Living in a Rainbow ~

been feeling a little blah lately, but this morning i awoke to a veritable rainbow outside my home...
here is one photo (above) taken from my seat here at the computer... and here are a couple more. . .


i love this one above, a single red maple leaf in a bed of geranium leaves..... and just one more, on the right --

the last daisies of summer among the fallen leaves....

i am inspired to sit at my clay table -- the colors are glorious!

More Bottles of Hope ~

well, today i had an appointment in kingston, but woke up feeling like i had been hit by a mack truck! so i went back to bed for a bit and am now just going to stay home...

but here are some more bottles of hope i made yesterday, i am sorry that the recipients will now have to wait a couple more days to have them...

our small but mighty kingston area polymer clay guild has also given bottles of hope to Breast Cancer Action Kingston, a wonderfully supportive and super group dedicated to assisting breast cancer survivors in every way possible.

They also have a dragon boat racing team, you saw the post earlier here, as i painted the logo on their travel trailer. i have met some amazing and delightful women thru bcak..... thanks for being there.

and i am now very happy to have found another outlet for our bottles of hope, i just hope we can keep up with a demand that i sure wish did not exist!

Bottles of Hope

For some time now i have been making bottles of hope along with some members of our kingston area polymer clay guild -- crystal, carolyn, rose, sandra and jen -- with hopes of having our cancer center participate. at first i had little luck finding the way in, so to speak, but after i took my dear friend carolyn for her last chemo treatment, things suddenly changed for the better. i took my clay and some bottles that had been donated to us by marc raymond optical in kingston, and demonstrated making the bottles.


i am happy to say that the nurses in the chemo room were delighted with them and one wonderful nurse even went right out to purchase some clay to learn to make them herself! so here is photo of a few that i have made to take thursday to the hospital... they seem a little dark, however, i think my next few will be bright and colorful...

Another lovely Secretive Woman ~

my friend amy was a participant at gera's workshop here at beeks lane studio last weekend. here is her lovely Starlight --



















Starlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .turned around. . .

thanks for sharing the photos, amy! i love her colors and demeanor.....

isn't it amazing how wonderfully different each participant's secretive woman turned out to be? scroll down to see some of the others that were made over the weekend... there are a few more to come, so keep coming back for another look!

Inspiration Abounds.....

while i was wandering thru our library yesterday -- i love the library!-- i found a book that i think will be full of wonderful inspiration. it is by one of my fav potters, robin hopper. it is called Making Marks, and while written mainly for ceramic artists, a quick perusal has peaked my attention. i will keep you posted on this one as i believe it will keep me going for a very long time, even using media other than ceramic.
i remember some years back going to an exhibit of hopper's pottery in peterborough's art museum . i was totally blown away, especially as i was immersed then in classes in ceramics at Sir Sanford Fleming College. now i work primarily in polymer clay, but the skills and techniques learned there have served me well. so i am hurrying thru the daily grind so that i can really get into this book.....

Another colorful fall day is here...

as i am waiting for a few more finished secretive women, i will today post m'lady, as i have started to call her waiting to see if i can name her after a very dear friend...
yes, her name is m'lady carolyn... who continues to inspire me with her courage and tenacity....

her parasol was difficult to say the least, but i finally got it after a lot of blue air in my workshop!





to move away from polymer clay to another art form, i want to show you the work of an artist i met at sandy whitton's gallery in kingston, ontario. i just absolutely fell in love with this elegant swish bag lady, as i call her. in fact, i told the artist, she captured my soul with this one...Claudia McCabe is the artist here, originally from montreal and now lives in toronto, i believe.
here is another of her works that simply took my breath away...
not to forget to mention that sandy is a fabulous artist herself. she makes the most beautiful jewelry -- rings and necklaces and other fabulous works with which to adorn yourself and feel absolutely divine! some photos of sandy's work coming soon!!! and more of her wonderful gallery here in kingston, definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in this lovely canadian city.

An Update --(see post below)

i just received this lovely photo of louise's snow queen... we must take care to keep her in a good mood if we want soft and beautiful snow this winter. if we create a bad mood for her, we will see dreadful ice and nasty winter storms... however, i know someone out west who would love to see her softly cover the ground with sparkly white stuff.... so i guess that means best to stay on her good side!!!

More Secretive Women from Beeks Lane Studio --


i think my feet have come back to solid ground now, although i am still feeling very high since the weekend workshop with gera. today i shall post a couple more photos from that fantastic learning experience.

here is pam's wonderfully caped southwest woman. . . although she also felt Spanish at times... i believe that is compatible! Her colors are glorious southwest tho...










and here is jillian, who went from princess to queen on the ride home... she is just lovely and you can see her without her cape here.

she is truly elegant and graceful, calm and enigmatic.


tomorrow i will post some more and my own creation. i had some diffiuclty with her parasol, but she is now finished and one last bake will fix all.

well, here we are! what a wonderful group of clayers met at beeks lane studio
this past weekend for a fabulous workshop with gera scott chandler -- that is gera third from
the right--who taught us to make her secretive women -- lidded vessels that are truly works of
sculpture!

it was an amazing time, and the ultimate kudos to gera. for me the astounding aspect
was that everyone's vessels turned out so uniquely individual, even tho we were all
following the same basic instructions...

WOW! so here are some of the results of the weekend's work --- more will follow in the coming days, so keep your eyes here for more terrific work by a super group of clayers!
louise crafted this wonderfully mysterious woman -- soon we will understand what she is doing.


and this beautiful lady was made by bonnie, who had never done any claying ever! she
astounded us all with her wonderful natural affinity for working with polymer...

it was truly a weekend worth a whole memory book, however, i cannot post it all in one blog!
as well, it could truly be a three day workshop, especially if there were more than the nine we had here at beeks lane studio. one large 30 inch oven and a toaster oven were scarely big enough in the firing/baking department! all these vessels are at least 12 inches tall, some more.

all in all though, i must again toot the horn for gera, amazingly talented artist and super instructor. come back tomorrow for more photos of these amazing results!

it is again saturday morning... the days are flying by so fast it is hard to keep track!!! especially with a memory like mine...

preparations are going well for gera's workshop (see post of august 16) coming up next weekend... it prompted me to insulate and winterize my workshop, get a large stove for a bigger oven so that i can create larger works myself... there is still much to do before winter, but now we do have a clean and bright room to workshop in....

speaking of which, i must now go over there and continue painting the walls... before it gets so hot i can't work in it...but cooler temps are forecast for later tonight and tomorrow, especially if we get a huge thunderbooming storm later...

i want to post today about our wonderful Canadian Clayamies.

at the moment we are discussing and starting lots of blogs, a nice alternative to setting up time consuming websites. in future posts i want to show some of the work of our very talented group, and especially our swaps...

so for today, i will start with the creativity of margi laurin. margi was the instructor at my first annual beeks lane polymer clay weekend back in 2004. as you can see in a following post, the fourth annual will be held in less than two weeks time, sept. 15 and 16, here in the beautiful ontario countryside.

here is a photo of one of margi's illustrations -- the title of her workshop was 'illustrating with polymer clay'. brilliant, don't you think?