Updates #2

The week following the Oskaloosa show I had the opportunity to teach polymer clay art to a group of students from the local high school. Ottumwa's community college has a program called Upward Bound to encourage would-be first generation college students. These students live at the college for 6 weeks and attend classes to get an idea of college life. If they participate the summer before their Sr year they can also receive some college credits. It was a really neat program and I was proud to get to be a part of it. I took pictures of some of the students work which I will add when I find my camera...

I taught the kids how to make some simple canes and showed them some different ways to use them. We made covered pens and stands, ring bowls, key chains and other fun stuff! I also showed them how to use their cane ends for swirled lentil beads.

These are the pens and holders the class made. I think they all did a great job!

Yoslin with my stack of clay books and magazines (wearing her new bracelet!)

One of the guys perfecting his swirl technique.

Updates #1

My life has been non stop crazy for the last several weeks. Is it already July???? I thought that Summer was suppose to be the time of year when we all slow down and enjoy the outdoors, BBQs and the good life? Well maybe we get a bit of that but everything else still seems to come at 100 mph. So I guess I should break this up into instalments

Mid June marked the first show of the season for me. It was held in the near by town of Oskaloosa, IA. This was my first time doing this show and I thought that it went very well. Even though the weather was quite cool and a bit damp they had a good crowd and I had decent sales and good feedback. As usual my ring bowls were my best seller. This was also my first opportunity to try out my new propanels and shelf displays! I only used 3 of my walls for 2 reasons; first I was concerned that if it got hot I would have no breeze with the walls all up, and second I found out that my tent is too low for the support poles on my walls. but by using just the tree I was able to secure them right to the tent and still have some air flow.