Archive for the ‘Friendly plastic beginners’ Category

Desire to Inspire? More Friendly Plastic designs from SueC and her students

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

Sue C is still at it....inspiring her students to creat with Friendly Plastic! She writes:
A couple of posts back I showed some friendly plastic atc's I had made for classes. I love working with it but am a Jill of all and master of none so my pieces reflect that.
I can't tell you how proud and amazed I am that I got a blog comment from.....the Queen of Friendly Plastic herself - yes Liz Welch - how cool is that. I feel so honoured that she even bothered to look at my blog never mind to leave a comment. I have met her a couple of times and she is so lovely to talk to. She even gave me a couple of her pieces that I showed the ladies this morning. I am so in awe watching her as she works.

This morning I carried on teaching friendly plastic and it was...friendly I mean...
and it did all I could have asked.
Here are Gill, Mu and Q happily working away. Q and Gill sing in a choir so there's always lots of singing going on when Q comes - this morning it was musicals, West Side Story, Carousel and Cabaret.



here's Gill's


and Mu's


and Q's


They did well especially as it was their first time. There will be more techniques for them next week.
I forgot to photograph Liz's pieces and they are at the shop but I will tomorrow. Liz, if you are reading this I still can't master the ooze technique so any tips for it I'd be most grateful.

Sue


Thank you Sue C for sharing all the talent on your blog!

Linda Peterson is compensated and endorsed by AMACO. The guests features may or may not have any affiliation with AMACO.

Two Teenage girls and some Friendly Plastic

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

LOVE LOVE LOVE opening my email and getting letters and pictures like this – just makes my day!

Linda,

I had a couple of teenage girls visit for about three hours and I just let them loose with a huge pile of FP.

I thought they would make the little wire ladies I had shown them, but no. They took that simple idea but made them larger, about four inches, and fancier with at least two layers each, plus the jewels.

Their next project was big barrettes for their long hair. These also were about four inches, and piled way high with FP. No detailed directions for theses girls, they just turned my large “clay only” toaster oven on, paying no attention to the temperature. They donned the heat resistant gloves I have, put their creations on non stick sheets on one of the tiles I use for clay, and watched thru the window until it looked melted and took it out.

The barrettes were just one baking. The dolls got two bakings, as after the first layer the wires were laid on and the second FP layer added. Then the girls mushed the plastic around with knitting needles dipped in cold water, and added the “jewels” and even some small glass tiles.

Apparently FP will take a lot of abuse when it comes to temperature, but I don’t suppose you want people trying that method :-) I bet as these visitors come again, and find more and more things in my studio, their FP creations will become more and more out of the ordinary. They had never heard of FP, say nothing of the fact they had no clue what could, or could not, be done with it. It reminded me that we all need to remember to occasionally try to think about our art with such a clean slate, absent of knowledge and/or influence! …

Phyll


Cara’s 4″ pin lady has glass tiles and a bouquet. Love the dress pattern.
Marja’s 4″ jeweled toned jewel encrusted pin

Cara’s lovely 4″ barrette combo of leaves and flower


Marja’s three toned 4″ barrette

Well Girls – YOU DID AMAZING!!! And a big THANK YOU and shout out to Phyll for sharing their work!

Sometimes I believe we do “nothing” because we are afraid of failure. I find that true of myself sometimes…but then again, we have to remember that doing “nothing” produces “nothing” and we learn “nothing” and get “nothing” .
TIP: Just a friendly word though…..FP does create some brilliant barrettes…however please remember to cover them entirely with a durable two-part casting resin such as Envirotex Light. This will prevent them from melting in the warm summer months and entangling in hair.
Thanks to these girls for teaching us to just dive in and let go and explore. And here’s a bonus….in these cold wintery months, heat guns, toaster ovens are just an added plus to keeping you warm….so if you’re going to use electricity anyways….why not get extra warm with Friendly Plastic?

Linda Peterson is compensated and endorsed by AMACO. The guests features may or may not have any affiliation with AMACO.