Millefiore: Literally translates as a thousand flowers, this technique was originally used with Venetian glass. Canes are constructed from polymer clay with the pattern running through the length of the cane. The cane can be sliced, and even reduced so that you can get identical, or smaller, slices of the same design.
A Thousand Mid West Flowers started as the professional development journey of two regionally based, clay obsessed jewellery artists, Debbie Crothers and Rachel McKenzie. They shared a common passion for the polymer clay medium, along with an enthusiastic desire to work with and assist the development of regional Western Australian communities through the arts. This lead this passionate pair to dare to dream of attending the La Vegas Clay Carnival and meet one on one with some of their Clay Hero’s(To see the details of their PD adventure to the USA check out some of the earlier blog posts).
It was this passion and the growing interest in the polymer clay medium in the local Geraldton and Mullewa communities that saw the Midwest Millefiore - A Thousand Mid West Flowers develop into a full blown community development project.
This project involves a series of polymer clay and jewellery construction workshops which will be open to all residents of the City of Greater Geraldton. Locally trained artists will conduct basic and intermediate workshops with renowned polymer clay artists Donna Kato and Christi Friesen coming from America to conduct the more advanced workshops. As this will be Donna’s first visit to Australia she will also be holding two master classes in Geraldton open to paying participants.
The project will conclude in an exhibition of the works created by local participants.
This project is brought to you by the dedicated community members that are the Mullewa Arts Development Group and is funded by the City of Greater Geraldton's Community Grants Program.
