A new development --

due to a number of circumstances, i have had to postpone the annual workshop at Beeks Lane Studio until spring, 2009.

dates yet to be determined, so keep us on your list.

thanks,
georgia

5th Annual Polymer Clay Retreat

September 13 - 14, 2008
Beeks Lane Studio
Godfrey, Ontario, Canada
613-374-3582

As you can see in the flyer at right, --sorry it is so small!--Celebrating the Cane with Wanda Shum will be the retreat focus this year, including complex cane building, designing with canes for covering objects or using in other projects. each participant will learn to make his/her own signature cane.

some more of wanda's wonderful work can be seen in these photos.

i sure hope you will be able to join us for this delightful weekend retreat.
the weekend retreat includes all meals, one night accommodation in a twin bedded room in a lovely lake front b and b, two days of workshop instruction. 10 is the maximum number of participants!
register now! your deposit will secure your spot! send for your application today.

fees: $235 Cdn $100 Cdn due by july 30, 2008.
(for the workshop and two lunches -- $180 Cdn)
deposit nonrefundable except for medical emergency, but can be transferred to a future workshop.

for more information: moth2@can.rogers.com
thanks,
georgia
beeks lane studio, godfrey, ontario, canada

another day --- another blog....

well, here i am again but this time to say that i have decided to keep this blog for polymer clay and other art work, including my kaleidoscopes, and also for tips, techniques and other clay info that i have discovered that has helped my in my work that i believe is worth passing on.

i have linked to my other blog --wicca'd words --also, which will be my thoughts and my stories about life and what is on my mind each morning.

i do hope you will go and read my wicca'd words and let me know what you think.

that's it for today.

MEET LITTLE O !!!!!

for the last week and for one more week, i have been doggie sitting my little friend orlando. he is an adorable little guy who belongs to my friend nina, and will soon belong to her sister steph and move to brighton, england. wow, how about that for a little puppy dog!!!

needless to say, he is a bundle of energy and always on the go so it has been a bit difficult to get any clay work done! however, i have had time to clean the mess that always seems to accumulate around me! i have thrown out so much that i have three or four huge garbage bags ready to go to the dump. and there are boxes ready for a garage sale and then a small amount that i have kept. and believe it or not, i have only done the bedroom and the kitchen!!! and already have taken two large bags of clothes to the church.

i sure hope i can get the shop cleaned out too; i have done half of it but the other half is much worse! oh well.......

It All Goes By Way Toooooooooooooooo Fast!!!

i have been home a couple of days now from our annual MPCG (morrisburg polymer clay gathering), and it is hard to believe that what we wait a whole year for goes by so d... fast!

wouldn't you know also, i didn't take one photo the whole weekend... and i did take my camera!
i guess there was just too much else to do...

i loved barbara's porcelain technique, finally after two years we learned this amazing technique. and it was used on adria's masks, and leslie's everfolding photo frame. i intend to use it to cover some of my kadeidoscopes. jacey taught us how to make lovely hearts and barb then did a wonderful wire wrapping to turn them into beautiful pendants... wow we also had some super demos by sandy, cynthia and barbara c.

my workshop went very well; it is always difficult for me to present a new workshop, but this one was about thinking "out of the box" and trying some new ways to work with pc, and everyone enjoyed it. barb b., jacey, trita and-- sorry, i can't remember the last--won the prizes for what i judged to be the best "out of the box" projects.

so, in a few days i will try to collect a few photos to post here of this fantastic weekend organized and run beautifully by margi and vio... thanks you two for a superb time...

