Now is the time to smell the flowers!

It's very weird...I hear all this stuff on the news and see all the red arrows on the stock market...the media is having an absolute field day with all the hype that everyone is listening to and clucking about...and yet...my own world doesn't reflect this. I'm still in my studio almost every day creating or sharing what I know. I'm still watering the garden and picking flowers. I'm still taking the dog to the beach a few times a week. The sun still rises like the big beautiful orb that it is. Sure, my teaching diary isn't as full as it was...and I can't go to all the workshops I want either. I'm drinking $8 wine and growing vegies. If money gets really tight, as it's done before and not necessarily because of the 'market', then who cares that I can't have that holiday or buy those Berkies I want. I don't. I still have me...cuddles with my dog...artful adventures... flowers...friends... endless love, creativity, abundance everywhere I look. My tummy is full, my heart is open...and as luck would have it, I have enough clay and equipment to last me well into next year...
When the goddess gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When business is quiet, we all get to stop and chill for a while...a pity it took economic distaster to get us to slow down, but there ya go! That's often how it is. I'm sure you'll all agree that now is the time to get creative...in our work and in living our lives. I love how Christine Kane puts it..."Being creative at it's deepest level means that you're a creator, not a reactor, that your life is your work of art, that you get to choose what to put in it."
If business is slow, then NOW is the time to write tutorials for mags...to attempt those projects you never had time for...to learn new skills...to start a blog/journal/write a book on claying and creativity...to approach those summer schools/colleges/vacation care and aged care places regarding teaching workshops...to do demos at markets/fairs/sidewalks/exhibitions...
Life is what you make it. Always was. This is simply just another opportunity for you to shine. NOW is the time.
Kinara (friend pictured) doesn't miss a chance to smell the flowers...

Earrings from another time

I'm really enjoying the look of these, they look like earrings from another time, unearthed. I must get myself some gold wire, that's what lets these down, they need gold ear hooks.

Keum-boo

While in Sydney, I had the opportunity to learn Keum-boo from Roz Eberhart at Eclectic Studio. Oh my! I was instantly hooked.
I can envisage many happy hours ahead immersed in golden goodness! I particularly like it for when I'm going for a really ancient feeling piece which I think these little experiments have highlighted well. I want to make little boxes now!

Fun and the 'follow this blog' button

I had to provide a few pics for an article in Australian Beading mag and didn’t have any high res shots of me teaching so my next door neighbour obliged in ‘being the student’. This isn’t a very ‘professional’ shot so it didn’t make the magazine but I love it for the fun value.

Try the new 'follow this blog' button starting to creep in on many blogs. I just added a button to my blog (under aussiepolclyers sign)

It's a new feature that allows you to let the bloggers you follow know that you are a fan. As a follower to my blog, it also ensures you get linked! Neat eh! For more info:

FOLLOW ME

Possible Grafton Artfest projects

I live in a beautiful part of Australia and am surrounded by trees...60 acres of forest at our back door. And where there are trees, there are birds. These metal clay pieces have been inspired by my love of nature. They make my heart glad...
These will make great projects to teach at the Grafton Artfest in Spring 2009. I'm very fond of the copper look patina. I also had a chance to try out pre-made fine silver tube bails for pendants (see back of tree goodess pendant) that I bought from the Eclectic Studio ....very handy indeed! And that gorgeous ginkgo leaf is pasted pmc on a dried gingko leaf...one Pam Annesley found for me at the Sydney Botanical gardens. You're s'posed to paste over fresh leaves but none of them survived the trip home so I'm thrilled that this one on a dried leaf was successful.

CCIP conference 2008

We've just had our first CCIP retreat/conference in Sydney. It was just fabulous to meet all the students who have gained certification over the past year and to reconnect with all the senior instructors from the various states in Australia. My old friend Pam Annesley was there bearing gifts! She had recently been to the USA and had done a workshop with Klew. She knew how inspirational Klews drum beads were to my early days with polymer and so she brought me back a bead!
The CCIP conference was a huge success with demos given by all the senior instructors i.e. bronze clay, flexible pmc, scultping, mosaics, colour blending, use of core adaptors with Makins extruders...something for every taste! Many of the students submitted pieces for the competition we ran and honestly, it was such a joy to see such a huge array of original art and so beautifully finished. For me that was the highlight. To see that they have all adopted a really professional attitude to finishing...makes me proud to be a part of this team and gives me hope that these 'contemporary clays' will become as much a part of the Australian art scene as it has in America.
I hope to show you pics of some of these pieces but am waiting on names to link to them. In the meantime, I've been claying myself...those pics to follow shortly...

Sydney Botanical Garden Inspiration

This little blogger has been too busy teaching and travelling this last month and the few pieces I'm working on in fits and starts haven't been finished so by way of apology I have some inspirational pics I took at the Sydney Botanical Gardens while there for our first CCIP conference/retreat (which by the way was a fabulous success!...more on that later in the week).
The pic directly above looks like giant bok choy doesn't it? And how do like those carnivorous beauties in the hanging basket? My particular favorite was the reb bamboo...I wanna plant some of those in my own garden...that red is so striking. And don't you think that sculpture would be fabulous in silver clay syringe or flexible clay ropes...? In miniture ofcourse.
After today's teaching little ones at Mullumbimby school vacation care, I am a free bird till sometime next week so I'll be claying my little heart out. Am soooo psyched to be finally getting some ME time! Have a heap of new things I want to try. Back soon...pwomise!