The Friesen Project is an opportunity for you (no matter where you are) to spend 52 weeks getting to play with clay and learn some of the basics of the Christi Friesen design and style elements. Here’s what you can expect over the course of the next year with Christi & myself.
How It Works – The Friesen Project Overview:
Over the course of the next year, you and I (along with the help of the awesome Christi Friesen) will be taking a journey through the published works of the polymer clay artist herself. Christi’s books have sold hundreds of copies all over the world and are in the hands of beginning to advanced clay artists. Perhaps you’re one of those who has her books sitting on your shelf and you have never taken the time to make any of the things in them. .
The first Friday of every month I am going to do a book review for the book that we will be working through together during that month. This will happen every time we crack the spine of one of Christi’s fabulous new books. Sometime during that week, you will need to get a copy of that book and have it delivered to your home if you don’t have it already. Because of copyright infringement, I can not post her detailed instructions contained in the book on my blog, but I can post the photographs of the steps I took to make my creatures, even when they deviate slightly from Christi’s instructions.
The following week of the month (week 2) while your book is arriving or being read and reviewed by you, I will showcase your project for that week on Friesen Fridays. It will use a project from the current book we are working on and I will showcase my process and my finished piece. Sometime before the following Friday, you need to get into your studio and do your project for the week. The process continues for each and every week … until it’s time to start the next book.
So, all in all during the course of the next year, you will read 10 book reviews and have 40 or more projects as our time together allows. This also means that YOU will be reading all 10 of Christi’s books and doing 40 of her projects yourself in your studio at home. Sounds like fun right? It will be!
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FAQs:
What if I forget to come to your blog to get my project? Not a problem! In fact, that’s no worry at all. They will be waiting here whenever you remember to return. In our free email we will occasionally have a “remember when” and highlight something from the project which will trigger your memory to come back.
Are you trying to sell something? Yes and no. There are links within the posts to new tutorials, projects, or other material Christi or I have released or new things related to what either or us Christi are doing as well. Please understand that both Christi & I are full time artists, so we do “showcase our stuff” from time to time. However, the project as presented here on the blog is FREE. Please remember by buying tools and materials from Christi you are helping to support her as an artist. By buying tutorials from me, you are helping to support me as an artist. You do NOT have to buy anything to participate in this project.
Does Christi Friesen know about this? Yes she does (insert appropriate chants, clapping, dancing, and any other celebratory gesture here). Christi Friesen helped in the concept of the original 2013 Project and continues to support it’s regular continuance here at KatersAcres.
What About Copyright & Selling My Pieces? Another great question, thank you for asking! I will not be detailing Christi’s process in any way. This is largely a self-guided series where we will come alongside each other and create using Christi’s style. This being said, Christi asks in all of her books that when something has been made using her tutorials or style, that she maintains credit for the style. For example, placing “Gideon, inspired by Christi Friesen” is 100% appropriate. Likewise “Gideon, inspired by Christi Friesen for the 2013 The Friesen Project” are also acceptable. As in all forms of art, please give credit where credit is due. The polymer clay community is one of the most sharing artistic communities out there, let’s not ruin that by tramping on each others toes. Okay? Okay.
Which of Christi’s books will I need? You will need to purchase Books 1-7 in her CF Sculpture Series, Flourish: Flora, Steampunkery, & Polymer Clay and Mixed Media Together at Last (available on Kindle). All of these books can be purchased on Amazon (which also come direct from Christi). Or these books are available direct from her website.
Are you getting paid to do this? I am not affiliated with Christi Friesen or compensated by her in any way for this project. I am simply a polymer clay artist who loves and adores playing with clay. I also find Christi’s unique & highly identifiable style refreshing, fun, & relaxing. Yes, I adore Christi and consider her a polymer clay mentor and friend; I am not paid or affiliated with her in any way.
How Much Will This Cost Me? There is no charge from me to participate in this year long endeavor. (Cheering is appropriate here please!!) However, in order to do the projects, you will have to purchase the CF Sculpture Series Books, the Steampunkery book, Polymer Clay & Mixed Media book, & Flourish book. In total the cost is less than approximately $120.00 for the books only if you buy them all right now. Please remember that I am doing ONE BOOK a month, so you can order them one at a time in order to spread your payments out. You will also need to purchase polymer clay which varies from $1 a block to $4 a block. With the exception of a few projects, each project will use approximately 1/2 – 1 full block of clay. You can use all different colors for your pieces if you choose, or each piece can be made with one solid color. You will also need a tube a acrylic paint that we will be using to antique the projects. You will also need beads of various sizes, though this element is optional as each piece can be completed without it. Your cost per month (approximated) is around $22 per month for the book & 4 bars of clay for the first seven months. After this the cost increases slightly to around $30 per month as the cost of the books increase.
Please remember that not only is Christi Friesen talented, but there is a wealth of information in her books that you will use for years to come! Your talent, skills, & building your polymer clay library are well worth this investment.
