Facing up to faces

The polymer clay community has embraced the ladies of Samunnat so generously (read an example of how here) and, as a result, I have been in contact with some of my heroes. ( I am inclined to hero worship). While I attempt to sound calm in my communication, there is always an element of O my goodness, I have a polymer guru in my inbox!  And it has been appropriate that over the past few days, as I've been getting my face cane class (see the face on the left) ready, I've been chatting with one of the queens of face canes - the magnificent Alice Stroppel.  Alice does incredible face canes. Her faces are so uniquely hers, very distinctive, vibrant and colourful.  She puts them in brooches, slides and bangles and she has tutorials about them. Her site Polymer Clay Etc is exuberant, generous and inspiring.  Like Alice!  She has lots of ideas and tips that she shares freely in the forms of short videos and it is a treasure trove.  (She also has beautiful hands and fingernails which she tells me reflect Vitamin C and no sanding and polishing. I wish I could get over my polishing fetish but am working on getting a machine to help!)In the process of the preparations for my weekend workshop, I made a small homage to Alice by including a piece of the now famous Stroppel Cane  in one of the cuffs I made.In the class we look at pictures of samples of face canes from some of the masters, some of my heroes - Jamey Allen, (and here and here), Julie Eakes (here and here) Michael and Ruth Anne Groves, Kathleen Dustin (one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE PIECES POLYMER PIECES IN THE WORLD IS HERE)and Alice to name a few. It was an attempt to make a face cane that got me hooked on polymer all those years ago so this is a special class for me. Revisiting some of the work of those people has been so much fun.  I hope the Broken Hill babes get as much of a kick from it as I have.  (The photos in this post are my pieces but the links all lead to amazing face cane work by my heroes.  I had a bit of trouble trying to put some of their photos in so gave up and you can make do with mine and follow the links to theirs!)