The conference started out in the usual fashion with Tim welcoming everybody. The crowd consisted of the usual suspects plus whole new group of newbies!
Keynote speaker Ellen Wieske
I first met Ellen when I taught at Haystack where she the Assistant Director. Ellen is a fun, and interesting person with an infectious smile, great sense of humour and of course a great artist. She gave a talk on material mastery. One of the reasons I love the conference is that the keynote speeches are never boring. Ellen fun presentation that showed her use of materials and exploration with those materials. Wood, tin, fiber all are materials which she uses for her mixed media jewelry artwork. Among the many titles she has gone by, her current favorite is Material Propagator. Her sense of humor was evident during her presentation where she showed peppered images of retro cars and humorous mail box, artwork! The buzzafterwards was an image that she showed of a chair that was covered in stuffed pandas! I think Barbara Becker Simon might be making one for herself.
Next stop
DEMO 1
The guys from Jersey – ( for brevity sake I’ll give the cliff notes version )
Terry showed us how to use polymer clay to create a substructure to mold metal clay on top.
Chris demoed how to imbed titanium into metal clay. Big tip use super glue to secure titanium wires. Also use baking soda to accelerate super glue drying.
Next Terry showed how to use 2 part mold compound to mold as a doming form instead of the usual press-mold.
He also showed us how he uses a used metal clay syringe to keep homemade slip. This enables one to keep their homemade slip like copper clay to stay moist for weeks. Brilliant idea!
Chris encouraged us to hallmark our work. Also uses Habor Freight tools center punches as inexpensive mandrels for jump ring makers. He also told a story about he glued his thumbs together and encouraged us to alway have super glue debonder around in case of mistakes!!!! He’s very funny!
Chris also reminded us that you can heat color titanium in the kiln. He recommended checking the Internet for specific details. I will have to give this a try!
Final stop after dinner a CraftCast instructors party hosted by Alison Lee
This was too much fun! I got to play bartender for the night! I’m sure there will photos showing up on Facebook of my many talents…oh vey! The list of attendees where Tim , Barbara, Terry and his wife Corinne, Reiko from Japan, Helga, Wanaree, Ellen Wiekse, Erin, Lisa Cain from the UK, Holly and her sister in law, Loreene Baum Davis, Anne Davis, and of course Alison Lee. OMG this was too much laughing! Our faces where hurting from all of the laughter. Here are some pics.
I’m loving this Blog, Patrick. Since I can not attend the conference, I will through YOUR EYES. I appreciate your taking the time to keep this up … Hooray for me… I can remember the last conference I went to at Purdue and re-live part of what’s going on. You’re a dear!
thank you so so much for posting about the conference and what’s going on!
I would be interested in using kiln for titanium. There is so much to try.
Agreed! So much to explore in the world of metal clay!