It's not just the leaves that are changing.....

We have been surprised that we have had such a colorful fall, given the near drought conditions in Georgia this year. We were expecting a boring leaf season and to our delight, it has been magnificent.

Our morning drive across the dam at the bottom of Lake Lanier has been about as colorful and surprising as our business life of late. We want to share our big news....Ellen Prophater and I (Sue Sutherland) have opened Creative Journey Studios in the space formerly housing Woman Creative. Barbara has decided to concentrate on her writing and publishing, and has bowed out of the business. We will miss her, but wish her well as she hopefully finds a satisfying new avenue to her extraordinary creativity.
Our talented studio artist, Patricia DiBona, is becoming more and more a part of our team. She has jumped in to help with our new logo, signage and advertising media. Listening to a conversation Ellen and I were having with Linda Hall about how we had come to polymer clay through a string of other media, Patricia jumped up, ran over and whispered....."I've got the new name--Creative Journey". She was so right on. We have, indeed, been on a creative journey and this is where it has led!

She drew the compass rose and created our own font, and used her collaging skills to design what I think is a great new logo. She is busy designing new classes in her specialties, and amidst a busy show schedule is continuing to create her jewelry that garnered her my nickname of "Queen of Bling".
I have taken a more active role as "studio director" (a giant step up from chief toilet cleaner!). Ellen is continuing in her role as gallery director. She has added quite a few new artists to the gallery and is busy rearranging and expanding the displays.
We hope you will "stay tuned" to the fun at Creative Journey Studios. We are working on our new website at http://www.creativejourneystudios.com and will be transitioning soon. I have started a new blog at http://www.creativejourneyart.blogspot.com  (this is my last post here) and hope you will follow our progress. Make plans for a visit to Buford and our wonderful "new" business, Creative Journey Studios. We have lots of new classes in the works and the classroom is redesigned, expanded and waiting for you. Filigree & More is transitioning into a new space and adding some exciting new products. Our exhibit, Polymer....from the Beginning, is still on display and growing, as donations from new artists come in. There's a whole lot of polymer going on!

Lindly Haunani brings a rainbow to Woman Creative

We are eagerly awaiting November 4th, when we will welcome Lindly to Woman Creative for an artist's reception in anticipation of her weekend class "Exploring the Rainbow". Don't miss this great opportunity to meet Lindly and see her incredible jewelry in the gallery...and see pieces from her personal collection she has loaned to "Polymer...from the Beginning", our historic polymer exhibit.
Join us on Saturday and Sunday (10 to 4:30 each day) to take advantage of all of Lindly's color expertise. She has a multi-sensory approach to learning about color that will help you create personalized color schemes and build your color confidence. You'll gain an understanding of how hue, value and saturation interact and make an impact on your work, no matter what medium you work in. You'll take a guided exploration of your color preferences and have the vocabulary of color design demystified. You'll use polymer to discover how to work with color primaries and mix specific colors. We know you will take home a color awareness that will be reflected in your work, and a confidence about color that will be invaluable. Read all about the workshop on our website (www.womancreative.com) and call us up at 404-314-5767 to sign up.

Exciting changes are coming to the studio. We are working on our class schedule to include more guest instructors in a variety of mediums. New artists are showing their work in the gallery. We'll keep you posted on all the news.

Patricia DiBona....one of Woman Creative's own

Woman Creative is many things.....a gallery, a supply store (Filigree & more), two classrooms and artists' studio space. In one of our studios, we are fortunate to have Patricia DiBona. Her theme in her art, no matter what media she is using on a particular day, is "layer it". She paints both on canvas and on board, and makes what she refers to as "pollage", a combination of painting and mixed media collage. Often her pieces use bee's wax incised to add more color and texture. Many times images of her paintings end up as an integral part of her other love, silver soldered shadow boxes. We refer to her as the queen of bling, as she loves to incorporate vintage crystals into her pieces.

Patricia is also a very accomplished teacher. We have watched her as she guided a family of five to create a large (4' by 6') canvas that represented their common interests. It was amazing to see them make a plan that represented their love of music and symbolized the three daughters coming together with their parents to be a family. A huge guitar that was to be wired after the fact, leaned on a piano whose keys flew out into sheet music and swirled around representations of the three girls. It was an impressive work of art, and an impressive feat of teaching.

Equally amazing was a session with Ellen Prophater's almost four years old granddaughter Cate, which culminated in a self portrait transformed into a princess, complete with crown and jewels! Cate assured us that it was "the most beautiful painting" that she had ever made and that it would reside in a place of honor.

When you visit Woman Creative, you can see a large body of work by Patricia that is for sale in the gallery, and you can watch her busily creating in her studio. She puts the rest of us to shame with how hard she works.

Cold Connections with Kim St. Jean

Many polymer artists like to mix metals into their designs. Why not learn from a teacher who specializes in cold connections, one who "wrote the book". Woman Creative is delighted to welcome Kim St. Jean for a class to make a triptych focal piece that can be used in a bracelet or necklace. A trio of techniques, including metal punching, riveting and layering metals, will expand your possibilities for creating a unique mixed media piece. The class will be on Saturday, Sept. 3rd from 10 to 5 and will be all inclusive for $90.

