The Nov. meeting started with the usual socializing, which was made livelier by the sale items that people brought in. Then Byrd ably led the meeting in Irene's absence (who was home with a very sick cat).

I delivered Irene's announcement that the ornaments sent/given to her have safely made it to the Grovewood Gallery and that the opening of this show will be Nov. 16.

Byrd repeated our customary announcement about the fundraising bead jar, and Pat Smith commented that this hasn't been a "gang-buster" fund raiser and that perhaps we should find something more inspiring. She added that any fund raiser would depend on what we want to raise the funds for.

She reported that we have $579.64 in the treasury, and this prompted a discussion of possible uses for this money:
--Buy the Skinner video on Precision Caning
--Buy the new Dotty McMillan book "Creative Ways with Polymer Clay" (which Jan had a copy of for us to drool over)
--Buy the "Best Little Bead Book" recommended by Byrd
--Buy a bead tumbler
--Bring in another polymer clay expert for a workshop and let the treasury underwrite some of the cost.

We decided to go ahead and buy the books and video mentioned above, and Byrd offered to donate her bead tumbler to be rented out to members of the guild with the provision that she be able to borrow it for free.

Regarding the PC expert, we mentioned a number of possibilities, but thought it would be ideal if we could either find someone who was already traveling through this area or someone who already lives not too far from here (Eastern half of U.S.). It wasn't clear whether all teachers ask for airfare or whether that's included in the workshop fee. In any case, we decided that everyone who feels motivated to do so should go ahead and do
a little investigating about who we might bring in. We shouldn't contact any particular individual and make an offer at this time, but we can certainly begin to find out what the possibilities are and report back to the group.

The next item on the meeting agenda was a brief show 'n' tell, and the most unusual item was Suzanne's polymer clay-covered baby shoes (an alternative to "bronzing") and samples of her new line of "big" bracelets.

The main program for this meeting was the presentation of helpful tools nd techniques. Some of the most interesting or unusual ones were:
--Cubes about the size of dice with polymer clay stamp patterns on each face of the cube. Pat Smith showed this tool, but it actually came from Elizabeth of PolyParrot.
--A bicone bead roller and a bead-hole driller apparatus, both made by Edie's husband for perfectly shaped beads with perfectly aligned holes every time.
--A corncob skewer that Marion uses to poke two perfectly aligned holes in a double-holed bead.
--Jan's technique using paper punches; this technique will be published in an upcoming PolyInformer.
--Woodworking tools that are similar to the Linocutter but smaller that Byrd got from a woodworker.
--Polymer clay stitch markers for Kathy's knitting.

The meeting for December is up in the air. Only two people at the Nov. meeting confirmed that they would definitely be able to come to the meeting in December. Therefore, we would like to hear from all members who plan to be at the December meeting. If we do not have at least five or six people, we may decide to cancel the meeting. ***So please confirm if you can attend the December meeting ASAP.*** If we are able to have a meeting, we will plan to make Christmas ornaments and have an ornament swap amongst ourselves, just like we did last year.

We had a couple of interesting ideas for future meetings. One was to announce a polymer clay project challenge before the meeting that everyone could work on at home and then bring it in to discuss techniques, give critiques, and see what different approaches we all
take. One example would be to have a "wavy blade challenge" -- the different uses for a wavy blade.

Another idea was to have a meeting in which we bring in our favorite hats and spend the meeting making ornaments to decorate our hats. Then we would take a group picture of us wearing our hats.

Feel free to come up with your own interesting suggestions for future meetings.

Hope to see you soon!

submitted by Gail Jolley, November 11, 2001