This square striped bangle from Carol Blackburn was just one of dozens of ideas and designs she presented in a small Santa Fe workshop this weekend. While Carol taught clever and deceptivly simple techniques she’s developed after years as a machine knitter, those techniques were only part of what was offered.
Tory Hughes then encouraged students to improvise and make Carol’s techniques their own. She guided students as they considered, “What do I want it to be?” and “How can I make this work with my style?”
Penina Meisels, photographer for the award-winning Terra Nova polymer book, tackled the process of photographing the created objects. She showed us how to arrange and light them to their best advantage. (These are my snapshots, not Penina’s beauty shots.)
This three-pronged approach packed a punch and may represent a new twist in polymer education which combines problem solving and development of personal style along with skills building.
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such a great idea! wonderful form, amazing color combination. totally in love with this piece!
Thanks Jursvi, I appreciate your comments.
“This three-pronged approach packed a punch and may represent a new twist in polymer education which combines problem solving and development of personal style along with skills building”
Finally! Great news!
Thanks, Eva and we’re doing another workshop in Santa Fe next weekend.
Congratulations Carol on being the star of PCDaily today! Enjoy the rest of your stay and see you soon, Nadege
Thanks Nadege. See you in March.
These bangles are stunning. Classes that empower students to discover and hone their voice are joyful. Playtime after Tory’s encouragement to improvise was the part of class where it would be a blast to explore the invisible thought-bubbles floating above everyone’s head as they explored, expanding their curiosity and creativity. Teachers can encourage it by offering some classes that focus on process rather than project and experimenting in class to model that the process of discovering what the clay can do for you is slower if you are measuring by output of finished pieces, but more productive in the long run when the aim is beautiful art and art to wear with the maker’s distinctive voice. AND you’re in magical Santa Fe! Enjoy!!!
Thanks Ronna and you’re right about magical Santa Fe!
What a lovely surprise, thank you so much Cynthia. Tory, Penina and I can’t wait to do the workshop again next weekend.
How fun Carol….you know I love stripes!!! Wish I was there in the Lovely Santa Fe setting with Lovey people.
It would be fun with you here, Meisha and we did lots of things with the stripes!
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