November 13, 2010: Meeting Notice
Our Guild was the fortunate recipient of Mary Lee Forsyth's vast collection of beads. The variety defies description. Let's just say she had a whole lotta beading going on! A few of us have worked hard to organize and apply some type of pricing structure for this sale. Bring lots of 1$ bills (NO - we are NOT having a stripper) for the sale. You'll be really glad you did.
Sharon Solly will be presenting a demo on incorporating beads into our poly clay work. She has some great ideas, so hush up & listen now!
What to bring?
- Regular clay supplies.
- A little clay in a variety of colors.
- Pliers for wire work ONLY if you have them.
If not, there will be plenty to share. Absolutely do not go out and BUY pliers. Sharon will also demo different types of pliers and show what to look for in making a purchase and demo a brand that we don't often see around here, but one that's good quality at a reasonable price.
This is a Must-Attend meeting. You won't want to miss out on the treasures our dear Mary Lee has left us.
Thanks,
Bridget, Queen of Commas
What? Could it be that finally, finally I am caught up with the blog!?
BRPCG October Clay Day Minutes 2010
Amy had to shout to call the meeting to order. I'm starting to think that if we had a meeting where we didn't bring any clay, nobody would miss it!!
We talked some about doing a retreat. Everyone loves the idea, but we sure have a bunch of busy people.
We keep discussing who the next teacher to bring in should be. This week's suggestions were:
• Heather Campbell
• Judy Belcher
• Christi Friessen
• Kathleen Dustin
Challenge:
Well, we haven't had one of these for a while! We passed out stick pins and the challenge was to create a (guess what? . . . wait for it . . . ) Decorated Stick Pin!
If you missed the meeting and didn't get one, you can make a décor and we'll lend you some superglue. Don't forget. We're all looking forward to seeing what YOU made.
Today's agenda was:
1. Maggie's Gauze Bracelets
2. Julie's Complex Fall Cane
3. Suzanne's Plastic Canvas Mokume Gane (Where's the Green??)
4. Amy's Mica Shift
5. Auction
We have 3 new DVDs to check out from the library:
• Arabesque (Pat and I are the only two who knows who took this home to watch....)
• Intricate Kaleidoscope
• Lindly's Color
Also – new magazines have been ordered. It just takes a while for a subscription to kick in. No wonder the Internet's so popular!. . . and Pat just keeps on going. She's converting our VCRs so those of us without can watch them.
Magazine sales will be held at the end of the auction. Hope you didn't miss all the great deals.
We're going to bring in Mary Lee's beads for a sale at the November meeting, and are trying to convince Sharon to do "something beady" as a demo. Notice the specificity involved in this request. Do you think that has anything to do with Sharon not being totally convinced?
Julie Eakes – Yes, the actual nominee as a Niche Award Finalist made an appearance at our meeting. She's been globe-trotting to retreats, swaps, and all sorts of events for the up and coming. She actually swapped with Kathleen Dustin during her Santa Fe Museum Piece Workshop. The place had a gorgeous view. I nominate this for our retreat.
There's a rumor afoot that the next Synergy may be in Santa Fe.
After all Julie's carrying on, Cheryl had nothing to say. Don't blame her.
Suzanne Ivester will be the IPCA Prez for 2 more months. Get your special requests in quick. I hear there are still a few good seats available. Pete will stay on board as the VA Member at Large.
Mark drove over from Waynesville. Don't tell anyone, but I actually saw him holding a lump of clay.
Maggie brought her Vampira Tableau to scare the snot out of us. It's amazing.
Teresa's trip from itty bitty Marion to Iceland sounded like a dream vacation. Everywhere she went was a gorgeous photo op. Teresa has some tricky software to stitch photos into panoramas that go on forever.
Besides Teresa, Jean Weston gets the prize for distance traveled. She's a snowbird from FL, and new to polymer clay. She wants to make focal pieces for her beading.
Rhonda's been helping her daughter Christina, who made some beautiful mica shift donuts.
Sandra's been in an organizing frenzy. I hear you can actually see her work table. We're starting to break her of the Realtor habit. She had customers in town but came to Clay Day anyway.
We made over $400 at our auction. Way to go! See everyone at the November meeting wearing your finest stick pins.
-Bridget, Stock-holder in Redbull Energy Drinks
I am exhausted just reading it...until next time, blog fairy
BRPCG September Minutes 2010
Heller all!
