Gerhard Richter at the Tate Modern- a phenomenal artist and an amazing exhibition

Barbara Becker Simon and I almost stumbled upon upon this most amazing exhibition of Gerhard Richters at the Tate Modern in London this week. The most diverse, eclectic, inspiring, beautiful and thought provoking work I have seen in a very long time.

www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/gerhardrichter 

'Spanning nearly five decades, and coinciding with the artist’s 80th birthday, Gerhard Richter: Panorama is a major retrospective exhibition that groups together significant moments of his remarkable career.

Since the 1960s, Gerhard Richter has immersed himself in a rich and varied exploration of painting. Gerhard Richter: Panorama highlights the full extent of the artist's work, which has encompassed a diverse range of techniques and ideas. It includes realist paintings based on photographs, colourful gestural abstractions such as the squeegee paintings, portraits, subtle landscapes and history paintings.

Gerhard Richter was one of the first German artists to reflect on the history of National Socialism, creating paintings of family members who had been members, as well as victims of, the Nazi party. Continuing his historical interest, he produced the 15-part work October 18 1977 1988, a sequence of black and white paintings based on images of the Baader Meinhof group. Richter has continued to respond to significant moments in history throughout his career; the final room of the exhibition includes September 2005, a painting of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001.

Lovers of the epic beauty of Rothko, Twombly and Hodgkin will have much to enjoy, as will those who appreciate striking portraiture or the crystal-clear precision of photorealism.

Bling Bling- hello!!

Well what do you expect, I had to do a little bit of bling for the upcoming festive season- too early?? Not in my world. 


I start this weekend with an exhibition at Towcester Race Course. Sounds a strange place to hold an event but it's an amazing 1930's venue set in lovely grounds about one and a half hours from London www.romorexhibitions.co.uk. We shall see.

I'm back in the blogosphere

Well, what kept me away so long I hear you gasp! A 2 week cruise around the Baltic States ( of more later) and 4 day fabulous workshop in France, 'Creative Corbieres',  with Judy Belcher, Sandra MacCaw, Louise Fisher Cozzi and Tory Hughes... the definition of polymer clay heaven. Well up to a point....


What has really kept me away is the fact that i couldn't get into my blogger account and realized today that the answer is beyond simple and took me a nano second to solve. What can I say?


Anyway, back to the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my life- no exaggeration -the  Gold Room at the Hermitage in St Petersberg.

Our ship docks in St Petersberg

Sunrise in St P

Treasures from the Gold Room in the Hermitage

The last ever PMC conference

Julia Rai posted this today on www.metalclayacademy.com. As you're probably aware the PMC Guild is closing and this is the last of its conferences. I went to the one at Purdue university in 2006 and it was amazing. Check out the website because it has downloads of speakers notes and handouts from all the conferences www.pmc-conference.com

Will I be there- I really hope so

When: June 21-23, 2012

Where: Drawbridge Hotel and Conference Center near Cincinnati, Ohio

The last ever PMC Conference will be held in June 2012. The location offers easy airport access, a free shuttle, full amenities, and lots of room. Details will be given in the next issue of Fusion (available to Guild members only) and be available soon from the

Some pre-conference classes (19th-20th June) have just been announced -

Donna Penoyer - Birdsong Whistles (one day) & Split Leaf Jewelry (one day)
Barbara Simon - Innovative Findings (one day) & Instant Earrings! (one day)
Chris Darway - Fusing Aura 22 onto Sterling and Copper (one day, offered twice)
Terry Kovalcik - Hinged Keepsake Pendant (two days)
Celie Fago - Making the Most of PMC: Rings
Holly Gage - Repousse Effects in Metal Clay (two days)
Hadar Jacobson - Mokume Gane Band Rings (two days)

My NEW website is up and running

Debbie Carlton Jewellery

designer, maker, teacher

who would have believed it... after all this time I've finally got my act together and have a new website. 


In the end I went for a www.wix.com site. It's a flash based site but they have a version for use on a ipad/iphone so that's good and as far as i can tell, the SEO is working OK- not that I'm an expert.


I did have help from one of the Wix 'experts' who came up with the idea for the home page www.jourdesign.co.uk.


So.... check it out www.debbiecarltonjewellery.co.uk 
I'd be delighted if you could give it a test drive and would be much appreciated
.
And.... I'm now working on using www.mailchimp.com for my emails etc.
whatever next I hear you say!

Polymer Pamper Play 2012, a truly wonderful line up

I'm very very excited,check out 

www.polymerpamperplay.co.uk

 for lots more info

Polymer Pamper Play II             16 - 18 March 2012

Cotswolds Conference Centre
Broadway, United Kingdom

After the successful 2011 Polymer Pamper Play event, we are excited to launch Polymer Pamper Play II at the Cotswolds Conference Centre an award-winning venue perfectly situated on the Farncombe Estate, just outside the picturesque village of Broadway a beautiful backdrop to our Polymer Pamper Play weekend.  Organised by Debbie Carlton and Rebecca Thickbroom, both polymer clay enthusiasts and members of the London Polymer Clay Group and International Polymer Clay Association.

