Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

Choices of items to buy made by the teachers at Clay Out West This month workshops and classes head the list of things I've done or going to do.  Clay Out West used to be called 'Carnival' and was in Las Vegas.  For years I've wanted to attend but did not.  The location changed to Albuquerque NM and I decided I was going!  The polymer clay workshop ran for 4 days with internationally known teachers.  Peter and I drove from Prescott to Albuquerque in a day - a long day!  He spent his days exploring the area - the zoo, the Rattlesnake Museum, the Petroglyph Park and Sandia Peak.  Lots for him to do.  I spent my days in a classroom playing and learning with lots of other crazy artists.   There were 4 classrooms with 20 ladies (and a couple of men) in each.  The teachers rotated between rooms. Result from Carol Blackburn's class Animals from Leslie Blackford's class My goal now that I am home is to spend a day (several ...

Is making jewelry from polymer clay the best way for me to be creative?  If we don't experiment with alternatives, how will we know? How can I use polymer clay to create paintings?  This blog explores my attempts and growth in a technique of applying clay to canvas.  There was no class or written information that I found so I just started.  I'm showing my newest 'paintings' first so that you can see the changes in style and technique. Monarchs The beginning of the Monarch Painting Painting the background of the canvas helped me define the movement of the grasses and the lighting.  I wanted to feel the low sun coming through the grasses while the butterflies took flight.  I also wanted to show a cocoon and give the impression of beginning pods of grass (at the lower edge of the canvas).   This piece is to be a part of the fall 'Changing of the Colors' at The Prescott Art Market in September.   The color scheme and size...

16 x 20 Finished Painting  Anyone who knows me knows I love to experiment with materials and color.  When the Prescott Art Market sent out the invitation to artists for the quarterly 'Changing of the Colors', I knew it was time to experiment with polymer clay in a new (for me) format.  Rules: a set size (16" x 20") canvas, all sides were to be painted black, and a set color scheme.  These will be hung June 2 and voted on.  Someone will get a prize so if you are in the Prescott area after June 2, please have a look and vote! A good friend of mine makes beautiful colorful quilts and I've watched her make the 9 patch pattern.   With a little guidance about quilt patterns from her, I decided to make a '9 patch' painting using alcohol inks, a straw, acrylic paint, wood and polymer clay. 5 1/2" square of white polymer with a coating of liquid polymer White polymer needed to be the base for the alcohol inks so their bright colors stayed bright....

My Favorite Piece! Planning a new collection of jewelry for the holidays takes time, thought, and experimentation!  I'm sharing some of the process.  The story goes something like this.  The owner of Prescott's Salon 3 asked if I might be interested in creatinng a holiday collection for the shop.  Of course, I said, " let me see what I come up with" Holidays = color, shine, texture and surprise Bits and Pieces I realized those qualities were appearing in my combinations of patterns and colors. combinations of color, texture, shine and surprise  Once I had my combination for the collection, I started making beads and pendants in various shapes.  There is more to do but I wanted to give you a sneak preview! going to be a necklace Deep purple and lots of shine! A little Asian flavor! Center is Sugilite with metal clay copper ring on polymer background A view of my work space in the process! And if you have r...

Looks like leather!  I used chalk, guilder's paste and Golden's paint Silk screening on polymer clay seems to be a big topic of interest lately with lots of Facebook posts and tutorials.  Guess it's time for me to try something new!  Helen Breil has a great tutorial (free) to get us started.  http://www.helenbreil.com/silk-screen-demo.html   After watching Helen's tutorial as well as others, I decided that a rainy day would be perfect to start experimenting.   I used to do silk screening on fabric in college and this is the same idea. I took my Kato white polymer scrap clay, conditioned it and put it through the widest setting on my pasta machine.  I put it on a piece of paper to leach (that makes the clay stiffer and not so soft and squishy).  My stencils are made of paper that I verathaned to keep them waterproof so they would last longer and one small metal stencil.  I've ordered a couple of Helen Breil's stencils but...

It’s been a while since my last post and while I missed writing them, I hope you also missed sharing my adventures!  Between a road trip to Berkeley and having painful (very painful) shoulder tendonitis my activities really slowed down.  Now I’M BACK!  Ready to explore new techniques and have fun. When I see a good tutorial about something new that catches my fancy, I buy it and eventually the day comes when I just have to try it.  Staci Louise Smith wrote a tutorial “Gold Rush: The Rustic Crackle Technique” for Craft Art Edu.  I loved the pictures of her necklaces and wanted to see what I could do.  If you like the crackle effect  on my pieces or want to try something new, check out her tutorial on   www.CraftArtEdu.com    They have good classes on many subjects. When I started following tutorials, I expected my pieces to look like the instructors.  That just did not happen and it is not the fault of the tutorial or ...

Don’t you just love seeing colors change when sunlight makes the color sparkle?  When I decided to play with translucent polymer clay and use alcohol inks to make color, I had no idea where that would lead me.  I just started conditioning the translucent Pardo polymer and passed it through the pasta machine.  My alcohol inks were lined up ready to be brushed on the flat surfaces.  They dried and I started blending the colors.  Then I made shapes, all kind of shapes, stacked colors, made designs and cured them in the convection oven. I sanded and polished and arranged them in groups – still not knowing how I would use them.      Before curing After curing Holding the pieces to the light fascinated me by the color changes.  The more I looked at them in the light the more convinced I was that they needed to be hung by themselves and not worn as beads.  Sun Catchers!  Perfect use of shape and color and light....