I’m just returning from 7 days in NY. I hadn’t been to upper NY before and really enjoyed it. It wasn’t at all what I imagined, it was so much more. The studio that I had the great pleasure of teaching at was Studio 34 in Rochester. The owner Marilynne was just the most delightful woman and the hostess with the mostess! The studio was in an area of town filled with artists, art stores, and wonderful little eateries! I highly recommend visiting the studio and taking a class there, which is their specialty. I always encourage everyone to support their local stores. Without them and all the small business owners, we wouldn’t have the fabric that makes up our experiences!
After a rather trying adventure with US Airways (you know I have amazing travel luck…read about my Bead and Button adventure last June), I was able to share my knowledge about textures on Thursday. We covered tear away, photopolymer, carving polymer, carving rubber, commercial textures, and more. It was full of ideas and I could see all the bulbs going, 100W + ! The class was filled with lots of my great customers and fellow teachers. It was a great thing to be able to meet them. That is one of the most rewarding things for me. It’s one of the main reasons I teach and do trade shows. I want to meet all of these wonderful patrons that help me fulfill my passion of spreading my love of tools, supplies, and metal clay!
The next 3 days I taught certification class for the Rio Rewards program. It was a lot of fun and of course challenging for my students. They progressed amazingly well. I even had a student who really hadn’t done much of anything with the clay and she made the most beautiful pieces! I was so very proud of her! I had a couple that owned a great bead store in Canada as well. There were talented watercolorists, glass artists, metal clay teachers, and a pine needle artist. It was fabulous. I’ve attached a great picture of a bowl that Donna Gentle Cappon made. The students gave it to me as a gift at the end of class. I am so touched and have a wonderful new piece of art to hang in my studio to remind me of such a great experience! Muchas gracias!
If that wasn’t enough fun, I also taught an Enameling Sampler on Monday. I had several repeat students so it was great to get to spend more time with them. They got to play with crayons, watercolor, sifting, stencils, scraffito, hot glue, adhesive transfers, learn about etching, roller printing, and more. All in a beginner class! I loved that I had a student, Maxene, who had been an enamelist 40 years ago and hadn’t picked it up since. She had come to get her feet wet again. Little did she know it wouldn’t just be her feet and she left with new found enthusiasm. I feel very blessed to have given that to her.
Anyway, I wished that I had remembered to take the camera out of the bag that I carried for 7 days to take a picture and share with you. I was too busy trying to think of great ideas and explain techniques to remember to stop and take a picture to savor the moment. I regret that. However, hopefully I’ll be asked back (they already asked if I could come back…yippee) formally and will remember to take them to share with you next time.
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