STOLEN KALEIDOSCOPES

hi to anyone reading this post... below i am posting photos of 5 of my scopes which were stolen from a parked car in kingston, ontario. if you should see any of these scopes, for example on any online shop or auction, just know that they are contraband and i really would like to have them back.

thanks.
this is elegant annie, a kaleidalady whose scope fits under her skirt.

she stands about 14 inches tall, and the scope is about 5 inches tall.




and this is my geisha, and her scope also fits under her skirt

she stands about 13 inches tall and the scope is just over 5 inches tall









this scope is faux marble and the chamber turns. it is 8 inches long and about 2 inches diameter at the chamber.




this is my egyptian scope, a tumblescope with a scarab

it is 8 inches long, and about 1 3/4 inches in diameter.








and this small, 5 1/2 inch scope has an oil filled chamber with rainbow beads, and is about 1 1/8 inches in diameter.




thank you anyone who can help me discover who stole these kaleidoscopes.

back to clay!!!

it has been a long time since i have posted about clay, the journey is over, i am back home and back to work. i am now preparing to teach a workshop at our annual MPCG 08, (morrisburg polymer clay gathering, 2008). my workshop will feature an experimental approach to playing with clay, creating new forms and shapes using wire, metal mesh, fabric, yarns, and whatever will inspire creativity and stretching one's limits with clay...

here are some photos showing how i have used these elements in a sculpture...


here is the parasol for my lady carolyn --

a double ended knitting needle provided the main shaft and smaller wires embedded in clay allowed me to gather up the parasol and add a little twirl to the spokes.









and here is annie's rifle, two pieces of stiff wire covered partially with clay which was sculpted to form the barrel and grip of the rifle. a small piece of wire embedded in clay forms the trigger handle... there is no trigger because i am basically against guns, but annie wouldn't be annie without her rifle.....









and here is the fan for the geisha.... again wires embedded in clay shaped and formed into her fan.



you can see the whole sculptures to the right at the top of the page, and annie in a post from november 21, 2007.


more ideas for the workshop can be found in a post from january 18, 2008.

TOO MUCH SNOW !!!!!

for my friends in more pleasant climes.... here are a few of the latest conditions to beset those of us who live in the snow buried east of this great country.

here is my woodshed, like a sad face seeing all this new snow. . .
i had to shovel just to get the door open, but the warmth of the resulting
fire made it worthwhile. . .


my trusty little electric snow shovel.... whatever would i do without it. you can see how high the snow banks are, about 4'!!

except i think this load of snow might just be too much for this dear little machine... we have done alright so far, but . . . it seems to be groaning a bit too much.

at least you can see we finally got some sunshine...

looking out the front door toward the carport, that tiny little black loop you see is the top of one of my solar lights.. the light itself is hidden under all that snow along with all my others which are buried along the walkway.







and here i have shoveled enough to take a photo of the front door. there was about a foot of snow up the door, and i still haven't found my little lights! usually this walkway is about 4 feet wide, but you can see it is significantly narrower now. sigh

will spring ever come???

and now to get back to my clay work......

some last photos....

i have been home now for three days, recovering slowly but surely, altho my voice is doing things of it's own creation! however, i wanted to add just these last few photos of an incredible journey.


here i am my first ever visit to the pacific ocean. i decided that no matter how cold it was nor how much worse my cold would get, that i had to stick my toes in that water. well, a little wave turned into a faster larger one and caught me offguard and so both my feet and a bit of trouser also got 'baptized' in the pacific!





here is that little anemone or urchin and

here am i sticking my finger in its mouth... it was rough as it closed about my finger, sort of like sandpaper...

but i tried and now i know what it feels like...







and here is toronto... the airport can be seen in the top center, and it was the end of a journey in a packed airplane, little did i know that i would sit in that airport for three hours... snow had played havoc with airplane schedules... and we were waiting for our crew to ottawa to arrive from fort lauderdale... sigh...


so it was around midnight that i finally arrived in ottawa and bless her, pamela was there to take me home, give me some food, and tuck me into bed... i was feeling quite awful by then, however, i recovered a bit in the morning and drove myself back to godfrey, to find thankfully just enough snow to allow me to barrel into my driveway and get the little car into the carport, me into the house, and to blessed sleep.....

thanks to all who made this such a treat and such a wonderful journey.