Laurie made us some yummy tea. Good to see you again!
Pat has the list together of DVDs to buy. A new suggestion: Lindly Huanani's color mixing.
Bridget brought in our photo album. Everyone please bring photos to fill it – meetings, events, etc.
Suzanne drove over from Knoxville to do her donut demo. What a clever trick! We had big fun trying it out. Let's see some finished examples at the October Clay Day.
Laurie and maggie drove in from Charlotte. Laurie has some gorgeous lentil beads form an extruded cane. Maggie's perfected the art of gauze bracelets.
Mark came back from Waynesville. We didn't scare him off last month!
Amerie came over from Canton to show us the cabochons she's been slaving over. She's getting pretty darned good with them.
Barb has been busy making lizard tails with actual lizards attached. Well not actual –PC lizards actually. She's also become a steampunk.
Janet Johnson came for her 2nd meeting. Lynne Baldwin's becoming a regular.
Karen's been away from clay for a while, practicing her thrift shopper extraordinaire talents. If you need anything hard-to-find, she's probably got it.
Sharon's been working with metal and cold collections. She saw some white tiles on PC Daily, gave the idea her own unique tweak, and produced some 3-D bracelet tiles folks will soon be fighting over. Really creative.
Pat delivered the Munro order. It is so kind of her to do this for us! Barb had ordered some gorgeous texture sheets that most of us hadn't seen before.
Christine & Rhonda also have become Lizard tail addicts. They had a whole herd of the colorful little critters.
We had to have an intervention for Sandra. After many months in the real estate world, we had to teach her the words clay & play.
And for next time:
October 9 is Clay Day – a full day of fun from 9 to 5. Bring things to sell, snacks to share, beads for the Bead jar, and lots of creative energy. We should begin to see supply lists for the demos soon.
For those of us who just barely get started at a regular meeting, Clay Day is the answer. We get the whole day to catch up, share ideas, and learn new techniques. It just doesn't get any better than this. See you all there.
-Bridget, The Quiet One
BRPCG August Minutes 2010
Reminder: October will be here before you know it! Bring in your donations for the bead jar – any kind of beads will do. Be thinking about what you want to bring in to auction off. I donated my kitchen sink to Habitat for Humanity when I remodeled, and I know many of you will be disappointed, but maybe something equally quirky will show up?
In appreciation for all of Pat's work building the World's Best Polymer Clay Library, we gave her a gift certificate to take her family out to Nona Mia – a really yummy Italian restaurant on Patton Avenue. Mmm – makes me hungry!
Fun Ideas:
- How about a retreat? We've been talking about this for the last couple of meetings. We need to ask Sharon about the place her beady friends go in TN and Barbara McGuire about the place she's used somewhere in NC. Barb D says we have a few sheckles in the coffer and could maybe find somebody (who was that crazy lady?) to coordinate the food.
- Who's going to be the next guest instructor? We talked about Judy Belcher and Heather Campbell. Bring your ideas to talk about at the September meeting.
- Julie is still planning to do her face cane class on a weekend when the Panthers are not playing. She's moved into her new house. Maybe soon we'll get a date?
Library Additons:
Our VHS tapes don't seem to be getting much use. We're talking about getting some new titles on DVD. Suggestions include Sarah Shriver, Lisa Lichtenfels, and Jana Roberts Benzon. Also, we decided to subscribe to Belle Armoire Jewelry and Art Jewelry. We have a lot of old magazines that don't get checked out and are planning to offer them at the auction in October.
New Project:
Bridget has agreed to start a photo album for our guild. Bring in any photos you have from past classes, your work, demos, or our guild members. Remember – she said photos, not computer files. If you can't get it printed, it won't get in the book. Ask her husband Bob, who never gets to see any vacation photos `cause they're still on the computer (if they even make it out of the camera chip).
- Teresa has been working on Theology papers for school. She didn't even bring any of her buddies with her to the meeting. Too bad. We had a fella drop in to check out our guild and he was really interested in sculpture. Teresa's on her way to Iceland for a vacation that sounds like a great adventure. She'd better bring some photos back!
- Maggie created some wild bracelets from cotton gauze. They look like they're still soft. Must have been the optical delusions month.
- Marilyn brought samples of word made using the canes she demo'd. She also brought the bracelet she made from the Helen Briel article in Polymer café – gorgeous!
