Clay Workshop - Wednesday and Saturday

Did a workshop at Paddy’s Stamping Place (Prestwich, Manchester - 0161 798 5115) on Wednesday with a repeat on Saturday (and there is another repeat on Tuesday, 21st and Saturday, 25th April). This time I was using air drying clay and both workshops were fully booked up as we had not done one using this medium before - which is why it is being repeated.

The main focus was to produce a decorated bottle like the one I had done as a sample (done in a moment of creativity at home - maybe not unique as someone has probably done this before although the idea was entirely my own) and the students were to make atc's, cards, beads, pleated pieces, moulding etc. The students all worked really well with this medium and produced some stunning work.

This was John's beautiful piece of pleating which he turned into a brooch - I want it John!

This is Jo's finished card - she used stamped clay over a stamped image mounted up on coloured cardstock

Here is Jackie's brooch, which was going to be an atc originally, but turned out so beautiful that she decided to use it as a piece of jewellery

Sue (above) is busy doing her pleating

Rita and Jo working well (such concentration)

Of course, Paddy had to have a go herself in a quiet moment and produced this, using a Tanda stamp, which she is going to eventually make into a card

Mary ponders her piece whilst daughter Susan gets on with the Pearl effect

Justina used a peacock feather stamp, from Elusive Images, to produce this stunning pendant which she is going to wire and turn into a finished piece of jewellery

Sheena was delighted with the image I gave her. She said it was very "Western like" and so she turned her piece into a "Wild West Saloon" theme whilst John made his with a heavy ornate gold frame surrounding it, reminiscent of the "Old Masters"

Every class has someone who gets out of hand - here John is strangling Sheena much to the amusement of Justina

Susan's pleated piece was lovely and looked so good when held against her pale green top.

If anyone who is reading this was a student at either workshop and you or your work is not featured it is only because my camera produced a blurred photograph (as does happen all too often). (I promise to have lessons on photography.)

Final Catch Up

In January we went to California to visit one of our very dear friends and take in the CHA show in Anaheim. CHA is a trade show held twice a year, once in Anaheim in winter and then once again in summer in some other part of America. It is a show that is open only to traders, wholesalers, teachers and demonstrators where manufacturers show their latest products and so it is quite exciting to see what is going to be available on the market in the coming months . There is also the opportunity to take workshops with various products and some of these are by well-known people in the craft world such as Tim Holtz, Suze Weinberg, Lisa Pavelka to name but three of my favourites.

We arrived in glorious sunshine to be met by Mary and to be taken to her house just a short ride from LA. It was so good to see her as a whole year had passed with only email for us to keep in touch. On the way to her house we called in to see her sister, Becky, and family, to find that one of Becky’s grandsons was celebrating his birthday. We joined in and had the most delicious barbecued ribs followed by chocolate and strawberry birthday cake. Delicious!

Over the next few days we enjoyed the sunshine, sitting by the pool, eating all my favourite American foods and doing some crafting. We also did lots of shopping taking in Walmarts (a must do) and the obvious trip to Michaels. Mary introduced us to lots of other “foody” things and they too became part of my list of “must haves” when I visit America. I had forgotten how good the “biscuits” tasted, that I was addicted to Buttermilk bread, Monteray Jack Cheese with Peppers and became hooked on Hershey’s Chocolate Brownies, so much so that I brought an enormous pack home to bake myself.

A week later and we were off to Anaheim, picking Mary’s friend, Carol, up on the way and meeting with Maureen when we got there. It was good to renew friendships with them and in the afternoon we all took classes – mine being Encaustic Crafting with Hot Wax.

The other classes I took were “Makins Clay, Exploring the Possibilities, “An Altered Trip to Paris” (as in the photograph) and “Polymer Clay in Patera Jewellery Findings”. I so wish I had signed up for Lisa Pavelka’s class but watching her demonstrate on her stand I learned more than I had in the other two classes combined. She is so nice too, and has come top of my list (so I had to order some of her products and am awaiting them with baited breath).

Returning to Mary’s after four days in Anaheim we spent our days in a whirl of parties, visiting her sons for a Superbowl Party, another party at Becky’s (this time for her grand-daughter), and having one at Mary’s for her grand-daughter who was visiting from Washington DC and just generally having fun.

During our last week we went to Palm Desert - meeting up with Kristy on the way down and having a free breakfast at Denny’s - to stay with Mary’s friend, Bev and her beautiful Maine Coon, Misty, for a few days. We used to sit on her patio for breakfast and watch the humming birds coming to feed but I never got a photograph as they are so darned quick – did manage to catch them on video though.

On our way back it started to rain as we got nearer to LA and you know the song “It Never Rains in California” – well, it rained and rained and rained. It was relentless! I have never seen so much rain and the pool filled up almost to the top.

All too soon our stay in America was at an end, didn’t seem as if we had been there for almost a month and this time it seemed even harder to leave Mary. Tears, accompanied by endless hugs, at the Flyway when we had to say “bye” and before long we were up, up and away winging our way back to dear old England.

So there it is, a kind of “catch up” finished and now to some crafting. More on that tomorrow.

I'm Back

Well, those of you who followed my old blog (vivaladiva.weebly.com) will know that I ramble on a bit and that I closed my blog for personal reasons. So many friends have asked me to go back to my blog and, when in America, I promised someone who is very dear to me that I would do just that.

So here I am!

Been busy, busy, busy but will hopefully get back into the swing of things and start creating shortly. In the meantime I will play a bit of "catch up" and tell you about two of my holidays since leaving my other blog.

This is a picture of one of the stalls at the Christmas Market in Dusseldorf.

Went to the Christmas Markets at the end of November in Germany. It was all because I had been to Stempel Mekka, in Hagen, twice with friends and just loved Dusseldorf and all it had to offer the visitor. I was so in love with the place that I wanted to show it to my partner and hope he would enjoy the city as much as I had.

We had four lovely days in Germany, three in Dusseldorf and one in Cologne. Dusseldorf has four markets (don't quote me on this, it is a while since I was there) whilst Cologne boasts six, one of which is a floating market.

My favourites were in Dusseldorf but maybe that was because I saw those first.

After a glass of Gluhwein they all seem wonderful, especially if you have it "mit Rhum" but to be honest they are wonderful, magical and so evocative. I could go back time and time again and still enjoy every moment.

We went with the intention of just soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying ourselves, not spending lots of money on trinkets and things to bring back and that is exactly what we did - enjoy ourselves. I can heartily recommend it. (We can!)