Morrisburg 2008

Hi Everyone,

Haven't posted in a while - we had Morrisburg 2008 a couple of weeks ago, an annual gathering of clayers from Ontario and Quebec (and this year one from Nova Scotia). Thirty plus talented and wonderful ladies participated this year. We learned how to do hearts, wire wrapping, a never ending card, mica shift pendants, masks, free forms, chinese simulation canes, and a whole host of other things. Marg from Shades of Clay was generous enough to donate a package of the new Kato Clay to each of us. I haven't played with mine yet.

Here are some of the photos from the class. I had a couple of friends stop by and visit and they were astonished at the absolute chaos that happens when this many clayers get together in such a limited space.

We had were a cane and bead exchange table. The cane exchange table allows those of us to get rid of canes that we're done with and allows newer caners to see details in canes that they might not otherwise see.

We also had a Junk Table where people brought in stuff that might not be exactly clay related but could be used for clay or clay supplies that people don't use. Storage bottles, tins, textures, beads, paints and other tidbits got put on the table and scooped up. My favourite was a texture sheet made out of a shower curtain - I'll post photos of that later.

The Hawk and Gawk table offered items for sale or for show-off. Last year at Morrisburg we had a bead exchange that I got very keen on and ended up making a bracelet (the bracelet base was again, kindly donated last year by Marg from Shades of Clay) with. To my surprise someone from outside offered to buy it within an hour of it being put on the table. What a wonderful tribute to the talent of the clayers at the meeting (I didn't sell it, of course).

As one last exercise, we were each given a small photo of what appeared to be a random bit of something. We were told to duplicate the photo in size and colour as much as possible. On the last morning of the class we put the cards together to form the completed image. Here it is here.


It's meant to be a replica of Picasso's the Dream, which you can see here. This was a lot of fun. The final project became a gift to Christine, who unfortunately, suffered some cardiac distress while she was at Morrisburg and ended up in the hospital. It's now in her hobby room.

I'm always exhausted by the end of these things but incredibly grateful and honoured to be associated with so many wonderful women. I met a couple of new faces this year and saw a couple that I hadn't seen in a couple of years. The sense of community and sharing is amazing.

Last year at Morrisburg I completed just about every project - this year I didn't complete any though I do have plans to finish many of the projects. I did very much enjoy the learning process.

And, as always, thanks so much to Margi and Vio who organized the event - without them this wouldn't be near as much fun as it is.

Next up - my new favourite texture sheet.

And apologies to those that are on some sort of notification that my blog has changed. I kept finding typos after posting.