HOME AGAIN!!!


well, here i am home again. it is hard to believe that sojourn 08 is now herstory, but sitting here with a hollow head and a voice that squeeks and groans and is sometimes not at all, i know that it is over. most of us who went succumbed to this dreadful bug that has now hit vancouver island with a vengence, i am told.

i don't think i can do an entire catch up of my journey, but i will add some photos here and perhaps in the next few days i can add some more.

i must say, however, that the entire journey was so inspiring-- the people, the scenery, the ambiance were all more than i ever expected. so here is a great big thank you to gera and the van isle polyclay artists guild for having me.


the ubiquitous moss. . . along with all those towering evergreen trees, more variety than i have ever seen, made me understand the wonderful art of emily carr.....











i loved the little tide pools all over the rocks at wickaninnish beach which i visited while in tofino. thanks to tina and bill for being such wonderful tour guides! bill even suggested i put my finger into this little urchin-- or maybe anemone -- and so i did.... and took it out again very quickly, even tho it is not harmful, the closing of those tentacles over my skin was, well, not to my liking.....




the great pacific ocean..... hard to believe that if you took a boat and stayed on the same parallel, you would come to sakhalin island, russia... or maybe a bit of japan's northern islands.






leaving vancouver, ubc, stanley park and north vancouver from bottom to top of my photo.....plus the end of the westjet wing...


as well, a big cheer to linda and the vancouver group for what i am sure will be a wonderful retreat next year. also to linda for her good care of me while i was in the throes of this dreadful cold...

pender island . . .

here is the lovely and sunny b and b i stayed at on pender, and









here are putzi and wim -- the warm and welcoming owners of the b and b called sunshine hills.

it was located on top of a very high hill overlooking the other gulf islands and the strait of georgia...






here is the red tree gallery on pender. here i met monica and we had a wonderful visit, i learned so much about galleries and coops, i am thankful to monica.
if you are even on pender be sure to visit the gallery at hope bay.







nanaimo and SOJOURN

gera drove us up to nanaimo and sojourn


across the malahat... it was a beautiful drive and many overlooks over the strait of georgia... ahem... and we stopped at one overlook where this lovely totem stood...









well, sojourn is now over, i believe the scope workshop went very well, there were some great scopes made. and the demos and classes were superb...



here is the beginning, the room is all set up and we are ready to begin.....






here is cheryl with her itty bitty babies... how amazing to see how she sculpts these very tiny yet very accurate little souls. . .







and gera demo-ing her wonderful ideas based on klimt's great art...



this will do for tonight, i am tired and finding it difficult to concentrate....



the drive to tofino was just spectacular!!! being on a bus with very dirty windows, however, kept me from taking any photos...but i hope to have some from the pacific ocean tomorrow.

another fabulous day. . .

i have been so lucky with the weather for my stay here on the southwest coast of vancouver island.
three days of beautiful sun and warm days. but i am amazed to see that it is always wet on some parts of the roads, and the moss that grows everywhere... i have passed some trees so covered with it that it goes all the way up to the crown...

and i have been to the potholes, and even saw three eagles soaring
in the sky. . . i wish i could have gotten a photo of that.....




and seen some awesome rock formations,









here is my b and b, the lower building and the lower right hand windows are where i stayed. a magnificent view of the strait of juan de fuca.












and here is an amazing driftwood sculpture i came upon walking on the beach. from one side,


and from the other side







so ends another day, tomorrow i am heading for pender island and some great times there.

i am exhausted!!!!!

today i went hiking! i drove up the west coast of vancouver island to jordan river, a bit beyond it actually, to the china beach and the beginning of the juan de fuca trail. it is quite an experience to hike thru rain forrest for the first time. . .

it is very peaceful, although they say to look out for the black bear, i didn't see any, thank goodness, altho i talked to myself out loud often!
the trail was soggy, i guess it never really gets dried out under all that tall tree cover. some of those trees were ginormous... and there are great numbers of ferns, and small little waterfalls that gurgle down the cliffs to the water below. but the moss, wow, everything is covered with moss.

