Polymer Clay Daily

Snowbird polymer

Gail Garbe shows how she takes her studio on the road on PolymerClayDaily.com

Ontario’s Gail Garbe invites us into her studio on wheels in her latest Facebook post.

She pulls out bins and drawers explaining how she makes her studio portable. For those of us looking out our same windows at the same landscape day after day, Gail’s setup sounded magical and I imagined her on a beach or the desert.

Gail Garbe shows how she takes her studio on the road on PolymerClayDaily.com

So where is Gail working right now? “Haha!” she replied, “We’re in front of the fireplace! We aren’t able to cross the U.S. border and we’re locked down in our town.”

Her latest penguins and cold-looking polymer characters should have given me a clue. Ever resourceful she and her husband have parked the trailer on the northern shore of Lake Erie where they treat it like a studio/cottage from spring to fall. Keep dreaming!

Tools for the road

Gail Garbe's PROslicer offers portable precision on PolymerClayDaily

PCD usually avoids talking about products since new polymer tools have been known to raise heart rates and lead to marital discord. I’m breaking my own rule to suggest you look at the PRO Slicer that has just gone into production.

Ontario’s Gail Garbe and her engineer husband Manfred travel the country in their RV for a good portion of the year. Gail sells her Nifty Stuff at art fairs and other stops along the way. Size is always an issue when you’re working on the road so Gail was looking for something smaller than the coveted and now scarce Simmons slicer.

The new PRO slicer that her husband designed has a 4″x4″x4″ work area and weighs 5.6lbs. See it in action on YouTube. This instrument will cut polymer paper-thin. The $650 price tag reflects the cost of its precision parts. The first small run sold out quickly and a second batch is due in July. Here are the specifications.

Gail says that the downside of the project is that filling orders may keep the couple at home.

If the PRO slicer whets your appetite but doesn’t suit your needs, there’s a free I LOVE TOOLS online party coming up on Craftcast on May 23. Alison Lee loves tools…and parties. See what she’s dug up for her 13th tools show.