Carol Blackburn . . . From the Other Side of the Pond!

I dare say....Carol Blackburn is "brill".  If you made it through ninth grade geometry, you have a leg up on understanding Carol's colorful jewelry.  Impeccably made designs use strips of skinner blend fashioned to imply a möbius strip design.  According to Wolfram MathWorld, the Möbius strip, also called the twisted cylinder, is a one-sided nonorientable surface obtained by cutting a closed band into a single strip, giving one of the two ends thus produced a half twist, and then reattaching the two ends.  That was totally greek to me, but oh well!  I don't have to understand it to wear it!

Her necklaces and earrings are quite different, and people unfamiliar with polymer are always at a loss what material they are made out of.  Carol has published a book, "Making Polymer Clay Beads" that should be in everyone's library.  The book gives you insight into many techniques and a plethora of bead shapes.  She was one of the founder's of the London Polymer Clay Guild and is an active member of the IPCA.

If you surf to Carol's website (www.carolblackburn.co.uk), you'll see that color is an important part of why Carol works with polymer.  In addition to earrings and necklaces, Carol fashions little bowls, pens, and drapery tassels. She also tackles many different styles of bangle bracelets.  She will be in Santa Fe in February teaching a weekend workshop.  If you're in the area, you should take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

We have a nice selection of Carol's earrings and a couple of her fabulous cone bead necklaces.  Her work is beautifully executed...something we should all aspire to.

"Lovely"---in my best British accent!