Yesterday's meeting was a brisk one. Some of us saw new faces, and noted the absence of some regular faces. Sue's baby Benji was present for the entire meeting, never crying or fussing, but only flirting with those of us who stopped to talk to him.

Welcome to Marion, from here in Asheville. She brought a selection of her detailed sculpted face buttons to show the group, and we hope that we'll see more of Marion at future meetings.

The meeting didn't get started until after 12:30, and business was mercifully brief. Gail brought the books the guild ordered from Krause Publications, for the guild library as well as those ordered by members for their personal libraries. Books added to the library include:

Complete Guide to Beading Techniques by Jane Davis
Exotic Beads by Sara Withers
Foundations in Polymer Clay Design by Barbara Maguire
How to Make Clay Characters by Maureen Carlson
New Ways with Polymer clay by Kris Richards
Polymer Claywork by Mary Maguire
Ultimate Rubber Stamping by Gail Green
Wire in Design by Barbara Maguire

Thanks, Gail, for coordinating the order and for lugging the books around.

Speaking of lugging books around, as the guild library grows, it's becoming more difficult for it to be transported to and from each meeting. Until we (hopefully) get a permanent storage space in the Y, an abbreviated version of the library will be brought to each meeting. For now, Gail will be able to bring books and videotapes, but will leave periodicals at home. If anyone wants to borrow magazines, please contact Gail before the meeting so she can bring them.

Of course, you can see a listing of the library materials at the guild web site:
www.brpcg.com/library.html

And speaking of the guild web site, Irene will be buying a domain name for the guild, and subscribing to a redirection service, so we'll no longer have to use the long mouthful that is the current web site address. New address will be posted soon.

Irene also brought news of another invitation for the guild from Grovewood Gallery. The guild members have been invited to participate in the gallery's annual holiday exhibit, to "create a piece or pieces that shows their holiday tradition." We can choose to do a group tree or exhibit individually. More details will follow in a separate email to the guild email list.

Kathy passed around her latest PMC creations, delicate earrings made by pressing real leaves (maples?) onto PMC and firing. Intricate details of the veins of the leaves were visible. Kathy also showed her new rubber or plastic sanding disks for the Dremel tool, which she acquired from Rio Grande. She reported great results when using them on polymer clay.

Finally it was time for the liquid sculpey marbling demo! Sue generously doled out small containers of liquid sculpey for each of us to mix with oil paint. We cut cookie cutter shapes from polymer clay, covered them with individual drops of tinted liquid sculpey, and then swirled and marbled with toothpicks. There was lots of swapping of colors and oohing and aahing over each other's pieces. This sort of experimentation always leads to
speculation of how to do it differently next time, and armed with Sue's advice on what to do and not do, we all left with a new technique and lots of ideas how to use it.

Even with baking our pieces and more chatting, the meeting was over a little early at 3:30 or so.

submitted by Irene Semanchuk Dean, September 9, 2001