- Amy brought in work she has done in faux abalone. It was hard to tell it from the real thing. She's teaching a mica shift class and brought some samples she is using that were absolutely amazing. You couldn't believe the pieces were flat until you touched them. They had so much depth from the mica shift.
- Suzanne brought us some donut pendants and some potato vases (oops! I meant to say spud vases), using the lost potato method. Those TN gals come up with the whackiest ideas. She's writing up a storm. She has a greencraft necklace made from recycled chandelier parts, something in Bead & Button, and an article in the latest Polymer Café.
- Barb D brought her finished birdhouse. Absolutely beautiful!
- Pete has been obsessed with lizard tails. We convinced her to do an ad-hoc demo, so we should see a bunch of them in September. Here's her technique:
- Chop, smoosh, roll, twist, fold, roll again, reshape, roll in one direction into a cone. Cut the big end off. Slice down the middle, open up, shape & bake. She said she thinks it comes from Carl Allen's Jacob's ladder technique. Julie Piccarello also teaches it. You can get Carl's tutorial plus a lot of others at this site: http://polymerclaycentral.com/masterindex.html#lessonsprojects.
- Cheryl is really progressing with her faux lampwork. She's giving Pandora a run for their money.
- Christine has done some beautiful work with the U-cane Julie demonstrated. She's covered an Altoid tin and made a necklace with 3 color schemes that is very nice.
I don't know how a person sprains her ankle caning, but Rhonda found a way. She must have some really interesting techniques!
Pat had 8 X 10 pieces of glass to give away. You never know what you'll miss if you don't make it to a meeting. There were also a lot of Papercraft magazines given away, but I'm not sure if Pat or someone else brought them. It gets a little crazy at these meetings sometimes. I worry about spraining my neck as it whips back and forth to catch all the action.
See you guys on September 11th!! There are a few folks we've been missing, so come on back and see us! Not to drop any names like Sandra & James & Julie!!!
-Bridget, Crazy Pen Lady
Not as exciting as Christmas in July, but finally here they are:
BRPCG July Minutes 2010
Reminder: October will be here before you know it! Bring in your donations for the bead jar – any kind of beads will do. We'll try to remember to bring out the bead necklace Mary Lee created from her winnings at last year's auction.
Pat finished sorting and cataloging the magazines and will bring them in. We tried, but we couldn't say enough good things to show our appreciation for all Pat & her hubby have done to create what is probably the world's best Polymer Clay library.
Amy finished her Nightmare before Christmas bracelet and brought in some samples to show us.
Amerie has been busy creating cabs and (according to her) learning to solder badly. Keep it up Amerie. The more you practice the better it gets. How bad can it be? She's been busy selling her work at the Downtown Market on French Broad across from United Way.
That location is just down the street from Nathaniel's house (Bridget's Son). Since she's been creating nothing with clay, she promised to bring photos of his and other peoples' crazy cars for Barb. Anyone else who has crazy car photos is welcome to bring them to share.
Barb brought samples of the faux silk and frames she's been making. She used her 50% off coupon to get some Tim Holtz gears from Michal's so she can go Steampunkin'.
Cheryl brought some pens that those fabulous Queen City Clayers turned on lathes. They turned them while raw, so they don't waste any clay. She's been using liquid clay to make some stunning Pandora beads.
Sharon has been beading up a storm and brought us lots of metal charms to ooh and aah over.
Teresa has been making chain mail for her creatures, plus leather armor.
We passed around a card to send to Glenn. Mary Lee's gifts just keep on giving. We had tons of fabric to sort through and select from.
Bridget did her itty bitty birdhouse demo, proving that everybody has something to share. Sharon turned a texture stamp sideways so that, instead of producing bricks, looked like an elegant Japanese pattern. Teresa chipped in creating amazing itty bitty birds to perch on the houses.
Next month's topic (If we get really lucky) will be Marilyn's black and white pieces from Polymer Café. Keep your fingers crossed!
Thanks to Pat for the gentle nudge. The minutes were really, really late. If any of you got a strange message from me with a bogus attachment, please delete. I keep having spam problems. I've had a yahoo account for over 10 years now and hate to give it up, but if this doesn't quit happening, I may have to make the sacrifice.
See you guys on August 14!! There are a few folks we've been missing, so come on back and see us!
-Bridget, Secretary BRPCG
