Challenge yourself to an entire year of creativity!
2022 is bring a lot of new, fun, exciting, and wonderful things to Kater’s Acres. It also means that there are a lot of changes too. One of those changes is the Polymer Clay Challenge that I have headed up for the Polymer Clay Community for over 6 years now. As of this year, I am no longer heading up the challenge. I have handed off the Challenge to the talented, friendly, and inspired clay artist Michele Hinchey.
Continue reading 2022 Polymer Clay Challenge
2020 was quite a year for many people. When the year kicked off, never did anyone think we would be thrust into a global Pandemic, let alone that it would rage on for the entirety of the year. For many, completing a challenge, or working toward a goal on a hobby was the last thing on their mind. This year, I hope that art would encourage, inspire, uplift, and bring peace and joy into your life. I’ve always said that your art (whether polymer clay or something else) should make you happy. If it doesn’t … then why are you doing it?
Continue reading 2021 Polymer Clay Challenge
Do you ever know you need to get something done and you just can’t motivate yourself to do it? Well that’s me with this lovely gallery. You see I asked all my #2020PCChallege group members on FaceBook to please make sure if they had a blog to get their posts done and live so we could follow each others work and announce our projects to the world. And … I hadn’t even written my own yet. *Sigh* Major fail on my part. How does life get so busy anyway? Before I go on and on about how busy life is and how full I can cram things into a day, let me remind you a little bit about the project.
Continue reading My Weekly 2020 Polymer Clay Challenge Results
The 2020 Polymer Clay Challenge will begin shortly, can you believe it? I can’t. I can’t believe that I’m about to close the books on 2019 and start an entirely new year once again! So it’s onward with this years new challenge that opens on January 1st, 2020! Last year’s 2019 Polymer Clay Challenge was a success for everyone who tried to complete the entire year. It was highlighted by the wonderful weekly posts of Cynthia Gougian [read one of them here]. We were so fortunate to have her and even more fortunate to have her return and write for us this year.
This past year more people were able to successfully able to complete all 52 weeks of the challenge. I am so proud of everyone who participated and was able to do this successfully. Again, for the second year in a row, I was not one of them that was able to complete the challenge. As I encourage EACH of those that participate every year, do not beat yourself up if you can not complete the entire year. Remember the goal of this project is that you continue to grow and that by the end of the year you find yourself being more creative, working harder toward your goals and most importantly seeing your work get better and better with each passing year.
The purpose of this project is to make sure that each polymer artist is pushing on and creating, growing in their creativity and their voice. As usual, I will attempt again in 2020 to complete the challenge. And if you didn’t get to complete it, barely got started, or just stumbled upon this post today. Now’s your chance to come and join us this upcoming year!
Continue reading 2020 Polymer Clay Challenge
Cynthia is one of this year’s administrator’s for the 2019 Polymer Clay Challenge. She is incredibly devoted to the group and for that we owe her a round of applause! [Please clap here] Every Monday she writes us an inspirational message to keep us inspired and creating throughout the week. It’s just one of her ways that she keeps all of us on task; yes, even me. Today I’m sharing one of the posts that she wrote near the end of September. I’ve chosen this one to share here today because I think we’re often way to hard on ourselves and we demand perfection from our projects and our processes. But we need to keep in mind that we must also at all times be learning something from our own polymer clay work. So without any further ado, I’d like to share a few thoughts for you from Cynthia’s own experiences in her clay room.
Continue reading Don’t Let Frustration Be The End of Your Creativity
The 2019 Polymer Clay Challenge will begin shortly on January 1st, 2019! Last year’s 2018 Polymer Clay Challenge was a success for everyone who tried to complete the entire year. Even more people were able to successfully able to complete all 52 weeks of the challenge! Unfortunately this year, I was not one of them that was able to complete the challenge. I was able to successfully complete 47 of the 52 weeks, which is 7 more than the previous year. So yay for me for completing more weeks than last year.
But … as I encourage EACH of those that participate, do not beat yourself up over this. Remember the goal of this project is that you continue to grow and that by the end of the year you find yourself being more creative, working harder toward your goals and most importantly seeing your work get better and better with each passing year. The purchase of this project is to make sure that each polymer artist is just to keep pushing on and creating. As usual, I will attempt again in 2019 to complete the challenge. And if you didn’t get to complete it, barely got started, or just stumbled upon this post today. Now’s your chance to come and join us!
For most of us, we are a Duality: Happy and sad. Sick and Well. Good and bad. Right and wrong. Rich and Poor.
For many of us there is one side that shows more than the other. Today we will see both of those sides, look at them, see what they show, what they mean … and even discover whether they can work together in your clay work, or not.
The 2017 Polymer Clay Challenge is here! Last year’s 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge was a great success. Many people were able to successfully able to complete all 52 weeks of the challenge. After 2 unplanned hospitalizations last year, totaling 29 days, I was unable to complete my challenge for the first time in 3 years. However, as usual, I will attempt again in 2017 to complete the challenge.
REGROUPING: Sometimes it’s hard to face the truth … I’ve known the truth for about 2 months now … but facing that truth has been a different story. So what “truth” am I talking about? I’m talking about satisfaction with polymer clay. Many of us can honestly say that we are satisfied with what we are doing with clay. Not all of us like or are drawn to the same aspects of claying. Some polymer clay artists prefer caning like Wendy Jorre de St Jorre, vessels like Donna Greenburg, quirky creatures like Lisa Renner, pods like Doreen Kassel, jewelry like Lisa Pavelka, that fun organic feel like Christi Friesen, or sculpting like me! But when your soul aches from a kind of lethargy (let’s call it like it is … boredom) … it’s time to move on.
Continue reading Regrouping for the 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge
If you participated this year and were successful, take a journey through your photos and see how you’ve progressed during the year. No matter what you did, your first designs at the beginning of the year will likely look different from the end of the year. You have grown, you have changed, and your design ideas likely went through a transformation too.
My 2015 polymer clay challenge was to create (at least) one polymer clay dragon & one new Parker a week. As you go back through my posts, you will see on many occasions where I was only able to complete a polymer clay dragon. Poor Parker. Each participant in the 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge was encouraged to make something they want and decide on their own theme for the year.
My 2015 polymer clay challenge was to create (at least) one polymer clay dragon & one new Parker a week. You can read my personal challenge here. Each participant is encouraged to challenge themselves to something they want to do. Let’s see what this week brought me…
My 2015 polymer clay challenge was to create (at least) one polymer clay dragon & one new Parker a week. You can read my personal challenge here. Each participant is encouraged to challenge themselves to something they want to do. Let’s see what this week brought me…
My 2015 polymer clay challenge was to create (at least) one polymer clay dragon & one new Parker a week. You can read my personal challenge here. Each participant is encouraged to challenge themselves to something they want to do. Let’s see what this week brought me…
My 2015 polymer clay challenge was to create (at least) one polymer clay dragon & one new Parker a week. You can read my personal challenge here. Each participant is encouraged to challenge themselves to something they want to do. Let’s see what this week brought me…
My 2015 polymer clay challenge was to create (at least) one polymer clay dragon & one new Parker a week. You can read my personal challenge here. Each participant is encouraged to challenge themselves to something they want to do. Let’s see what this week brought me…
