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ME SECOND PMC DOLL

I completed my second pmc doll...and now I have thoughts about three more.

MY PMC CLASS IS OVER...BUT NOT MY LOVE FOR PMC

Last week was the end of my pmc class. There's talk of forming a local pmc guild and I'm very interested. I love this very  incredibly expensive, but worth it, silver.

Here is some of the work I've done these past 12 weeks.

I made some hearts

We made some of our own texture plates. I love using texture with my pmc and made these disks.

...and textured pendants.

I learned how to make box beads...

I made a batch of pmc/faux bone (out of polymer) tube beads.

And, I made an assortment of "godess" pendants

And the, I decided I wanted to make a pmc doll. Her name is Lilleth and she's almost 7 inches long. (She's also the most expensive doll I've ever made.) Her head is from a face mold and has ribboned pmc strips in the back. Her shoulder is made from one of my pmc/faux bone tube beads. Her torso is a heart shaped box bead. Her hips are a silver tube bead. Her arms and legs are textured silver ribbons that I twisted around a straw before I put them in the kiln. Lilleth is almost 7 inches tall.

I loved making Lilleth so much, I have started another doll. So far, all I've made is the head (a spere pin made out of textured silver ribbons) and the torso (a box bead made from one of my favorite texture pates).

SOME OF MY PMC SILVER WORK

I am taking a 12 week pmc class at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. It's proving to be very interesting. I'm learning some new techniques (made my first hinge and a box bead this week). It's also proving to be somewhat humbling. The other students all seem to know each other and be on the same wave length; they make very nicely finished, tidy pieces. Some sell their jewelry and use class time to make things for customers. They walk around during class and admire each others' work. Frankly, when they look at my pieces, they smile encouragingly (they are nice people) and walk on. No one seems to know what to say. My pieces are definitely different (I don't do tidy and I like rough finishes). I sort of feel like I'm swimming upstream while everyone else is swimming downstream. It's disconcerting (sometimes discouraging). But, I like the things I'm making. I write this, not to air my insecurities (I have a long list and no one has that much tolerance for that long a blog entry), but because I think there are a lot of us who feel the same way about our art. We're not in the mainstream, but we keep going in our own direction because it's who we are.

I brought my pieces home to finish them up and then made a few extra pieces this week-end (I have the luxary of having my own kiln). I'm both rather pleased about them AND needing a little external affirmation about them. I plan on making some jewelry with these and using the rest as embellishments on collages and dolls.