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Posted November 11, 2004, updated on 03/23/05, 02/12/08.
First of all
CITY-o-Clay
used to be named MSATClayArt, so where ever you see MSATClayArt on this site
change it in your head to
CITY-o-Clay.
Now what did you get yourselves into now? hmmmmm?
If you get overwhelmed with the amount of posts, averaging 1,500 per month, go to "No Mail" and read from the website.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CITY-o-Clay/messages
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/keep-up-or-not.htm
Ramble for brain massage on whether to keep up or not with the flow
of posts on a busy list. In short... relax.
Important links are on the list's home page
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CITY-o-Clay/ 1) FAQ for new clayers
NewToClay.htm
2) FAQ for miniaturists who are new to polymer clay
MiniClayFaq.htm
3) Link to the webcam "how to" retired.
4) Link to the Combo Tutes, gateway to 5 years of documenting my
journey in clay, the good, the bad and the salvageable.
http://www.norajean.com/Tute-List.htm
5) Last but not least the link to the page where you meet the rest
of the
CITY-o-Clay Team.
http://www.city-lists.com/city-o-clay/COCModSquad.htm
Now what would I want to know coming to a list for the first time?
One so chatty and busy and gosh. I'd want to know what happened in
at least the last year. Well I got just that for all y'all who are
new.
http://www.norajean.com/Highlights/Index.htm
You'd see the same things on the Tute List, but this gives a
chronological order to it.
For more chronology going back in a couple of years go to the
archived tutorial. A lot of old timers haven't scrolled down to the
bottom of that page to get a chronological view of these clay
adventures going back to 2001.
NoraJean.com/Biz-Archive/Tute-List
Earlier than that have been chased from Geocities, PhotoPoint and
Epson and are being rebuilt on my com site. What I'm resurrecting
are the basic moves like the bullseye cane.
http://www.norajean.com/Rebuild/GoldBlackBullsEye/Index.htm
and early mini experiments like candied apples
http://www.norajean.com/Food/1999-Apple.htm
The reason why I'm digging up these old clay experiments is to show
you a progression of one person's clay journey. If I figure
something out, make a technique Easy Breezier than what's usually
done, then I'll share it with you. That's my modus
operandi.
Show me something someone said was a secret technique and we'll make
effort to reverse engineer it. Make effort... not TRY. Transactional
Analysis and Yoda says, "There is not try. Only do or not do."
Now some might think, this is a lot of information all at once and
how's a person to deal with it all?
First you got to relax. You got an appointment with fame and
fortune? In a hurry? Allow yourself the innocent pleasure of just
opening up a pack of clay and squishing it like a child.
I got a ramble about how the Beginning is a Delicate Time,
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/Beginners-02.htm
How you are nurtured in the beginning of learning anything will
color your experience on that thing forever. We aim to spoil you,
love you, uplift and educate you. All you got to do is get out of
your own way. You got to love you. You got to respect the desire to
create. You got to stop judging process and instead delight in
discovery.
Traditional brain massage on this point and something you'll read
other ClayMates fessing up to is "Dropping the quarter in the jar".
Drop coin in the jar each time you doubt yourself.
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/QuarterJar.htm
Self diminishment is not allowed here. No one is a "dummy". We will
post "nownowtherethere" if you type such stuff. Sassy is the
attitude that's more appropriate to the artist.
I say artist. We learn the craft of clay as part of our duty to get
a grip on it. We take those skills and filter them through our own
values, sensibilities, dreams and fears, what comes out is art.
You've signed on to be encouraged to be an artist. Someone who when
their work is poo poo'd will turn and tell the critic "Hey, go get
your own hobby I'm having innocent fun here and what's the beef?"
Ok, another way to look on it... if you didn't make an appointment
with God before you were born to have a creative itch, then it was
given to you, right?
Creative energy is given to us. It's what cats and dogs don't have.
Wooly Mammoths didn't paint self portraits on the cave wall. Self
expression just for the fun of it, not necessarily for utility,
something that is symbolic of human urges and desires, is what makes
us human.
"Uses?! I don gotta chow you no stinkin' uses."
By studying faces for sculpting you can't help but be touched by
humanity's frailty. We study skulls for facial reconstruction for
sculpting, makes us pause staring at our own inevitable mortality.
But don't pause and dwell on that. Live life like you mean it. Say
what you need to say to put your handprint on the cave wall of time
with your art.
First learn the craft of it. That's where we come in. I help with
technique and brain massage. What you create is your own choice, not
your significant other, not your teacher, not your kids, not
the "market", but what you want.
We promote artistic selfishness in that. Your colors, your designs,
your themes, your mini scenes. Learn to delight your eye, polymer
clay will delight your hands. Choose subjects that mean something to
you. Then the work of learning the craft of a thing will be a labor
of love and not work.
http://www.norajean.com/New_Projects/Review-SculptWhatYouLove.htm
ok?
Good...
xoxo
NoraJean Stone ( formerly "Gatine")
aka Fearless Leader
Graduate of Whazzmmatta U.
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