Thursday, July 8, 2010

Orlando Clay Fandango

It's official, I will be teaching at the 2011 Orlando Clay Fandango. We are excited to have our lesson chosen and for the opportunity to teach a new project that I've been working on for about two years.

Like so many ideas, this one came when I only had a very small scrap of a beautifully colored skinner blend, warm pink to ivory to warm blue and wished there were something I could do to use it up. I began wondering how I might use this small piece of a favorite blend.

Hummmm..(thinking happening here)... maybe I could use slivers, little angled slices from the skinner blend scraps to make a pretty flower with colors blended from light to dark. So I compressed the scrap into a small Skinner loaf, cut off a thin slice, cut the slice into slivers and rolled them into ropes.

The first one was this necklace and earring set using the pink to ivory part of the scrap of Skinner blend. The leaves and vines were made from a green to translucent failed cane. The gypsy in me came out as I was finishing the design with iron on Swarovski flat back jewels inserted into flower centers and other design elements.

I began calling the technique "Sliver Flowers & Leaves" and created some more designs, some with wirework.

On another one, the background was textured to resemble fabric and the resulting design was the inspiration to convert the slivers into verigated silk ribbon for embroidery.

For years I'd tinkered with clay embroidery designs but was unsatisfied with the results. Certainly nothing to write home about. The slices from the Skinner blend scrap reminded me of Ombre or Variegated ribbon so the focus changed from thread embroidery to ribbon embroidery and experiments began.

After testing and developing ways to make the various stitches with ribbon embroidery shapes and movement, I created a clay "Sampler". My favorite stitch is the running stitch with variegated ribbon. The effect is so much fun!

I'll be teaching this faux Embroidery class at Fandango May 19-23, 2011. Students will make a sampler and a pendant/pin project. I'll sculpt a new mold with tiny buttons, borders and other embroidery goodies for this class. Here is a link to more info on Orlando Clay Fandango Retreat.

The pendant to the left is 'stitched' around the edges. The ornament below right is made from the same technique only the ends of the flowers stitches are not 'tucked' in.




More pictures to follow: maybe we'll see you there.

6 comments:

malsarts said...

Lovely pieces of art, I wish I could go for the clay fundango and learn how to make these..though I know that it is a very distant dream. Congratulations and wish you the very best!

Penni Jo AKA Claylady43 said...

Thank you so much.
Penni Jo

Eclectic Beader said...

Hi Elli,

How clever you are and how beautiful the pieces turned out.
I also wish I could be with you in FLA in May for the class. I don't suppose you will have a tutorial on the technique, a book(let), or a CD available any time soon?

Thanks again for the inspiration,
Marie

Valerie's Creative Studio said...

What wonderful work,can't wait to see more,regards Valerie

Penni Jo AKA Claylady43 said...

Marie,

I don't know how soon a tutorial will be out, but I had never thought of a CD with step by step.

What a great idea and one worth looking into.

Thanks so much for the very kind comments.
Penni Jo

Penni Jo AKA Claylady43 said...

Valerie,

Thank you for your encouraging words.
Penni Jo