NEW! Online classes!!
I'm pleased to announce that I'm going to be teaching online live video
classes through Craft Ed Online Video podcast tutorials are
offered through Ilysa Bierer and Kira Slye's efforts in making classes
available to students and instructors in a worldwide way.
My first class in this new medium will be on making a dresser
set for a doll's vanity. We'll make the furniture in a different class--but in
the Miniature Dresser Set, I'll show how to make trays, perfume bottles,
cosmetics, jars and jewelry...all sorts of details for a doll! I'll go over
scale conversions, talk about antiquing, gilding and other finishes, and
students not only get to see and hear, they get to ask questions! The
first class is scheduled for June 30th at 2-4PM EST. Click
here to sign up!.
I will also be teaching an intensive workshop at the Tougaloo College Summer Art
Colony in Jackson Mississippi from July 12-18. It is a week long polymer
clay and mixed media session where we will make masks, icons or totems,
spirit dolls and more.
Spirit Doll Kits with selections of hand dyed ribbons,
textiles and polymer clay faces are now available in our store over at http://sarajane.etsy.com
Etsy is an online artisans' venue where handmade
and vintage items are featured. The picture at right shows the face cabochon
styles that you can now purchase and use in your doll and wearable art
projects. Click here to see more about the polymer
clay faces. And do stop by to see the wonderful items available from many
artists and collectors at Etsy.com .
This year will see lots of making faces
and masks! There are new books, updated and brand new pages, projects and
classes in the works.
One book underway is "The Art Of Polymer Clay Masks". Hundreds of
miniature masks and many full sized masks are featured in photographs of
pieces collected over the last decade. Its taking longer than expected
to do the quality work required. But then that is often the case!
The
other book is about making the masks and faces
and using them to create larger figures. I'm combining hand
dyed textiles, beads, and polymer clay faces to make dolls, puppets, icons and figures that range in size from three inches
to six feet tall.
Aunt Acid is a puppet that stands 3'8" tall in her bare
feet. Things are coming right along with Aunt Acid;
she's not tall, but she's mighty in her own ways.
She's writing a column for Bead
Bugle, meeting with the writers and producers, getting sets and props and
costumes all together.
Auntie always has time to let things go to the
dogs though--read more at her website or blog!
Want to know more about polymer clay?
Here's a page with Frequently
Asked Questions--and answers!
Click here to see the Glossary page with definitions
of terms commonly used in polymer clay work.
"It's as easy as falling
off a blog"
Well, perhaps thats not QUITE the way you've heard the phrase before;
but it does fit the current upswing in "blogs" or web-logs. Take
a look at some of ours!
Creative Connections
1 --- Creative
Connections 2
At-The-Helm
Sarajane Helm began as a doll maker,
trained professionally as a theatrical costume designer, and also creates
graphics, textiles, rubber stamps, children's book illustrations, and a
full line of paper dolls. Many of the skills she
has developed in the areas of textile and fashion design are utilized in
her polymer clay work, giving a very "fabric-y" feel to her designs.
Her work has been featured in many books, magazines, and galleries. She
takes time throughout the year to instruct people
of all ages in the uses of polymer clay and the making of dolls, miniatures,
and beads, and sometimes works with young students through the Artist In The School programs.
Her writing appears in columns for the web-based magazine The Bead Bugle and in articles for print
magazines including Belle Armoire, The PolyINFORMer, Polymer CAFE and
others.
In addition she is the author of books including Create
A Polymer Clay Impression and Celebrations
With Polymer Clay now available in stores and through Amazon.com.
Her publishing company is PolyMarket Press, and its first release was in
2006 with Judith Skinner, titled Adapting Quilt
Patterns To Polymer Clay. The new release for November 2007 is
a compilation of columns from Belle Armoire magazine, and is called The Business Of Professional Art.
There are several more books in the works right now, and PolyMarket
Press plans the release of two additional artisan-created books every year.
2008 will see the release of two new titles
on masks.
The first mask book is titled The Art of Polymer Clay Masks and
it focuses on the beauty of the masks with more than 300 polymer clay pieces
in miniature and full sized scale. Many of the masks from years of Internet
Miniature Mask Swaps will be featured.
The other book will be a how-to book on making faces, masks, and molds
and using them to create icons, dolls and figures and other decorative
objects
Bryan does all the heavy preparation work,
kneading and conditioning pounds of polymer clay at a time, and also takes
care of all the packaging and shipping details.
In addition, he takes millefiore
cane slices and impressed tiles made by Sarajane along with dichroic glass
and other items and meticulously places and affixes them to create fabulous
mosaic sculptures.
When he covered the first full size guitar, he said
it was his best instrumental work--but
that isn't true. He also is the source of a wide variety of music
ranging from Ambient to Xtreme, with different groups and by himself.
His
music with Brothersync and Big
Thirsty Towel includes the new release
"Sync Or Swim". They range from jazz to jungle and even farther
afield!
From CosmicWestern slide steel guitar to the energetic soundtracks
for video clients such as Junior
Achievement, the musical reference points are many and diverse.