Bringing together old hands and newbies, to learn, to play and be pampered in a picturesque and relaxing environment. A perfect combination!

The 2012 programme has been extended and we have an eclectic mix of workshops and activities suitable for all.  Heading the programme are three internationally recognised artists teaching for the first time in the UK, Spain’s Ana Belchi, Austria’s Eva Ehmeier and Scotland’s Melanie Muir.

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Ana Belchi - Bento Series              

Eva Ehmeier - Artichoke Ball Pendants       




    

Creative food sculptures

Because i love food and because I love sculpture check out the link . http://www.wackyarchives.com/offbeat/creative-food-sculptures.html

happy weekend tout le monde

The Conference begins... fanfare of trumpets

So much information packed into such a short time frame- where to begin? Actually with a massive thanks to the organisers of the conference, Jackie Truty, Katie Baum and their team. I can't even begin to image the amount of time and effort that went into producing such a well run event! Well done guys.


There was an incredible choice of presentations on offer, and I attended 10 of them. I've picked out some of the highlights for me. Sorry not many photos to show as it was mostly talking heads and sitting heads ( and in some cases sleepy heads!) 

Julia Rai and others wearing silly hats in Jeanette Le Blanc presentation about writing and how to article  

Hattie Sanderson's 'Easy Button' metal clay tips and tricks was great ( nothing to do with buttons btw) She spend an hour whizzing through a whole range of great ideas and I'm sure she wont mind me sharing some of them with you

• rest hand and wrists on a rolled up towel for stability and to relieve stress 
• use a lidded Tupperware box with 1/2 inch water in the bottom to keep syringes in.
• use coated card stock for cutters for longer slabs of clay ( instead of tissue blade) 
• use coloured plastic sheets ( cut from file dividers) as work surfaces, clay doesn't stick and also can be used as surfaces to reconstitute clay on
• use polymer clay to make drill bit handles
• to get rid of cracks and wrinkles when rolling out metal clay, roll clay onto a low relief brass texture plate. flip clay over to make sure both sides are wrinkle free
• polymer clay donut to create a gem bezel setting.- Roll donut of PC. Make a pilot hole. Press gemstone into PC so the table is level with surface. Poke stone out from underneath. Place donut onto mat and centre. Roll out MC, texture and cut out. Make pilot hole in clay sheet smaller than the gemstone. Centre metal clay sheet over the polymer clay and press stone in. Dry , sand etc. set into hollow from.

There were lots more but check out her website www.hattiesanderson.com

some of her amazing work below

The IPCA polymer clay retreat- Stepping into another world.

I imagine walking into the polymer clay retreat room in Chicago is a bit like walking through the wardrobe into Narnia. A large, pretty boring conference room set out with long tables and chairs was transformed by about 60 -70 polymer clay enthusiasts into another world. 

People had set up their own little worlds equipped with more tools and kit and samples of polymer clay than you could shake a stick at. Shelves had been built to accommodate yet more samples of things to buy, and elaborate work surfaces constructed full of more things in the process of being made made. One side of the room had banks of toaster ovens manned virtually round the clock and the other side of the room was table after table of amazing raffle prizes to be won.

Throughout the day there were planned and impromptu demos from the big hitters of the polymer clay world as well as others willing to share their latest tips, tricks and techniques. It was , of course, all being filmed!

Delegates from the Art Clay Conference ( we were sharing meal times in the conference venue) were walking round the room with eyes on stalks and mouths open, it was indeed a sight to behold!

Ponsawan's ring tray

Jill Palumbo

Debbie Jackson

Maureen Carlson and Barbara Forbes Lyon

Polymer and metal clay heaven by way of Chicago!

I've been back a week- although it feels like a month.- from my trip to the Metal Clay World Conference in Chicago. It was a whirlwind event starting early in the morning and ending late at night altho' admittedly that was in the bar. 

The venue was perfect for the job, a large hotel about 1 hour outside Chicago with all the facilities you needed ( and didn't need ie swimming pools, golf courses etc) Unfortunately I didn't get to see anything of Chicago which was a real shame but hey - next time.


So what did I do? Well, to start with I did Bettina Welker's Hinged bracelet pre-conference class.www.beadworx.de  I've long admired her work and especially these beauties. It was an illuminating day, she's a good teacher and we just about got thro it. My efforts were a bit wonkey to say the least as being precise and accurate is NOT my forte. However great learning and good fun.


One of the best things was the texture, a sponge like material used as a filter in aquariums! and then using oil paint to patinate the baked piece.

One of the absolutely best things for me was the fact that the polymer clay retreat was held at the same time in the same place. I got to meet all my polymer and metal clay friends and see what everyone was up to.... and on that note.... next episode tomorrow!