Join my classes on CFCF Conference | Feb 2013, Maryland USA

One of my favorite ways to kick start my creativity is by meeting people. 

There’s nothing like the power and support of a group and fellow artists to enhance creativity, tips sharing, revealing new secrets and brain storming about polymer clay crafting.

Cabin Fever Clay Festival 2013 will be our special opportunity to meet.

I'm coming all the way from Israel to Maryland, on February 2013 to teach 2 special classes and share my knowledge with you.
I would love to meet you there!
We may have a chance to share a cup of coffee!

What is "Cabin Fever Clay Festival"?
Cabin Fever Clay Festival (in short, CFCF) is the most comprehensive hands on conference for polymer clay in the US east coast, takes place annually in Laurel, MD.
This is it's 6th year and the conference is one of the biggest seen!

CFCF 2013 will take place on Feb 15th - PreConference workshops and Feb 17th-20th Main Conference - This event hosts a great selection of polymer clay artists offering intriguing classes in many fields.

Following by the increasing demand for unique hands on technique classes, I am exited to offer CFCF students a fresh breeze of workshops with new, original, popular and exciting projects & designs - The Skyscraper Technique in a 8 hours master-class and The Brocade Hemisphere Purses in a 4 hours class.

These leading projects were featured at Staedtler's FIMO "CreativeWorld" trade show in Germany; on "ThePolymerArts" magazine cover and on various books and websites, based on my top sellers tutorials and brought especially to you for CFCF.

My workshops on CFCF 2013 will feature learning and implementation, knowledge and creation of a final product - Brocade Hemisphere purse, Skyscraper pendants and DiscChic earrings, a real treat and an amazing project to brag about once you return home!

So - Clean up your pasta machine, sharp your blades and get ready for 5 amazing days of learning, improving, enhancing, refining and elevating your polymer skills! 

In my classes, each student will receive a special BONUS CD as handsouts portraying these techniques, including PDF files and videos to watch again any time in the future.

So, what will you get when you come to CFCF 2013?
You'll ask your questions, directly;
You'll learn all the little (and big) secrets & details to create a professional piece;
You'll enhance your techniques & abilities;
You'll go through all the steps in a super detailed process;
You'll experiment with new materials you haven't used before;
You'll create mixed media designs;
You'll review alternative variations for each design;
You'll finish your workshop with a finalized project;
AND you'll be able to brag to your friends when you return home!

Enroll now!
Give yourself a gift of creativity, boost your polymer clay skills with innovative techniques to create endless variations, meet new friends and colleagues, discuss polymer clay 24/7 -

Join CFCF conference by clicking the following link -
http://polymerclayfests.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/cfcf-2013-planning-for-another-year-of-talent-and-fun/

Places are limited and filling up quickly!

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My classes schedule on CFCF 2013

On Sunday, Feb 17th 8:00AM
Pre-conference 8 hour class - The Skyscraper technique and Flakes Technique;
Students will create a Skyscraper pendant and use my popular DiscChic blanks to create an earring set.


On Monday Feb 18th 1:00PM
or
On Wednesday Feb 20th 8:00AM
Conference 4 hour class - The Brocade Hemisphere purses;
Students will create a Brocade Hemisphere purse from start to finish.

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All the details, registration forms, classes description and general information can be found at the event website - http://polymerclayfests.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/cfcf-2013-planning-for-another-year-of-talent-and-fun/
You can join the blog mailing list to be informed of our special announcements, gifts and prizes for the attendees.

Feel free to email me with any question, thought or comment to imishly{at}gmail.com

Hope to see you there!
Iris :)

Where to shop for polymer clay accessories when in NYC?

Time to summarize some of the good shopping spots you can find in NYC and the West coast.These stores are wonderful mixed materials stores, carrying all kind of materials, tools, equipment of all kinds starting from cake decorating, beading, sewing, kitchen-ware and findings.

Here are places I love to go back to when I am visiting Manhattan and they are my personal preference of shopping :)

The first store, already mentioned in my blog several times is Metalliferous NYC, this store is a full-service supplier of metal, tools, and supplies to jewelers, craftist, hobbyists, metal workers, sculptors, and everyone interested in metal working and jewelry. If you are into silver findings you'll find anything there. You can also download their PDF catalogs and order online.The store is located on the 34 West 46th Street (next to the hotel I was staying at)

The 2nd place I love to visit is NY Cake store located at 56 West 22nd Street Between 5th & 6th Avenues.This store paradise, I can spend a day in there, checking closely every detail. They carry all the supplies you can think about for cake decorators and some of their tools, molds, cutters etc fits the polymer clay world as well. You can join their mailing list and get special announcements on special sales to your email and order online.

Blick Art Materials is also a paradise for any artist. Paints, chalks, pastels, pens, colored pencils, acrylics, glues, brushes, books and so much more! if it wasn't for the overweight (not mine! the suitcases! ;) I would buy so many things there! Located inside Bond st. in a great looking building.

A stroll along the 6th avenue is always a good idea when you are looking for beads, findings, jewelry parts and sewing materials.

M&J Trimming is another heaven. As a former fashion designer I was amazed when I first saw this store! Sawarovski rhinestones, buttons, ribbons, braids, beaded fringe, trim, jacquards, tassels, and embroideries - is this real?

Located in 1008 sixth Avenue (between 37th and 38th) this store has many items you can use with polymer clay - laces, appliques and fabric as textures, addition to your jewelry and designs, mix media findings and many more.

Another store I love to visit and not because it's any different then the others, but their service is always with a big smile :) It's a small finding shop selling silver and gold findings, gemstones, tools and jewelry supplies called BeadKraft located on Broadway 30th st.

