Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

Front of unfinished 'Sea Story' Herbarium Pendant My second year at the Metal Clay by the Bay Conference was just as exciting and fun filled as the first. Conferences are great places to make friends, meet facebook friends and learn new techniques.  Vendors brought all kinds of tools to see and for us to handle – much better than looking at a picture. Last year I met Helen and as sometimes happens we became good friends.  We made plans to meet this year and take the same classes.  Helen makes beautiful glass pieces and also works with metal clay.  Check out her etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/hbjewelrydesign The conference was held at the Hilton at Mission Bay and the setting could not have been lovelier.  The hotel sits on the bay and has beautiful beaches, swimming pool and grassy areas.   Sometimes it was hard to go to class!  The food was so well prepared and presented with an exotic flair. Yes, I felt like I was on vacat...

Several years ago I took my first polymer clay class from Lisa Pavelka .   I was so excited about the things I learned that I looked for ways to use polymer in my professional work as an interior designer.   A client needed a large mirror for a niche area over her fireplace and there was my opportunity!   I explained my idea and she was almost as excited as I was.   She would have a unique mirror and I would be able to make it.   I’ve always liked large but repetition is not a strong point of mine.   My small toaster oven would get a work out with this large mirror.   Better get started.   The back was a composite board cut to her dimensions – approximately 30” x 40”.   The Mirror was attached and the entire piece was on my work table.   I ordered a box of Kato copper clay and started making 10” strips that would ruffle to 6” and fit into the oven – one at a time.   At the time, I had three employees and they all started to...

A couple of weeks ago, I took Patrik Kusek’s Warm Connections Class with Craftcast   http://www.craftcast.com/classes .   I’ve been trying out some of his techniques for combining silver metal clay and polymer clay.  Several years ago I took Lisa Pavelka’s https://www.lisapavelka.com/Gallery.asp   classes at Art Unraveled http://www.artunraveled.com/   and learned just enough about polymer clay to think I could do anything!   I made a large mirror frame for a client out of copper polymer and incorporated beads and copper braid.   It turned out to be about 42” x 54”.   The frame was made with many (I mean many) pieces of 3” x 4” copper ruffles glued to a wood frame.   The client still has it and I still remember my friend Phyllis working with me to make more ruffles.    Polymer Clay Mirror Frame I still have some of that clay plus a lot of other colors.   It takes a lot of conditioning to make it pliable but it w...