Nottingham Castle Gate by Ethan Nicholls

I had a great time, was totally blown away by the friendliness of the tutors - Donna Kato, Carol Blackburn, Judy Belcher, Leslie Blackford, Alison Gallant and Natalia Garcia. To tell the truth, I was totally Star-Struck! Names on the covers in my Polymer library brought to life in front of me. There were a good number of attendees from Spain, France and Italy, and other EU countries, talented clayers then, and many of them now successful tutors and artists. When I look at my swap poker chips from 2008, I remember how humbled I was by the love lavished on them, and I vowed next time mine would be just as creative. I met many people who were to become friends and influence my Polymer journey, and it was with great pleasure that I met with many of them again at Nottingham. My friend June came with me this time, and I was relaxed and happy to be back with such a great crowd.

This year, the tutors were Lindly Huanani, Donna Kato, Natalia and Danni Garcia, Sylvie Peraud and Alison Gallant. Now, I don't know about you, but whenever I attend an event like this one, I tend to have preconceived ideas as to which workshops I feel will be the most interesting and inspiring, and which will be hard work and not necessarily my ‘cup of tea'. And each time I get it so wrong! I ought to know better.

I was especially looking forward to Lindly's workshop, because I've been working through Maggie Maggio's and Lindly's lovely book, and I was keen to progress my mixing colours, but I was also anxious that it would be a bit advanced. I needn't have worried, as Lindly is a consummate teacher, calm, well prepared, relaxed and friendly and so laid back anything goes. Lindly demonstrated then walked around giving advice and tips, providing an excellent handout and bucketloads of encouragement. Without exception, everyone prepared wonderful sheets of stunning clay. Many attendees covered tins and tools and took away a permanent memento of Lindly's class.

Donna's spinner ring workshop contained technical elements that I wouldn't have attempted from a book or dvd. We created a ring form and as ever, Donna freely shared her expertise so that we learnt a lot about ring construction and baking techniques, as well as how to create a multi component ring. It was a challenge for my technical skills but I will be finishing the spinner ring at home, then doing it again with clean black and white clay! Donna is a calm and talented tutor who always makes it look so easy. She is a generous tutor who freely shares her technical know-how and meticulous construction techniques.

With Sylvie we created a deceptively simple mosaic inlay piece. Step by step, Sylvie walked us through each exacting stage, sharing plenty of hints and tips during the workshop. We created wafer thin sheets of white clay which we inlaid into a decorative recess. We learned how to mix a polymer clay ‘grout', then sanded the baked piece back to reveal the mosaic inlaid design. Sylvie's beautiful pieces were inspirational.

Natalia shared with us how she looks for inspiration everywhere, and how she was inspired by the construction of a felt fabric brooch to create her clever ‘ruffle' component. Natalia showed us how to fold a disc of clay to create a versatile and effective component that can be a single bead or in combination create a more complex structure resembling fabric ruffles or flower petals. Strung together, the single component beads snug together beautifully to make a bracelet or necklace and when built together can make a cabochon or sphere. Natalia demonstrated how careful use of colour or cane slices really make the ruffle pop, and how to create simple millefiori cane designs that give the ruffles depth and pattern, and by folding the components with the colours inside or outside, fantastic scope using a few simple techniques. I'm definitely going to be using this one again and again. By mixing and remixing the scrap as you cut out the circles, you can achieve lovely tones and shades that all work incredibly well together. This was a definite ‘aha' moment for me.

Danni brought his own inimitable engineer's approach to construction and demonstrated how it is possible to create hollow forms around cores that dissolve away (using bath fizz bombs), polystyrene which shrinks away to a tiny piece when the piece is baking in the oven, or using wax candles which melt, leaving a hollow structure behind. Danni demonstrated a clever template which allows you to accurately cut and pattern a sheet of clay to cover your sphere (bath fizz bomb) or cylinder. Danni made it look very easy, but I found it really, really fiddly! Some attendees created beautiful filigree hollow balls, and Danni's examples were inspired by beautiful deep sea creatures. Danni's handout was informative and very interesting, and will be filed away for future experimentation. As ever, Danni's class was a lot of fun and filled with plenty of laughter.

Alison demonstrated an established technique, and gave it a new twist by taking the translucent chrysanthemum cane and using Kato concentrates to introduce colour. We made a rainbow blend using the concentrates, a version of the Skinner Blend technique to create our own personal rainbow of colour. We created the translucent cane, used a credit card to create the indentations of the petals, then cut slices which we used to cover bracelet forms. It always amazes me how a group of clayers can start with the same materials and end up with such different beautiful creations.

Each workshop surprised me in a different way, and I take home inspiration from all of them. I think this is the true spirit of an event like this one. It is such a pleasure to work with artists who freely share their experience and talent and who inspire innovation and experiment.

I had a truly great time, met some old and new friends, and look forward to working with Alison, Donna, Natalia, Danni, Sylvie and Lindly again in the near future. Thank you, Helen, for an unforgettable weekend.

Kerrie Venner