some of the trees seem to have green trunks so covered with moss are they...and some are very spooky! some parts of the trail are narrow and it seems a bit like the jungle to me, never having been there.

anyway, i didn't seem to be able to take very good photos, but i shall add some here.

a ray of sun poked through the trees to cast a shadow of this fern.





this is one of those amazing trees, as on most of the trees there are few branches at the lower trunk, and the ones that remain are twisted and broken and add a very mysterious feel to the trails.









these cutouts in this very old tree were for the loggers to get a foothold as they clambered up to cut off the tops of the trees. some hikers, i guess, have a witty sense of humor, as many have stones which give the look of a rather spooky face...









and once again, a wondrous sunset to close the day. . .

i have arrived in oak bay. . .

several days have passed, so i am going to have to do a catch up here...

this is gera's lovely home in oak bay, victoria. my room, ahem, is the one with that darling balcony on the left. . .

we went downtown and saw a lovely gallery, GoA, and had an absolutely divine lunch at an irish pub. i have never tasted such a wonderful clam chowder. . . and even got the recipe from the chef!

we went shopping, we learned some new things about computers, we ate wonderful meals that gera and chuck prepared, oooooooo a wonderful shellfish dinner of crab and oysters, and i had fun with gen and brendan too. of course, i must also mention shadow.....

and here am i with gera and kristine. we had a wonderful meeting and lunch at the marina, see below. . .



and here are liz, wanda and gen. it is so wonderful to meet those names i have been chatting with for several years on our great canadian online clay guild! with our amazing website done by liz!!! how much fun we had, and talked and talked and talked. . .





here is the marina, it used to be sea world, until a tragic accident closed it down. i don't really like to see animals confined, though, so perhaps it was all for the best. now it is a lovely restaurant and park and marina.

and so, i am off to sooke.... the name just intrigued me, and i had a few days to wander, so i decided to come here and see what the coast of southwestern vancouver island had to offer...


i am staying at a lovely bed and breakfast, a huge room with a kitchenette and a spectacular view of the juan de fuca strait and tonight there is a beautiful sunset. i am very happy to say, since there is usually rain here i am told. but today was a dry and blue sky day, with lots of big puffy clouds. it is also warm and i walked on the beach. however, those photos are on the camera and i don't have the attachment to download them onto the computer... tomorrow i will go back to the beach, and then you will have some great new photos to see... but here is the sunset looking over to the us of a and the olympic range which is somewhat obscured by the clouds...

i have arrived!!!!!


here i sit looking forward to walking thru gate 26 off to vancouver island and a great adventure.

it was snowing fiercely outside and as i had never flown in such nasty weather i was quite nervous....





but here i witnessed de-icing.... first they taxi to the deicing station, all the while the window is covered with snow and i can see nothing out there, until suddenly looking out i see us being covered with this bright orange spray....

orange you say, but the ground is green! sure enough, after the guy in the bucket was done with the orange, out came the chartreuse! the wings were green! nevermind, we went off without a hitch much to my great relief!

we flew over ontario, manitoba, saskatchewan, and here we are over the rockies of alberta. how magnificent they are...

we are up at 40,000 feet here.... there was a slight cloud cover, when this megalith appeared...

glorious



here we are arriving in vancouver... i know that this bridge probably isn't one one would write home about, but with the sun hitting the orange arch, it was just beautiful and in the right spot to get a great photo!





and here we are, off to vancouver island. gera, bless her, met me at the airport, and after a bit of difficulty finding the car, off we were to the ferry. the very distant horizon thru the struts of the ferry is where we are headed. it was a beautiful day, the ride was lovely and calm, and we passed lots of ferries, large and small along the way. as well, we met some very kind and welcoming folks who do this journey regularly... wow!


so, thus begins the adventure. . . stay tuned.....