Short summary to a wonderful trip - Switzerland-Liechtenstein Classes, June 2013

Teaching in general (and teaching a group of polymer clay ladies and man in Switzerland in particular) is such a rewarding experience.

When teaching a class, I feel as much of a participant in the learning process as I am responsible for presenting the content effectively. A wonderful feeling.

For me, it is important to make sure the students have a good understanding of the material and technique, supplying them with both a toolkit of ideas and class projects, and also, I want my students to become thinkers, active and use the technique and idea to go to the next "what if" step, researching the possibilities beyond.

My Switzerland teaching trip was another proof that learning is mutual, fun and endless, no matter which language you speak.
It was wonderful.

On a nice sunny day, a group of dozens students gathered in the beautiful Liechtenstein, with landscape taken from fairy tales, both Melanie Muir and myself along with Sabine Backer as the ideal organizer, translator and host, spent wonderful 3 days of rock cuffs, skyscraper, INKredible and of course, perfect venue, clean fresh air and healthy appetite!

Look at those clean plates! :)

 

A visit in Zurich

Liechtenstein's view from the class

With 2 groups, each teacher was teaching two 1.5 days of classes.
I was giving my "INKredible polymer" class as a full day and the Skyscraper technique as a half day.

Students were each taking their own path in creating a design, one chose a round shape, other pointed, third created multi-beads creation - thinkers!

Working!

Some of the final pieces

There was one man in my class (only one! How come there are so few men in polymer clay?), Jean Nordmann, a very special person with a very special life mission. I will post about him and his precious humanitarian work in my next posts. Surrounded with lots of helpers he did a great job as well.

And how can we miss a Swiss tradition?

Sabine's sweetest daughter surprised us with a superb chocolate fondu!
The perfect end to a wonderful trip.

I wish to thank Sabine and to all my new and old friends for this wonderful opportunity to see the world, meet new friends I would have never met if it wasn't for polymer clay.
I cherish these moments and think of how small the world is and how happy I am that polymer clay brings us all closer together.

You are welcome to see more pictures from this event on my Facebook,

My next stop is Czech Republic at the end of August.
Only 4 last spots left! Grab your spot if you are close by -
Press here for all the details.
Till next time - Tschüss!!
:) 

Polymeri Online 14.1.13 | Clever polymer, Hypnotizing jewelry, Scented miniature, Clay-paper display and new projects samples for my CFCF classes

Polymer clay Jewelry by Victoria

Russian artist Victoria Mkhitarian's flickr gallery is a treat to the eye. Clever beads, original assembling and interesting patterns features her art work.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vim_hm/8273622213/in/photostream
Blog - http://vimhandmade.blogspot.com

Still waters by Cassy

A visit at Cynthia Tinnaple's pinterest gallery led me to find Cassy Muronaka's website and jewelry. Her Still waters pendants, deep, 3D, are hypnotizing. Cassy was a journalist for many years and decided to move from journalism to photojournalism. In the early 1990s, Cassy began working with polymer clay as a nighttime relief from the joys of motherhood and using it since.
http://www.cassymuronaka.com/jewelry/stillwater.html

Miniature polymer clay bobby pins

Candice Ware is the artist behind these cute bunny waffle bobby pins, she creates miniature food jewelry that's scented and also sell molds for your own DIY art. Want your jewelry scented as well? check out her fragrance bottles in her Etsy store.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CandiWareJewelry

Original toilet-polymer jewelry display

This is one original jewelry display made of.... toilet paper!
The crafter - WingsOfClay said she was looking for a reasonable priced display and when couldn't find any she used a paper towel roll, a toilet paper roll, and scrap clay. A full photo tutorial is included!
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=417073.new

Brocade collection bags

I was busy the past month preparing new project samples for my guest classes on Cabin Fever Clay Festival 2013 (CFCF), Maryland, USA, this event is going to be a great opportunity to polymer clay artists to share knowledge, exchange techniques and... have a good time! After all, a good university isn’t an institution, but a community of learning.
If you're considering having 1 week off from home duties, laundry and sleepless nights, and speak "polymerian" all day (and night!) check the last spots available -
http://www.polymerclayfests.wordpress.com

Brocade collection bags

Skyscraper pendants/beads

Skyscraper pendants/beads

Skyscraper pendants/beads

Skyscraper pendants/beads

1 FIMO Symposium, 4 Teachers, 70 Students and 140 half Hemispheres - The 1st FIMO Inspiration Symposium in Staedtler's headquarters

How often do you spend 72 hours with 12 nations polymer clay artists and play with clay?

