Laura Griffin Designs

In my last post, I failed to show you what the back of the pendants looked like!

I used a couple of skinner blends for the gradiated color. Since my translucent clay wasn’t cooperating much on day 2 of the workshop, I don’t have any pieces yet to show you with image transfers…but I’ll be sure to post some as soon as they are complete. TFL!

Today I had the privilege of attending a Kathleen Dustin polymer clay workshop. I have admired her work for years, and was thrilled to get a chance to learn from her first-hand. She is both a generous & kind teacher. She shared so much knowledge in a short amount of time & provided everyone endless amounts of encouragement. Her enthusiasm for the medium shines through…it’s no wonder that she received the Smithsonian’s “Excellence in Design Of the Future” award!

I finished four focal beads in today’s class & created the two below necklaces with them incorporating drawing, inclusions, carving & canework into each piece. IRL, the beads have a lot of depth to them. Tomorrow we’ll be working on incorporating image transfers to similar pieces. I can hardly wait!

This past Sunday, I demonstrated how to make faux ceramic beads to my local polymer clay guild. Credit goes to Patricia Kimle, a wonderful & creative polymer clay artist, who first introduced me to this technique with her necklace tutorial published in the May-June 2006 issue of Step-by-Step Beads magazine.

I was thrilled that everyone brought their own unique collections of buttons to share & we were all in a mold-making frenzy! As you can see from the pic – I made just a few to play with later. *LOL*

After playing around with colors a bit with this technique, I still like shades of blue the best, however, I am particularly taken with the teal color you get by mixing Ranger’s Stream alcohol ink with Jacquard’s Sapphire Blue Pinata ink (with a hint of Tangerine & Senorita Magenta in the mix). It gives your beads a beautiful antique look that is really yummy. I had some difficulty getting a decent picture of the ones I made with this color combo (the below really doesn’t do the color justice), so I’ll have to go back & make a whole jewelry piece to post later.

Thanks for dropping by!

I am so excited that in only two short weeks, Kathleen Dustin will be in town teaching our local polymer clay guild!

As the VP of workshops, this has always been a “dream” workshop to bring, and it sold out in just one day! I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with over the course of the weekend. For those of you that may not be familiar with Kathleen’s work, she makes amazing museum-quality pieces with ground-breaking translucent techniques. She is best know for her purses. Many of them have hand-drawn faces featuring her translucent techniques. She also has a more organic series she began in recent years that is absolutely stunning. She does terrific jewelry work as well. I am really taken with her tornado beads/brooches as seen here to the left. Take a look at more eye candy in her gallery. It’s just amazing!

This year, I am the VP of workshops for my local polymer clay guild & am currently coordinating the registration of an upcoming event. One of my fellow guild members, Barb Petroski, sent me her registration in this wonderful envelope. Not only did she take the time to add this awesome calligraphy on the front, but she included a Griffin stamp to boot! Too cool…just had to take a moment & share her talent.