Since I am planning on doing a demo at the AC Moore with polymer clay, I figure that I could also use that as marketing my website and jewelry. I am planing on making an apron or two for Justbarrettes.com and wearing that during the demo. I could also make larger buttons (like the ones that they wear at places like Burger King to show new products) with pictures of some of my work that can be found on the sites. I would also have my business cards on the table. The only thing is that I would have to make sure that it would be okay with A.C. Moore.
I could also use the apron at craft shows. I am busy trying to find a smaller craft show to get my feet wet at. I would like to do one this fall for Christmas time for sure. I would like to do one this summer but I think that I have missed the deadlines on those. I may talk with one of the gals at work who is also interested in craft shows, if we could find a show that would let us split a table/booth. She does scrapbooking and stamping arts, so we would not be competing for sales of similar items.
I was talking to a friend about my thoughts on the series of classes I was thinking of teaching. She brought up the fact that maybe people don’t want to take four classes.
That made me do some thinking. What if I broke it down into groups of two classes. Beads and simple canes in the first one and then the second one be covering and string beads into jewelry. Then I could do a class set on focal beads and different canes with the second one doing more covering and a necklace from the focal bead. I could even do a discounted price for the second series of classes for people how took the first.
After those two classes I could ask my “students” what they would like to learn and use their input on other series of classes.
I also have to put thoughts into what I want to demo in order to get people interested in taking polymer clay classes. I will have a display together with samples of what I have done. I am also thinking of having idea books there as well. I do want to have a short questionary about what people would like to learn. I also want to be doing something with the clay while I talk and answer questions. Maybe I demo the tecniques that I want to teach in the classes? So many questions and thoughts to work out.
Yesterday I created more flowers. I used the lesson in the current issue of Polymer Cafe as the pattern for the large spotted lilies. The small purple one is from some of the scrape of the cane.
These are just some of the roses that grow out of a mix of pearl and yellow. The purple roses are also from scrape.
The polymer clay world had been talking about this for a while now. But it is official, Polyform, the company behind Sculpey, has teamed up with Donna Dewberry to market a polymer clay program similar to “One-Stroke Painting”. This has put to polymer clay world on edge.
The feelings range from “this is a deal with the devil” that will make it hard on the polymer clay artist to it will bring more creative people into the art form and more clay supplies available.
I personally feel that it is more of a positive move for the artists then not. It will bring more crafters and hobbyist in to polymer clay as well as hopefully increase the supply. I have seen the sections in the local craft stores that have the one-stroke painting stuff grow larger over time. I have also seen them shrink. In al depends on the area and the store.
For polymer teachers, since Polyform is doing ceritfication, it will mean that they may not be able to teach at stores that supply their products. I don’t think that that in itself will hurt them. Many of them do not teach there already.
We will have to wait and see.
I got a copy of the spring Polymer Cafe magazine today. It has some very wonderful flower canes to make in it. I want to try the spotted lily cane and work on getting it to look like stargazer lilies. There is also a tutorial by C.A. Therien on making a Calla Lily cane that also looks just beautiful. With the petal swap that I am doing the spotted lily cane is perfect to use for that. I am going to do things slightly differently since EVERYONE else in the swap maybe using the lessen as well!
I am also going to be making lighter colored clay and make more roses for bobby pins. I want to start making special occasion hair wear. I think light colored one with some clear glitter might be nice. I may even start looking for tiara blanks that I could cover. I have some many ideas. I just need to get going and make them.
I also want to work on making bead flowers for barrettes. I think that they would make some really nice ones as well.