Clay Fest 2011 highlights: the sculpting contest

March 03, 2011

Clay Fest 2011 highlights: the sculpting contest

I know I look like an idiot in this photo. That's because I am about to say goodbye to Christi Friesen's artwork. Christi generously sent us this framed set to be given away at Clay Fest 2011.

I received it in the mail middle of February, along with my order for her tools and new book Woodland Creatures. (Tools and books now available at the shop! I am the first outside the U.S. to carry Book 7, so cool!)

I fought back tears when I opened the package. I didn't know she was giving us something so grand! A couple of years ago, I took her online class Beautiful Bouquet art necklace. So to actually see the necklace in person was such an honor!

The framed artwork sat in my studio for a couple of weeks, before being brought to the store for the Clay Fest, where people wanted to take a photo of themselves holding the frame! Teehee!

(Rocky, Anna, and Karl posing with CF's work)

In the evening of February 25, we held a sculpting competition at the Clay Fest activity area. Up for grabs were a set of Craft Time magazines for the consolation prize, my Sparklers for 2nd place, and of course CF's artwork for the grand prize. The fun part about the sculpting competition was the element of surprise - participants only found out what the challenge was at the start of the contest. It was the polymer clay version of Top Chef! The challenge: cover and decorate tiny round boxes with polymer clay in 3 1/2 hours.

Four brave souls joined the contest: Jessica, Donna, Karl, and Eliezl. Each person was given the same amount and color of clay (50g red, blue, yellow, white, and brown), and were allowed to use only 4 tools (clay blade, craft knife, acrylic roller, and paint brush). They were provided a pasta machine and Sparklers to share.

It was such a fun contest! People were cheering (some were playfully trash talking, lol) and hovering over the contestants' shoulders. Talk about pressure!

At the end of the night, this is what they came up with:

The following day, Joyce, Rocky, Jen, and I huddled together to pick the winners. The criteria: Creativity, Technique, Originality, and Overall Impact. It was a close fight!

And the winner: Donna Cruz!

In such a short time, she was able to create her own colors out of the primaries provided, did a Skinner blend, used the end of the brush to create texture, and even did caning!

Eliezl Panlilio came in second place, with her pretty summer-themed box. She did caning and a sort-of pointillism technique, slicing tiny dots of clay from snakes she rolled out.

Clay Fest was such a fun and exciting event! It was made even more special because of Christi's generosity. Thank you Christi. I will always be a fan! I tell you, it was so hard to let go, as seen in this photo of me playing tug-of-war with Donna. Lol.