The Friesen Project
The Friesen Project is done in conjunction with Christi Friesen. All tutorials are retaught here with her expressed permission. Please make sure to read about the project here, and get answers to the most common FAQS here. If you would like to join the project, feel free to sign up here.
Sculpt Your Dreams,
love your blog. just got school ove & had surgery today @can not wait to get started! wonderful! Wonderful!
Im so excited to start creating. I have all her books. Was my only Christmas wish for 2011 and my hubby got them for me and Swellegant as a surprise. I have flourish on the way and I love the books. I have created some things and this is going to be soooo fun. 🙂 .. I did want to know if its ok if we blog about our creations on our own blog and then paste the links to this blog and group? Do you have a badge that we could add to our blogs. Sort of like a blog hop to get alot more publicity for everyone? I think it would be alot of fun to do that. I will be sure to ask everyone if they mind me sharing their photos that they post on pinterst of their creations. I have alot of clay followers on my blog and maybe if they see how fun it is they will come join in the rest of the year. Im really happy to be part of such a fun group. Thanks so much Katie for donating the time to all of us and such a fun project. Great idea. Hugs to all and lets have a fun and creative claying 2013 together.
Hey Kim. What an AWESOME Christmas present! Your hubby is awesome. I will create a badge and put it here on the page for Friday’s first Book Review. Thanks for the idea, I hadn’t thought of that one! PS: I’m one of those who follows your blog.
This is so generous of you! And I am sure you will learn more than you ever thought about. If folks do nothing more than follow along on the blog they will be inspired anew. Best of luck.
This sounds really cool. A nice stretching of the creative muscles. I actually heard about it from Christi’s Swellegant page. I have been several of her workshops and she is so great to work with, she is a big influence on my work too. I can’t wait to start
This is fantastic. FB isn’t the nicest place in the world (you CAN block those games, you know!) but I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to be on there, however Pinterst is the BOMB, lol. Check it out, you’ll love it.
I love that this is free. I have 4 of Christi’s books and would love to get ahold of Birds of a Feather but there’s no way I can pay THAT much for it! Other than that one, I have the ones that I want right now.
Since it’s free, I’m guessing we don’t have to participate in every project? I’m already looking forward to the first Friday!
Yep – You do not have to participate in every project. Sign up for the email list so you can see what the project is every week. It will have direct links to the tutorials in it.
I understand a person’s reluctance to go to FB….I don’t have time to monitor it, with a job, etc….BUT I do have/make time for Christi Friesen’s books and I find that what I’ve learned from Christi has certainly influenced my “style” in clay. Every thime I’ve met her (twice now) she’s given us new tips, new ways of enhancing what we do! She is what I want to be when I “grow up” – to be outstanding and wonderfully inspired, with this medium! Rah…Go Christi! And thank you, Katie, for the “push” I need to stop my schedule & just go CLAY!
Sue – I’m with you … I very rarely go to fb -it’s a trial of my patience to attempt to log on – it changed and deleted what I did have on fb – I may be missing a lot but I sure don’t miss all those crazy gaming things – I don’t even know what pinterest is and have never been there. All this being said, I think this year with Christi is a fab idea – just the nudge some of us need to go beyond reading her fantastic books to actually putting our hands into the clay and creating. Thanks, Katie!
Sue, Christi has put out a couple of emails on the Flourish book, the last November 22. It came from “orders@cforiginals.com” and I would expect one would have been sent to you as well. Anyway here is her last update on what is happeing:
“I had expected that the new “Flourish” book would be printed and ready to ship at the beginning of December, so that most of you would have it in time for the holidays. But I didn’t want to rush the book and have a less-awesome volume, so I took the extra time to get it just how I wanted it. So, it will ship out in January. I’m really sorry.”
Hope that helps a bit for you.
Ted
This is great for people who don’t have a problem with facebook – I do. I will NOT use fb at all. Also what about people living outside the US. Postage is not just a dro in the bucket. Sometimes we wait for over a month for stuff to arrive from the US. The fact that I have all of Christi’s books so far is beside the point except for Flourish which I pre ordered earlier in the year and have heard absolutely nothing about since. I was cyber bullied on fb many years ago and am one of the few now who have very little contact with what Christi is doing now as the only site I visit is her Yahoo group site and there is virtually no activity there any more.
Hi Sue! Thank you for your concerns. You do not HAVE to use FaceBook to participate in this project. The Friesen Project takes place solely on this blog. Communication with those participating will take place on FaceBook as it is a more accessible venue for most. Christi’s books have been out long enough that most people already have them or can borrow them from a fellow guild member. Christi is still a very present part of the polymer clay community and very active teaching polymer clay around the world. This is a free project that I am hosting, you do not have to participate if you do not want to. It’s simply a way to help guide those of us who need a “push” to accomplish something, a way to expose ourselves to new techniques, ideas, & mediums. If you already have the books, this may be fun for you too!