My Mirror from Christi Friesen's Class
Day three at Orlando Clay Fandango puts Christi Friesen at the teachers desk. By this time my class had our heads full of color blends and sheeting and slicing and drilling and we are ready for Christi. And she is ready for us.
We get straight to the fun part, playin’ and smoshin’ and pinchin’ the clay. We all become clay warriors, fighting with nothing by our fingers and our sense of design.
I think most of us in my classroom planned it this way..Sarah first, so we would be mentally fresh to understand the complexities for her techniques, Julie, because we still needed the edge to comprehend her methods and then..tada…Christi, freedom from perfectly placed and constructed clay.
by this time we are crazy funny, all of us, with Christi putting us over the top. To describe her sculpting techniques she uses technical words like, “wiggly scribbly stuff, mossy bits and funky stack-up and bead plant thingys.” Thingys being a favorite word of mine for a very long time and I am proud to say I use it often.
But don’t think that this was not a serious class with serious stuff to learn, oh no…. many of my fellow classmates worked until almost 11:00pm, not because it was hard..oh no..but because they were having such a great time creating Friesen-like masterpieces. And trust me, some of them were more than fabulous.
Me? I was following the instructors around trying to gather them up for a video. Actually it took me two days to do it. “Yeah Alice, right after supper.” “In ten minutes Alice.” “After my demo, I promise.” “I just have to finish showing everyone how to make this mouse. Alice, geez….”Okay, here we are, where do you want us?” “Your extention cord doesn’t work, Alice are you kidding?”
What a great group, seriously, it wasn’t about them, it was about making sure their students were taken care of first. Ya’ gotta admire that. Thanks ladies, it was worth it.
Oh yeah, Christi, if you want to laugh, this is the instructor, if you want to unleash your inner, playful, creative soul, this is the instructor. If you have a chance to take a class with Christi, don’t hesitate, you’ll have a blast.
Visit Christi’s website for more information, to buy her products and to see if she’s coming to a location near you!
Your mirror is a totally different colour than everything else you did – more toned down. It reminds me of walking along a tidal pool and looking in. You can see the weeds waving a little starfish and clams and stuff.
Very well done. Christi sounds like a fabulous teacher along with all the rest.
You already know how jealous I am!
I know..crazy isn’t it? It was fun. The instructors were all fun. Plan on next year Aimee…..
Alice,
Love the way your mirror turned out and yes, Christi is always a hit wherever she goes! She has the sense of humor that keeps everyone at ease and her “technical terms” are of great use to those of us that use the same ones.
She even took the time to show Tanya, and Nita how to make their first heart and a peek-a-boo mouse. (Which my daughter is going to demo to me!) They became so excited that they actually are joining the guild! (And here I’ve tried to get them interested for how long??)
Keep up the great blogs Alice. You’re doing wonderful.
Thanks and Hugs,
Crazy Nancy
Well it’s your fault I’m driving everyone crazy with this Fandango review, Crazy Nancy, president of OAPCG. You and the rest of the guild puts on such a great retreat. I still have a couple more days with Maureen and Barbara and then I’ll have to stop until next year.
Tell Tanya and Nita that they will be so happy they gave in a started playing with clay.
Thanks for taking the time to say hello.
Well, if this doesn’t get new people excited about our Fandango, I don’t know what will. Tanya is on the ball already and Nita had a wedding to attend, but she’s down for April meeting. We also have a meet-up group on-line:
http://www.meetup.com/The-Orlando-Polymer-Clay-Meetup-Group/
so all can check what we are up to.
Thanks again for all you do, you are certainly appreciated!
Hugs,
CN
Not a problem, Nancy….I’m having a great time reliving it here on the blog. I think there are many out there who haven’t ever been to a retreat and have been interested in hearing more about one. Sometimes pictures are worth a 1000 words and then again sometimes you just have to talk about it. I like to do both.
Thank for the link