February 12, 2005
The February 2005 meeting of the Blue Ridge Polymer Clay Guild had 22 people attending. We started off with several reminders and announcements:
Dues are now due (20.00).
The National Polymer Clay Guild is accepting registrations for its 15th annual retreat at Shrinemont in Orkney Springs (sounds like something out of "Lord of the Rings," doesn't it?), Virginia, on May 9-15. Registration deadline is March 1 -- more information and registration forms are available at www.npcg.org/Announcements/announcements.html.
ClayQuest 2005 will be held November 10-13 in St. Mary's, Georgia -- 3 days of polymer clay classes with some wonderful instructors, including our own Irene Semanchuk Dean and Suzanne Ivester. For convention info and class descriptions go to www.oldtowncrafts.com/ClayQuest2005.html.
Our next BRPCG Clay Day will be held April 23, from 9 to 5 -- cost is $10.00. You won't want to miss this! For more details, check our website, www.brpcg.com.
Unashamed begging drew forth volunteers for a brand-new Workshop Committee. Barb Verni-Lau will chair the committee, with Claudia and Gail assisting. They will be in charge of planning and coordinating workshops/classes sponsored by the guild. We will all benefit from the work of this committee, so when Barb puts out a call for input, extra volunteers, etc., let's all do what we can to help.
A black-and-white bead swap is being organized. A separate notice of this will be posted, so watch your email. So far we have 15 signed up. Due date will be the April meeting.
The challenge for March is mica shift.
We concluded the first part of our meeting by sharing our Valentine challenge items and our Show and Tell -- which is always interesting and inspiring. And just plain fun. :)
This half of our gripping and suspenseful meeting notes submitted by Pat Smith.
The bead demos were presented by several members of the guild:
• Kay Bontiz demoed luscious silk-screened lentil beads and drilling precise holes for the beads.
• Irene Dean demoed jazzy carved imitation jade made up of three colors of green, yellow and black.
• Gail Jolley demoed neat Natashia beads.
• Claudia Starkovich showed a way to cut shaped beads (football) using a round cutter using a Mike Bueseller technique.
• Suzanne Ivester wowed us with her "Shake and Bake" beads with mica flakes, sand, TLS and Pearle finishing with Future floor wax. Suzanne also showed how to use large bead rollers.
• Maggie Westall imitated a beautiful glass bead by John Winter called" Intersellar" consisting of black clay painted with russet, true blue paint and accented with white paint dots.
• Jan Scarborough created crafty cane worked beads using cane-worked and extruded clay slices.
• Also presenting a demo was Marilyn Davenport using mokume gane techniques, creating large focal beads.
The minute's notes for the demos are transcribed and respectfully submitted by Marilyn Davenport, February 23, 2005.
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