Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

'Summer Flowers' Doing a Happy Dance now that my summer color scheme is finished!  This was fun to create with many possibilities.  I chose to show some of the ways I use polymer canes to create 3-dimensional forms that tell a story.   I live in the mountains of Arizona and am always looking for wildflowers to photograph.  Their colors and shapes amaze me as they grow along the road, in field or on a hillside of rocks.  They look delicate but obviously they are hardy and withstand wind, trash, off road vehicles, rain and all kinds of other natural and man-made hazards.  I wanted to capture their strength and beauty in polymer.  Thank you for following the journey in the last 2 posts.  Take a minute and look again at the progress from start to finish! Please leave me comments below with your reaction to my summer flowers.  The 20 x 20 inch canvas will be hanging in The Prescott Art Market all summer.  Stop in a take a look...

It's kind of funny when you think about it.  The only limits I have on this project is a 20" x 20" canvas, a summer color scheme and my mind!  I think the mind is the problem!  There are so many directions to go.  I've narrowed the choices by deciding to use polymer clay.  But what should I do with it?  I could do a mosaic or an abstract design, or a still life, or ... well the list goes on.  At some point I have to do something. I start making canes...big canes....summer colors of polymer clay rolled together to make circular designs.  I think I'm making stylistic flower blossoms and swirls of blue sky.  As my plastic container starts to fill with clay designs, my mind is deciding how to attach, where to attach and what is the end result going to be.  I still have to decide some of those questions.  Here's the progress so far! I sliced off some of the clay and baked it to see how the colors ...

The Flower! The Prescott Art Market recently started a quarterly art show-competition.  There is space to hang 20 canvases that measure 20" x 20" x 2"  and anyone who shows their work in the gallery is eligible to participate.  The theme and color scheme is based on the seasons.  Spring is coming up!  March 1 is the opening show from 6 pm to 8 pm and you are invited! This is the color scheme for spring and these are my test pieces for the polymer colors. I'm trying some new (for me) ideas in polymer clay and instead of making only jewelry, I'm exploring polymer on a canvas with some 3 dimensional pieces. I gathered canes I had and made additional ones in the colors of the spring scheme and started to design a canvas that tells the story of making a 3 dimensional flower. Canes I selected for the project Several canes were selected to make a design line and then I sliced the long composite cane.  A thin blue sheet of polymer was r...

My Necklace on the Clavichord Plans This past weekend Peter and I were busily working on our individual projects - I was making my first large hollow bead necklace while he was building a clavichord.  Usually the noise is out in the garage but this weekend he had some delicate drilling to do and needed to be in our Arizona room while I was working in polymer clay. Drilling holes in the soundboard of the clavichord This is the story of the necklace I made and actually it is the second such necklace.  I threw the first one away.  I tell you this just in case you think I never make mistakes! When I opened one of my plastic boxes, I found a layer of clay that had design lines made of various canes.  It dawned on me that it might make great beads.  I recently saw a video by Kathleen Halverson Dustin showing her technique and wanted to try it. sheet of polymer clay canes in design lines The first thing I did was to make scrap clay in the shape of...