Saturday, December 27, 2008

The begining (or the end)

This will be my first blog entry. I thought i should explain what this blog will be about. First the name for my blog, "Living with Kiw's", well to explain it simply its my life living with New Zealanders or rather Kiwi's as they refer to themselves.




A beautiful morning sky in New Zealand, one thing I never get tired of seeing, ok so there is a few good things about living here.


My family and I moved to New Zealand 1 1/2 years ago, thinking it would be a better life for us all. We lived in New York State, Poughquag a beautiful small town where everyone knows you and youre business!! We lived in a beautiful ranch home on 2.5 acres with Chickens, Ducks and pet rabbits. We had deer, turkeys, foxes, etc.. runing wild. It was beautiful, not to mention we had a great town park that had an in ground pool. I left behind amazing friends, the best you could ever ask for.

Why move?

My husband is a computer developer/geek http://www.z-db.com/ and he worked 14 hour days. We never saw him, except when he ate, used the bathroom or slept. His family convinced us that life would be soooo much better in New Zealand and he wouldnt have to work so hard and family life would be better.... WRONG!!! But we bit hook line and sinker as we would say, I will never again believe a word his mother says again.

What do I do, outside of all the mother/father stuff. Well I am a polymer clay artist, this topic will be part of my blog as its a huge part of my life, especially living so far away from the United States where polymer clay is a recognized art form. Here what I do is strange, unusual, unique, unexplained a bizarre art. If you want to see some of my work just go to my flickr site and you can see it http://www.flickr.com/photos/toniransfield/ I have been working with polymer clay since 1994 i think. I was a potter and a damn good one!! But I couldnt fit behind the potters wheel when I got prego the second time, so i had to find something to do with my hands, thats how I discovered Polymer clay.

What is it? Its not stickers, Its not painted, Its not traced. Its colored clay!! How do I explain it in New Zealand? The only way a kiwi could understand it, by relating it to making candy. Pretty sad when you think of it. You see in the malls and everywhere there is candy, its like Willy Wonka exploded here. I have never seen so much candy in my life. You name it and its in candy, coconut, marshmellow, jelly, chocolate, etc.. So I tell people its like making candy you make a pattern with the colored clay and than reduce it and cut it up and re-assemble it, like the candy shop maker where you see the candy snake with the pattern all the way through it. Then they go ohhh I get it, so where did you get the stickers??? Yes, I want to bash my head with a lead pipe, but this is my life in New Zealand. I guess thats why I am starting this blog.

I hope I will entertain you, make you laugh, shake youre head in disbelief and possibly be able to see how hard it is to leave a country you knew youre whole life and move across the whole world.

Have I peaked any interest in you to read my blog? Hopefully I have and you will check back...

Toni