While you are here, you will have a chance to see "Polymer from the Beginning", our study exhibit on polymer from the mid-80's. A small handful of pieces will be leaving our collection and going up to the Racine Art Museum. I hope you've had a chance to see these wonderful pieces by Kathleen Amt, Katherine Dewey, Elise Winters (her marvelous fans) and Pier Volkos in our inspirational gallery. RAM is debuting their exhibition Terra Nova: Polymer Art at the Crossroads at the opening on October 21. This exhibit is the result of years of hard work by Elise Winters, who has tirelessly tried to have polymer recognized as a legitimate art medium and to have it accepted into the permanent collections of multiple art museums. I hope you'll show your support of this effort by visiting the Racine Art Museum, becoming a member and purchasing the catalog of the exhibit, or by donating thru their website (http://www.ramart.org/support-ram/41-donations.html). They also have a couple ways to fundraise for them if you are an internet shopper that cost you nothing but a little time. http://www.ramart.org/support-ram/73-fundraising-for-ram.html 

A very valuable source of historic information about polymer can be found on Elise's blog (http://www.polymerartarchive.com/), as well as a directed button to donate to RAM. You will lose yourself for a few hours when you discover her fascinating blog, which Rachel Carren helps write. Rachel, as well as being an amazing artist, is a very knowledgeable art historian. Enjoy your web surfing!

Great Success!

Leslie's class was fantastic and I was right to predict that magic would happen. On Saturday we made night lights and the results were amazing.

I made an owl and Ellen made a mermaid for her grandkids. We made the body over a glass globe and used translucent clay so the light would show through. Leslie had wonderful taxidermy eyes for us that really finished the look.
The other fun for the weekend was that Kim Cavender came along with Leslie for the ride! We enjoyed the extra company and introduced Kim to brunswick stew, sushi and treats from the Mexican grocery next door to Woman Creative. It's a real cultural experience. They have a wonderful butcher and often have great things for a quick lunch. Kim had a fun weekend experimenting with gilder's paste and went home with half the "flavors". We now have a nice body of work from Kim in the gallery.....and some wonderful new pieces from Leslie. Two more good reasons to come for a visit.

Leslie Blackford creates magic!

Leslie Blackford is bringing her magic creativity dust to sprinkle on another batch of students at Woman Creative.  I am a believer, having encountered Leslie several years ago at Fandango in Florida.  I was a confirmed non-sculptor, who astoundingly created an elephant after attending Leslie's class.  On Saturday, the class will make creative character lamps that can act as a night light or small lamp.  On Sunday, we'll create a trio of rings with a circus theme in a class entitled "Three Ring Circus".

Both of these classes are going to be fun.....I already have a space cleared on my bedside table for my new lamp.  I'm also busy planning my rings....maybe a gorilla is in my future or a strong man....or, more likely, a fat lady.
Leslie comes from a very artistic family.  We had the opportunity to spend time at her folks' house up in Kentucky and found out that her Dad is an amazing botanist who has taken incredible closeup photographs of plants from their region and has created fabulous pen and ink drawings of some of the microscopic details of these plants.  Her Mom is making civil war character reproductions with polymer faces and amazing costumes that she sews.  She also makes wonderful santas.  They have passed love of art on to Leslie and now she will inspire you.  Join us on August 6th and 7th in Buford and you'll be inspired to greatness!

Classes and Retreats

We had a fantastic class earlier this month with Christi Friesen. A full house of ladies happily created winged creatures of an incredible variety. Everyone seemed to have a great time and lots of wonderful pieces "flew" out of here. Christi never slows down! (I think I was hearing "Coolio" floating from her bedroom at 3 AM!) Seriously, she is very inspiring and had lots of design tips to share. We look forward to having Christi back at the Center whenever we can get her to the East Coast.
We also got to spend time with Christi up at the International Polymer Clay Association's Biennial Retreat in Bloomingdale, Illinois (just outside Chicago). We left Woman Creative in Barbara's care and headed up north to mingle and clay with about 90 members of the IPCA at Indian Lakes Resort. We presented a demo on gilder's gane, Ellen's new technique using gilders paste in place of gold leaf in mokume gane. The gilders paste can be a color layer or a metallic layer in any style of mokume you currently make. David Wareham, head honcho at Artist Supplies & Products and Baroque Art Gilders Paste, graciously donated a full set (all 28 flavors!) of Gilders Paste for the auction at the retreat. That caused a lot of bidding and the set went for one of the highest bids of the night. We think the product is a great adjunct to polymer and it was nice to be able to educate a whole new group about the fun techniques it opens up.
We sat next to Christi and enjoyed the myriad of people who made "ghoulies" with her. Bettina Welker's son made several! We renewed old friendships and made a lot of new friends. There were quite a few good demos so we learned some new techniques and discovered some new products. The retreat was held in conjunction with the Metal Clay Conference, so we had access to great vendors. We also discovered a location of one of our favorite chain restaurants - Mon Ami Gabi. It's a french bistro we first found in Vegas while at Donna's Clay Carnival. We happily ate there four times in the course of the week. Yum!
Anyway, it's back to reality. Lots of new work for the gallery needs to be displayed and new pieces need to be added to the collection, which just keeps getting better and better. Woamn Creative is becoming a polymer mecca!