Those of you who are familiar with this company, which has stores both in Portland and Eugene, Oregon, know that they provide not only a good line of equipment and supplies, but have a good educational program for those of us who are interested in learning new things. There are three classes on the schedule that may appeal to the doll maker.
The first class of interest is “Sculpting the Head with Jim Gion”. Jim is a professional sculptor, and brings all his incredible working knowledge to the classroom. You’ll work from a live model, learning how to measure it and create a life-sized clay bust from an actual person. You can immediately take these skills back to your studio to create realistic portraits of friends and family, or in the case of doll makers, be a jump ahead in understanding how to sculpt that doll that you’ve had in mind for awhile. The class fee includes instruction from Jim, the live model, clay, an armature to build the head, and bisque firing of your work when it’s dry. They’ll send you a tool and supply list, too. Please note: these sessions are almost full already, but they’re working on scheduling more classes with Jim throughout 2010.
The next class that caught my attentions is “Moldmaking with Brett Binford”. This class promises to teach us to make a two part plaster mold, including how to make the part lines, deal with under cuts , design the pour spout, and properly mix and cast plaster for blemish-free molds. This class is limited to six students and will fill up fast.
And finally there is a class on “Firing Your Electric Kiln”, which will deal with operating and maintaining our kilns for optimum performance. I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use a bit of help in this area!
You’ll also find several refurbished kilns for sale, and I’m sure there will be other things that will interest you in Georgie’s latest newsletter. Just click on the following link to view the whole newsletter for yourself. http://www.georgies.com/enews/2009-11-16.htm
