if you build it they will come

at the end of june i had the pleasure of traveling to philadelphia to attend dan cormier and tracy holmes’ ‘building better beads’ workshop.

they built it and we came: hosted by the philadelphia polymer clay guild, students came from maryland, new jersey, pennsylvania and new york. by the end of the weekend we left with notebooks and heads filled with information to keep us on the learning curve for months.

beneath dan’s laid back, canadian-ease style and dry sense of humor, artist meets engineer meets master of precision. setting the bar higher, first for himself and then again for his students, cormier showed us why attention to detail and an unwavering commitment to be the best craftsman(woman) we can be is the goal to strive towards.

pictured here are student’s beads-in-progress. in this workshop the emphasis was on construction. the design of the bead surface took a back seat to how to make the bead sturdy, lightweight, highly functional and finished to perfection.

cormier and holmes’ partnership is rich and seamless. dan demonstrated and explained the steps, while tracy moved in and out of the picture to clarify a point or further define a technique element. this tag-team approach adds a unique and interesting dimension to the multi-layered educational experience. as they cruised through the information intense agenda, their never-skip-a-beat high fives when one of them hit on an idea was only one indication that the collaboration works. and it works well.

a much larger illustration of this glorious collaborative effort is cormier and holmes’ best work yet: 3 year old griffin. as many of you already know he steals the show. naturals in the parenting department, it was a joy to watch them as mom and dad to the charming, engaging griffin. with an angelic expression on his face, their little helper took great delight in passing out the small boxes that held gifts of clay donated by polymer clay express. watch out dan – griffin might take over sooner than you think!

if cormier ever decides to switch careers he would do well as a comedian. his dry, quick wit elicited more than a few laughs and kept things moving along. in the meantime, i’m happy that he’s teaching – the workshop is brilliant. watch this space for a future post about ‘dan the artist’ and why i think this workshop is critical to the well being of the medium.

a cormier and holmes’ website/blog is coming soon and i am sure it will tantalize us with powerful artwork; amuse us with the stories and anecdotes that have traveled with the couple on this lifejourney and give us a standard to live up to.

thanks again to the the philly guild and to guild member martha aleo for the pictures. thanks also to robin milne, president of the new jersey guild, for photos of the student’s work.