Hello Everyone,

Boy, this meeting certainly typified for me what I love most about the Blue Ridge Polymer Clay Guild... new friends to welcome, new works to admire, newly demonstrated techniques I'd only read about, new tools to try, new materials to inspect, and new ideas generously shared among us. I only wish you all could have been there.

We started admiring the new works everyone had brought before we even got the meeting underway, but we finally began the meeting with the old and new business. I presented a summary of the responses to the Linda Goff class survey. The consensus of the guild and guests seemed to be that it was a good first effort with a wonderful teacher, and we would love to try some more in the future. We certainly learned plenty that can be applied to hosting additional classes. Irene had some excellent suggestions on generating more widespread publicity, and Edie (?, sorry if I have that wrong) had an intriguing idea about our guild members sponsoring classes in Polymer Clay 101 as part of a fund raising effort. We also discussed various ways to keep costs reasonable for guild members while sponsoring teachers. If you haven't already responded, we would love to hear your thoughts on who you would like to see as upcoming teachers, and any thoughts on fund raising projects.

Speaking of which, our bead jar is looking a little lonely, so keep us in mind the next time you sit down to make beads; consider making one more for the bead jar. Each bead donation costs you just one dollar and gives you one chance at winning the jar. Irene also brought us some news from the National Polymer Clay Guild, and reminded us of the benefits of joining (like the Polyinformer.) Gail Jolley graciously agreed to be guild librarian, and we discussed whether it was time to have formal officers. Irene started signing copies of her new book. Then on to the mokume gane.

Forgive me if I forget someone, but I didn't know I was going to be writing this until afterwards, so I didn't take notes. Please feel free to post any additions or corrections. All the mokume gane "names" in quotes are just my attempt to categorize all the information we received on Saturday. Byrd began by showing us her "watercolor" mokume gane and explaining how she did it. She also showed us some finished examples of her other types of MG done with metal leaf. We then had show-and-tell and demonstrations from various members on: "scrap" mokume gane, with a wonderfully intricate design; "mother of pearl" mokume gane, made with only Pearl-Ex powders and translucent clay; "impressed design" mokume gane, made with colored clays; "classic" (a la Kris Richards and Lindly Haunani) mokume gane, made with varying colored translucent clays and metal leaf; "Celie Fago's Shortcut Mica Shift" mokume gane from a Lapidary Journal article; "Donna Kato" mokume gane made from twisted and folded colored clays, and "Edie Siegel" mokume gane, made with....nope, sorry. You just had to be there. Seriously, I'll let Edie share this new technique she is working on when and where she's ready. I'M hoping she will submit it as a magazine article. But if you attended this meeting, you got a preview. We also discussed and demonstrated various ways of cutting mokume gane.

Many of us had brought in finished examples to show uses of mokume gane, and this sparked the Mokume Gane Swap, to be meistered by Pat, as you should already know from her posts. There were just too many good ideas to let this topic die with only one meeting. I can't wait to see all the new techniques put to use.

What's coming up in the BRPCG in the following months? We have tentative plans through the first several months of the New Year! Here's the list, with details to follow closer to the dates:

August: Caning Techniques. Byrd Tetzlaff will be getting back to you with the necessary details on how to participate in these demonstrations on caning.

September: Lamps and Nightlights. Sara Jane Whyte's dimensional lamps.

October: Combining Polymer Clay and Beading. Penny Brank plans to share her newest love with us.

November: Color Theory and Color Samples Swap. Irene Semanchuk Dean will be bringing you the details on how to participate in this opportunity to learn more about making and using your own color mixes.

December (probable Holiday break)

And early in the New Year (no exact dates, yet):

Kathy Wu's "Jewelry Techniques and Findings to use with Polymer Clay"

"Principals of Design" (Please email me - I'm drawing a blank on who this was.)

Polymer Clay 101 (?) Classes for newcomers in the community who need the basics of starting with polymer clay.

I hope you find something to intrigue you in the upcoming schedule. We hope to see you all at a future meeting.

submitted by Sara Jane Whyte, July 13, 2000