November 9, 2002

We met November 9 in the Laurel Bldg. at AB Tech. Edie and Maggie chaired the meeting; Suzanne wrote the meeting report. Present were: Edie, Maggie, Suzanne, Byrd, Karen, Pat Smith, and Leslie Tieke Abbott (former BRPCG member, SMPCG founder).

We all enjoyed seeing each other's challenge items--all kinds of boxes. Edie and Maggie took pictures. Click here to see them.

For most of the November meeting, we watched and listened as Leslie demonstrated the making of her faux mosaic bottles. This was an **excellent** demo, and it left everyone very anxious to get home to start their own bottles! Anyone who is making one should bring it in for "Show and Tell" so those who missed the November meeting can see what the excitement is about. Leslie also talked about her work in precious metal clay and showed us the beautiful silver "tear vessels" she's made. For those interested in taking pmc classes from Leslie or just seeing her work, she'll have a new website up soon, with the address www.preciousmetalclay.net

We're collecting quite a few good "Tips of the Month." Don't forget to jot down your good ideas so you can bring them to our meetings and have them recorded in the pamphlet we're planning.

At the beginning of the meeting, we did some brainstorming for future meeting programs. As much as everyone enjoys our members' terrific demos, we agreed it might be fun to do something different once in a while. Here are some of the ideas we came up with:

--The month before a meeting, we could choose a project from the on-line magazine Polyzine or a similar source that everyone has access to. Then, on our own, we'd gather the tools, materials, and do any preliminaries (make Skinner blends, or the like) before the meeting. On the chosen meeting day, we would bring our tools and materials and complete the project. Of course, anyone who wants to can exercise individuality and use the project as a general guide.

--We could plan a mini-demo day, where everyone could demonstrate something quick. (Remember, for example, Byrd's mini-demo on balancing a mobile, and Maggie's Kemper-cutter flowers?) That way, we'd have several different short demos on all different topics.

--Suzanne came up with an idea for a pc parlor game. Each person would bring whatever clay and tools she wants. Each player would be given a number and would start a little project on a tile numbered correspondingly. At the end of a given time period (say, 15 min.), each player would pass her tile to the player on her right. That player would have the same amount of time to make additions and changes, and then she'd pass it on again. At the end, when your own numbered tile comes back to you, you'd have a little more time to make final changes. Then we could all vote for our favorite and maybe award a little prize. Each player could take home the project she started and finished.

The game idea generated a lot of enthusiasm, so we've tentatively scheduled it for our April Fool's meeting. Can anyone think of a catchy name for this game?

We also discussed having an unstructured "clay day," as some other guilds have done. We weren't sure whether this would be on the regular meeting day or would be an "extra." Any ideas and suggestions are more than welcome.

Here's a brief run-down of the plans for future meetings:

December: **We WILL be meeting at the usual time & place.** Third-annual holiday ornament making and swap.

January: Maggie will demonstrate making beads from cornstarch packing peanuts. She'll bring some peanuts to share so we can all try our hand. Then she'll demo for us the funny little heads that had everyone so excited at our Grovewood show last summer.

February: A roundtable discussion on marketing and merchandising our art work. Please bring ideas and questions. We're planning to videotape this meeting for our library.

March: Edie, Kay, and Suzanne will all show their own ways of making hollow "lentil" beads.

April: We'll play our "musical chairs"-type clay game.

We also discussed on-going plans for having a guest teacher. Suzanne contacted Nora Jean Gatein and received an ineresting reply, which she'll forward to the group separately. For those of you who aren't familiar with Nora Jean's work, she does miniatures, canes, sculptures, a little of everything, and has boundless energy and enthusiasm. For example, see her "rant" in the November issue of Polyzine. The bottom line is, she'd be willing to teach for free but would probably need her expenses paid from Atlanta, where she travels fairly often.

Suzanne reminds you, she's still seeking suggestions for guest teachers and will contact them to get information on what they teach, how much they charge, etc. A couple of names have been suggested--more info to come!

The challenge for December is buttons. Bring several if you want to swap with others!

submitted by Suzanne Ivester, November 15, 2002