos and possibly some of the upcoming ones as the files are too big for You Tube. You can ALWAYS watch the videos at our website. Enjoy!

We are very excited to share with you an article we wrote that is now published in the Etsy Storque. You can read it and share your comments at this link. http://www.etsy.com/storque/article/1383/
The article is part of a series that Etsy is doing on podcasting and of course you know that is what we have been doing every Friday since last June 1st.

Tomorrow Etsy will be hosting a virtual lab and they invited us to attend. We hope you will attend as well. All you need to attend is to be a member of Etsy and it is free to register for Etsy and you can do so on their home page. Etsy labs gives members a chance to interact and learn. I am really looking forward to it and hope you will attend.

http://www.etsy.com/virtual_lab.php?room_id=storqueMake sure to come back Friday for a new episode of Polymer Clay TV and a new episode of Polymer Clay Classroom. The shows may be released on Thursday this week since I am heading to the Orlando Area Polymer Clay Guild’s Clay Fandango on Friday, so you may be able to watch them early. Hope to see you there!