Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Polymer clay head by Bobbi Oliver Happy New Year - cheery fellow isn't he? What a creative beginning to 2013 I 've had. A visit to my friend's studio always motivates me. This week, I was there for only a few hours and came home with new knowledge and ideas.  Bobbi Oliver, from Lamboart   is a talented  figurative sculptor and art doll maker. Her partner, Jane Lambert ( hence the name, Lamboart) is also a talented paper artist. Their studio is alive with creativity, fun, laughter and joy.  Bobbi and some of her works in progress  Bobbi demonstrating clay techniques.  Bobbi has also helped me with the beginning of the "Spreading Wings" project for International Women's Day. Here is the link to the fantastic event, with a new sponsor -  the City of Newcastle , Making your Place program. Read more about this by following the link  ... in summary, " Spreading Wings " is a series of textile art skills workshops where small swa...

While battling the ‘flu this last week, I didn’t feel like doing much. However, I sat down one afternoon and moulded lots of little polymer clay heads. Nothing wonderful - all popped out of a commercial mould! It might sound a bit perverse, but I love making heads. I certainly don’t have any great motivation to do anything with them – just love creating them, colouring them and looking at them. I had also signed up for an online sculpting class presented by Marlaine Verhelst. I have long been a fan, and decided this is the kind of sculpting I would like to do. It isn’t as realistic as my friend Bobbi does, but there is something spiritually appealing about these faces. Please have a look at Marlaine's gallery if you haven’t seen her work before.  Well, with all the best intentions, I paid for the online classes, downloaded them and got the raw materials… hopefully I will have more to show next week.

Featuring Transient Tracy -Tracy has gone fishing up in the Northern Territory, but before she left she gave a great demonstration of her polymer clay sculpting techniques. Tracy loves to create "interesting" characters and as you can see works exaggerated facial features to create lovable and comical characters. Besides sculpting, Tracy does fabulous work with textiles - dyeing, embellishing and surface alteration see more of Tracy's work on her blog http://tracymcoz.blogspot.com/ It was also a fun day with great company and lots of good food for lunch and a Christmas in July gift swap. I got out a couple of my "old" heads, and started another one with Tracy's guidance. Now to finish their bodies - amongst all of the other works in progress! And a very happy birthday to my beautiful daughter-in-law Kellie - enjoying birthday cake at our Friday night family dinner with her two little boys.