Art is You Day Two : Laurie Mika

 I had the pleasure of spending the second day at Art is You Petaluma taking a class with Laurie Mika, the brilliant polymer clay artist and instructor.

 This is a sample from the instructor that was our inspiration for the class.

Here was a second piece by Laurie.  So richly detailed.  How does she do it...?

 We started with 4 packages of clay, rolled out with a 10" piece of pvc pipe.  I mixed two blues together (they look really grey here - but they were blue!  Laurie had a plethora of rubber stamps and molds for us to use and play with.  This is just for the back - so it didn't need to be perfect.

 Next we used gold leaf, but not ordinary gold leaf - this was EASY gold leaf - and it was!  each sheet is backed with paper - so you can place it without it flying around and sticking to your fingers.

 We had templates to choose from for the size and shape of our triptych.

 This is how FREAKIN AWESOME the gold leaf looks after being stamped into with a plastic mold.  it cracks and looks all vein-y and vintage.

 I centered the template and cut it out with a straight edge and a scalpel for the curves.

 I trimmed away the excess and rolled it up again.  Sure  - the gold leaf will add flecks to the remnants - but so what?  they look really cool.

 I used all my scraps to make other shapes with stamps and molds.

 Then we added colour.  just a dab here and there using fingers.  to create a shimmery stained glass effect.

Here is my finished triptych with the central medallion and face.  We added gems and seed beads before baking.

 This was a second piece i made with some additional clay.  The lions were earrings.  The crown just cut from a stamp.  I just love the gold leaf crackle on the deep blue clay.

Here are some of the other students' work.  I asked Laurie if we were the best class she ever taught?  And she replied that we were the best Triptych class she ever taught, since it was her first time teaching it!  I think the results are pretty darn impressive.