Sunday, June 30, 2013

Straight from the Heart

I've just returned from Tennessee where I participated in a week-long polymer workshop at the Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts.  I'll write more about that later.  This posting is about hearts, thousands and thousands of polymer hearts....

At Arrowmont, I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Ron Lehocky.   While Ron is an accomplished polymer artist, whose pieces have appeared in books and various collections,  it is his heart project I'd like to share with you today.  Dr. Lehocky volunteers on the Cerebral Palsy KIDS Center Board of Trustees.  In 2005, he created 100 heart pins to help with fund-raising efforts at the Center's annual fashion show.  This event turned out to be just the start.  Since then, Ron has made over 23,000 Heart Pins, and the project continues to grow.  Ron designs and creates each heart personally, in a wide variety of colors and designs.  One hundred percent of the money raised through this project goes to a fund which provides continuing education for the therapists at the Center, enabling them to continue to provide up-to-date therapies to the children. For more information, visit the website:  http://www.kidscenterky.org/HowToHelp/.

Often, Ron uses scrap from the canes and projects of other polymer artists.  I shared some of my clay pieces with Ron, and was delighted to see the creativity he applied to make some really unique hearts. The photos here show the cane I made and some of the hearts Ron created from that cane.  Not only does he use the cane "as is" - he reduces and manipulates the pieces to make a myriad of effects.  Amazing!




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