Melanie West skidded into town from Maine last week to teach a class for the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild.
Melanie looks amused as she shows how to use Ultra Soft Sculpey to make big forms, which are baked, carved, laminated with canes, trimmed, baked, carved, sanded- it’s a labor intensive process and definitely not for the “make-n-take” crowd.
But here is the result of Melanie’s labor- her bangles are light, sturdy, colorful and as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
Here is Melanie wearing one of her big bead necklaces while Ellen Marshall is deciding which of Melanie’s pieces to add to her own collection. (Hint: See the first picture).
And here are my efforts to take Melanie’s process and add my twist to it.   While I like the basic shapes, the lamination experiments are not so good.
But I am interested in pursuing the carving aspect and seeing where I can take it.
If you would like to see some prime examples of Melanie’s work that include her recent foray into vessels, go to her website here.
Ornamento 