Here’s a short little video I made for you looking back on all of the tutorials I’ve created in 2016. It’s kind of amazing to think that it’s been a year since I finished my dragon challenge, as the habits I developed over that year I have served me well this year. I learned to be more disciplined, to work at my art whether I feel like it or not, and to make it a priority.
I really love making polymer clay tutorial videos for you all! As I mentioned in the video, I added a third weekly video to my YouTube channel in February. What I didn’t mention was that in August I realized making three a week was just too much. So now I’m back down to two per week, alternating weeks (more or less) with polymer clay and jewelry videos, but always with a Friday Findings video every week.
One hundred thirty seven videos is a LOT and I hope you all have enjoyed them. Let me know in the comments if there are any that stand out to you as particular favorites.
I also created one class for CraftArtEdu.com this year, my Gradient Swirly Lentils Necklace class. This is a fun polymer technique that can be quite addictive. I strongly suggest if you enjoy polymer clay tutorials that you get on CraftArtEdu.com’s email newsletter list as they regularly send out coupon codes for 30, 40 and sometimes 50% off their classes.
Another thing I was really pleased to do this year was create tutorials for fairy garden accessories for Polymer Café magazine.
They kicked off my series with the March/April issue in which my fairy garden birdbath was featured on the cover! That was quite a thrill.
Update:
*** This tutorial is now available as a downloadable PDF at my Etsy shop: Fairy Garden Birdbath
I then went on to make five other fairy garden accessory tutorials, concluding with the fairy garden bridge in the January/February 2017 issue. If you’d like to learn how to make these but don’t have a subscription to Polymer Café or can’t get the back issues, keep an eye out because I will be releasing them as individual downloadable PDF tutorials, once the rights revert back to me (about 18 months after publication.)
Update:
*** These tutorials are now available as downloadable PDFs at my Etsy shop: Keepsake Crafts Create
I already have one out for sale, my Fairy Garden House. The Vines and Flowers Pen PDF is also now available. AND there’s a video tutorial for the matching pen stand.
One thing I put in my 2015 looking back and looking ahead article a year ago was that I wanted to do more figure sculpting. Sadly I have only managed to do a grand total of ONE figure this year, this little dolly from Maureen Carlson’s How to Make Clay Characters.
I really have a strong desire to do figures expressing relationships, emotion and interactions and have been studying the work of other artists to see what resonates with me.
My Pinterest board Doll & Figure Inspiration-Polymer Clay shows the direction my interests & tastes take.
Speaking of which, if you follow my Pinterest boards I have recently separated out the dragons and figures from my Inspiration-Polymer Clay board, adding two more boards:
In fact, as I look back at my list of 2016 goals, I find that not as many of them as I would have hoped have been accomplished:
- Work in precious metal clay – Nope, mostly due to lack of funds
- Finish going through Christi Friesen’s Flourish– No, but nearly there!
- Work through three books on figures – Not even close ===sigh===
- Create polymer clay videos for YouTube-Yes! I recorded, edited and uploaded 50 polymer clay videos to my YouTube channel.
- Continue to write tutorials for Polymer Café magazine – Yup, did a year-long series. 🙂
- Turn some of the dragon projects into tutorials – I’m working on it, I promise!
It may be time for a new 2017 challenge to get me moving on my goals.
Thinking about it….
Watch the 2016 Year in Review video at YouTube.
What are your proudest accomplishments of 2016? Do you have any goals for 2017?
Happy creating and happy new year!
You had a very productive year! Looking forward to what you do in 2017.