March 12, 2005
The March 2005 meeting of the Blue Ridge Polymer Clay Guild had 14 people attending. Irene opened the meeting by reminding everyone that next month's meeting will be a Birthday Meeting. The guild will be celebrating 6 years. To commemorate the occasion, bring a snack if you'd like. We'll be having a party to celebrate.
Other reminders and announcements included:
• Demo for next month will be textures and texture stamps
• The bead jar drawing will take place at the April meeting. Anyone who has contributed to the bead jar has an opportunity to win.
• Pat's black and white bead swap will take place at the April meeting.
• The challenge for April will be Skinner blends
• Annual dues of $20.00 are now due.
Barb Verni-Lau updated everyone on the upcoming Clay Day scheduled for April 23rd. The minimum of 10 people has been reached so Clay Day is a go. Lunch will be a pot luck so dig out your favorite recipes. October's pot luck resulted in a real variety of great food. Other items discussed related to clay day:
• The oven will be available all day for baking.
• Barb is going to bring her grinder equipped for buffing for anyone who may need to do some finishing.
• There will be a sale table so bring any items you want to sell. Just a reminder that 10% of the proceeds goes to the guild.
• There will be various "start to finish" projects throughout the day geared towards helping those new to polymer clay. Watch the website for details.
Barb also gave an update from the new Workshop Committee. A search of the Internet and contact with the Raleigh Guild has proven that there are a number of workshops available. Barb has contacted several to get an idea of cost and availability. Workshops tend to run anywhere from $100 - $175 dollars and can be 1 or 2 day events. A questionnaire was handed out to try and get an idea of interest levels. Please get these mailed back to Barb so the committee can pursue artists that offer the workshops of most interest.
The challenge for the month was mica shift. As usual, show and tell yielded some really awesome displays of the talent in the guild. Kay, Maggie, Gail, Marilyn and Barb all shared their mica shift endeavors. Barb shared her Valentine challenge for last month's meeting she was unable to attend. Nancy was inspired to try her hand at some of the bead techniques from last month's meeting and Teresa has been creating 'color recipes' for skin tones in her sculptures. Be sure to check out the pictures on the website of all the show and tells.
This month's presentations focused on jewelry making techniques.
Barbara Stock demoed various tools used in creating jewelry findings and finishings and explained the differences in various wire gauges. She showed how to make a dangle earring, use crimp beads in finishing and created an S-Hook closure that could be used on a necklace or bracelet. She also recommended www.conniefox.com as an excellent website for beginners.
Kay demoed use of various types of chord for necklaces and demonstrated several techniques for creating necklace closures. She had samples of bunna chord which she had painted for a very interesting effect and shared some tricks for securing endcaps on the chord. She also showed how to create a sliding knot and peaked everyone's interest in the sporting goods department with her selection of fishing lures, fishing line, etc. Instructions for the sliding knot can be found at www.home.tephras.com/stuph/knot.
Teresa brought a particularly amazing sample of her chain maille which was a very heavy vest. She shared some other jewelry pieces which demonstrated various weaves of jump rings and then showed how to create jump rings from extruded polymer clay wrapped around a knitting needle. After baking, the rings are individually cut and woven together.
Thank you to all for the great presentations.
Submitted by Claudia Starkovich, March 12, 2005.
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