Don't forget Staples and Wallmart which is a great resource for Bic and Papermate pens for polymer covering and for stickers, I love to stamp my own "thank you" stickers.

Did I mention Barnes and Noble for us "non USA" people who just die to have a 3 stories store full of books? a half floor just for art and crafts!

And last one is "Sur La Table" in the Los Angeles Farmers Market - a kitchen supplies store with lot's of goodies - 1$ cookie cutters! :)

So, dear shoppers, when you have the chance to pamper yourself with some "toys for the soul" - these are the places you may want to visit!

Until next time (in US) - Clay away!

California Traveling

While sitting for the laundry and dryer finishing their work I am finding some time to tell about my trip, of course in relation to polymer clay as well.

After 16 hours of flight we landed in Los Angeles and had great 3 days (2 of them in "6 flags" park & Universal Studios), needless to say that I am not a roller coaster person so mostly I was enjoying the smiling sun beams and helping the gang with the endless backpack bags (15 to be exact). One of these 3 days was devoted to seeing some of the tourist attractions, the Hollywood sign, stars avenue and the Beverly hills celebrities homes (are they really their homes? ;))

Then, moving on the our next stop - San Francisco we drove through a small town called Cambria and I took a walk along the street when suddenly I saw a familiar sight looking at me through a store window - a big turtle sculpture made by no other then Jon Anderson.

When I walked into the gallery I found lots of Anderson's creations, small and big animals wearing beautiful millefiori canes and looking shiny and elegant.

After telling the show owner I am a polymer clay artist myself she asked me if I want to see them in close and I gladly agreed. I have to say that they are as wonderful as they appear online. All those details, perfection - amazing.

Another polymer clay artist was featuring her work in the same gallery, a local artist called Jolene Chaves which is working mostly with polymer clay as a mosaic medium and combine stamping and texturing to create a framed piece. I couldn't find any details on her on google, but according to the gallery info she is a California native and has been creative in many diverse fields from photography to fabric art. The assembly of her pieces into her final collages is adhered, antiqued, glazed, coated and framed.

What a great polymer surprise!

My family and travel companions were delighted to see quality polymer clay work by these 2 outstanding artists!

Everything is going great and after visiting Alcatraz today we are moving on tomorrow to the Yosemite park and from there to Las Vegas, NYC and home. Still lots to see & buy! :)

Have a good night everyone, I am off to fold the laundry and get some sleep...

In memory...

It was a year before 9/11 that I stood on the highest floor of the world trade center, looking at the breathtaking view of NYC. That was my first visit in the US with DH, touring the wonderful east coast for 16 days.

A year after that, while I was on a train, getting back from work, I got a call from my mother asking me if I heard. I didn't know anything since I was on the train, and she told me.

I couldn't believe it. Impossible to believe.

In our last visit, 3 years ago, we went to see the area and saw the big sphere, all squashed.

Today, my thoughts are with all of the families that lost their loved ones 10 years ago .

I wish for a better, peaceful and safer world to all of us.

Image by Brian Nieman and adopted by the Library of Congress for their 9/11/01 exhibition.

4th of July Winners!

Thank you everyone for commenting on my blog post with such interesting stories, attractions and memories! it was fascinating to read about your hometown, those beautiful landscapes or memories from 4th of july holidays. I felt like i am touring the world: UK, Spain, Finland, Italy and of course USA!

Thank you so much for sharing this with me :)

So... here are the winners of the raffle, as always i am using the fruit machine name picker (so i feel like i am in vegas :))

1st keychain goes to - B-LEE KREATIONS

2nd keychain goes to - Angela Murtagh

and USA flag cane - rosemaryschild

Winners please email me your home address so i can send you the gifts!

my email is imishly@gmail.com

thank you and i hope you had a great 4th!

NYC was great! now headed to Chicago

This past week was so great!

Dh and I took a short vacation to visit US, few days in New york city and now we are on our way to chicago for a week.

It seems like i just been here few weeks ago, always a pleasure to come back to this city and even more fun to see places i remember :)

With some of you guys recommendations i went to check http://www.metalliferous.com/ which was like getting into heaven! this store is the place i want to live in! i spent about 1.5 hours in there (i think, if not more), thank you so much my facebook friends who told me to visit there :)

Cafe Wha was also a great night, and shopping, shopping and more shopping!

I will be posting some links soon, didn't forget you guys :)

take care!

Adventures in America

where am I? I am in far America since 4th of july, having great time with my family and missing my polymer clay, of course, but after seeing polymer clay express store in maryland and meeting Rob and Wilma again (i did met them in CFCF and in Synergy few months ago) i feel energized again and hope to clay soon! seeing Michaels stores and all other craft made me so thrilled! i am having so much fun...

take care every one and see you all soon with new items, new links and new experiences!

After 3 Days in NYC, I'm heading to CFCF

Oh, those were heavenly 3 days in New-York City, although my NY flight was canceled due to the weather i did arrived one day late and after 8 years since my last visit, i enjoyed my return and visited all the places i wanted to, i must mention that every muscle in my body ackes from all the walking i did but that's nothing few days of claying won't heal...

Soooo, what have i done...I've been Downtown bought some goodies in Canal street, been in PEARL Paint but they almost had NO polymer clay! visited "Bodies" exhibition, walked all the way from there to 48th street, shopped for costumes for Purim in NewYork Costumes amazing store, wish we had one of those in Israel...made some shopping for the kids in the big ToysRUs store in Times Square, The beautiful Apple store, Central Park, Union Sqaure, F.A.O Shwartz unique toys store, Macy's, H&M and so many more i can't even remember...

I'm ready to go back to my working table and learn from all the talented artists and teachers in CFCF and Synergy. My flight leaves in few hours to Baltimore.

More to Come!