Friday, February 24, 2017

CFCF 2017

I'm just back from Laurel, Maryland, and Cabin Fever Clay Festival 2017.  Once again, I had an excellent time.  The participants and instructors were wonderful, I learned lots, got to see some great creations and wonderfully creative ideas.  Over the new few posts, I'll share a bit from the classes I took and hopefully wet your appetite for learning more.  Many of the presenters take their workshops and classes on the road, so be on the lookout for names and projects that pique your interest.

For this first posting, I'll share a bit from an all-day workshop with Ann and Karen Mitchell of ANKARA Designs.  This workshop was on various uses of liquid polymer.  The sisters have all sorts of ideas, including tips and tricks, which they willingly shared with the participants.  In the morning, we worked on mosaic pendants which were later encased in liquid clay.  One tip was to be careful about putting the liquid clay over the metal leaf sections on our pendants. The leaf was easy to rub off unless the liquid polymer was added carefully.  All the pieces on the mosaic, with the exception of the seed beads I used, were made from various processes using polymer.

In the afternoon, we worked on a project that I found fascinating.  The Mitchell sisters have developed a process for transferring images onto regular fabric. After baking, the fabric may be cut and the pieces used.  The photo here shows an edge of fabric with the transfer on top of the majority of the fabric piece.  The leaf shape was cut from the treated fabric piece and shows the back of the fabric. The holes are designed to allow sewing of beads or other items through the polymer/fabric to create shapes for items such as jewelry.  All-in-all, it was a very interesting process, and one I plan to revisit soon.

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