Students Brocade Collection Purses

The 1st FIMO inspiration took place in Staedtler's headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany will be remembered as a wonderful weekend.
Play with clay? we sure did, and we got behind the scenes tours to see FIMO production line, writing instruments and it was beyond my expectations.
Staedtler's team - Mr. Nils Henssen and Mrs. Gerlinde Karg along with dedicated Staedtler's people put together an amazing event. No other words can describe it.

Staedtler's main room

The first day started with an opening gathering, we had  a chance to meet all 70 students coming from 12 nations, along with my collogues teachers - Sarah Shriver, Sabine Backer and Bettina Welker.
A warm (and tasty) welcome and off we went to our intensive 3 in 1: One day - Three tours.

Glass display cubes showing teacher's work

The first stop was Staedtler's pencils production line, did you know That Staedtler people play with canes in their pencils?
Going through endless colored and graphite pencils, markers and pens - makes you want to grab several and do some drawings!

Big storage warehouses

Huge machines, micro technology, smart production are only a part of this fascinating process (sorry, no photos were allowed...).
Packaging is brilliant as well, we've been inside huge warehouses where computers are running all stocks, building a box of all "ingredients" of an order starting from 1 item to thousands.
At this age where writing is done with our keyboard and printers, its great to see that colored pencils and pencils are still so popular, important and valuable, the look of all these colorful pencils immediately made me want to sketch.

Guided tour in production factories

Next stop was the FIMO production in Neumarkt, 20 minutes by bus from the headquarters - huge mixers with colorful piles of FIMO, like colorful yummy sugar paste. Machines creating blocks for the entire world! Unbelievable. The clay is molded into portions and packaged in small packages - 100 packages per minute!
We could not resist not to touch the endless clay piles and got ourselves  small leftovers to play with while walking around.

Old City of Nurnberg

Last tour was a "medieval style" city tour in old Nurnberg, walking around the old city at night and listening to ancient stories about battles, Napoleon and old ages celebrities.

We ended up the day in a lovely restaurant eating traditional cuisine and headed to bed to have our beauty sleep just before we start a new day.

Evening dinner at the
Museum of Industrial Culture

Thursday morning started with workshops, workshops and more workshops, I gave my popular Brocade Collection purse workshop and each student created his/her own wonderful purse - start to finish. 2 workshops a day, fresh beverages flowing and pampering, great lunch and then in the evening a luxury dinner at the industrial museum including a fun auction selling all 4 teacher's special edition pens. My set has a new warm home and was purchased by nice lady from Switzerland :)
Staedler's team did everything they possibly can to make us feel comfortable, gave their full attention to every detail, made sure we are enjoying good food, music and an entertaining show.

Teachers Pens Sets - Auctioned

The following day was once again packed with workshops, group photos and a closing ceremony, giving the students fancy certificates signed by all teachers and organizers.

Did I say already I enjoyed every minute?
I had an amazing weekend, met lots of new and old friends and what's important, enjoyed seeing my students smiley face when they finished their cute little purses, some of them already placed them on their bag as a decoration.
There is something about the "together" atmosphere that fills your heart with joy forgetting for a minute all the laundry, dishes and sleepless nights.

Working...
Saskia Veltenaar and Marjon Donker
from the Netherlands

Learning new things, improving your skills, helping simplify things, discovering a new trick,  or even exchanging ideas for Christmas gifts!

Having fun :)

I had one student, a beginner with polymer (3 months), she could not believe she will be able to make "that complicated purse". In the end of the class she said she is so happy with the results, now she feels much confident to make her family Christmas gifts.

Staedtler's Main Courses Room
The CASINO

So thank you my dear students and thank you Staedtler for making this happen. I am looking forward to my next trip to Maryland, US, having fun with more Brocade purses, meeting old and new friends on CFCF.

Teaching (with a smile)

More photos are posted in my facebook, you are welcome to take a look.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151095354712968.443049.608452967&type=1
Thank you!