Hurry, hurry, hurry! Our next clay day is on 19th May 2013. Don't forget to book by e-mailing us at apcg@live.co.uk. 

You can find all details here: Clay Day - 19th May 2013


We had a great time at the Bead Fair and several people expressed an interest in joining us. We hope to see you all here.  And don't forget, beginners are welcome; we will even provide some clay to get you started!

CALLING HELPERS for our stand at the Norwich Bead and Textile Fair next Sunday! We will be showing samples of our work and hope to attract some new members at the event.  If you would like to help us man the stand for an hour or so, do please e-mail us to say when you could be available.  There is always a good range of things to see and buy so it's a fun day.  We do hope you can be there - the more the merrier!

Here we are everyone, details about our first ever joint venture with our twin guild in Seattle (NWPCG). We only need 8 participants so do let us know asap by e-mail to apcg@live.co.uk if you are keen to join us as it will have to be 'first come, first served'! 

The format is:

5 texture sheets - all the same, or more fun, all different
Size - Each sheet approximately 3 x 2 ins (7.5 x 5 cms ) up to 4 x 2 1/2 ins (10cms x 6/5cms).

Please keep them fairly thin (otherwise expensive to post to the States).
 
Put a label on the back of each with your name, address if you want and
email.

We will be collecting them at the May meeting.

Yes, we hear you cry “where is our Clay Day report”?  Well, here it is. Sorry everyone, a busy week has delayed production!   

But what another lovely day we had. We welcome Patricia who joined us today.

We began with a few notices.

1.      Flower bead swap with our Greek twin guild.

If you didn't leave your beads with Nicky on Sunday, we hope you have posted them to Sue Heaser.

This is exciting - there were some lovely beads and we’re all looking forward to seeing the beads from Greece.

2. Texture plate swap with NWPCG in Seattle.

We are having a texture plate swap with our American twin guild in Seattle.  Sue gave us a demo last time showing ideas for this. If you are willing to join in, you will need to bring yours to our next meeting in May.  The suggestion is to make 5 of postcard size although this may be negotiable.  We’ll keep you posted (and we’ll be pestering you to sign up over the next few weeks)!

Show and Tell: As always, we were treated to a beautiful display of designs and ideas. Some of the photos are shown in this report but you can also see them all in the gallery at www.anglianpcg.co.uk/gallery.html

Trash to Treasures: This time we had some lovely musical charms available free to anyone. Thank you to whoever placed them here – they went like hot cakes! 

Demo

Carrie gave us a demo on some lovely ways to use scrap clay and produce a range of different sheets.

We were enthralled. Carrie showed four different techniques which gave a variety of great results.


Do send us your photos of ways you have used this – we love to see them and they will be posted in the gallery.

Question and Answer session

This was very informal. We were all keen to try out the ideas Carrie showed in the morning and, at the same time, were able to ask others about ways of working

Raffle: Diana won the Pearlex Powders – we hope you have fun using them Diana.

Thank you everyone – our next event is on Sunday 19th May – see you there!

Quick reminder everyone, our Clay Day is this Sunday.  If you haven't booked yet, it's not too late.  Click here for details.  

Carrie has sent us some photo examples for her demo on Sunday 17th March. You only need standard tools and a blunt-ended tool to accomplish the second of the two (e.g. end of paintbrush or blunt pencil).

They are lovely Carrie, can't wait! 

We know, it doesn't seem long since our last event. That's because it isn't!  There is less than two weeks to our next so don't forget to book your place: e-mail us or use our contact form. 

Carrie will be giving us a demo on a great way to use scrap clay to produce a wonderful new pattern and we have a question and answer session scheduled. See the outline for the day here.

Hurrah, the snow disappeared and despite a slightly foggy start to the day we were able to hold our event postponed from January. And what a great day we had.

We are thrilled to extend a warm welcome to two more new members, Alex Gunn and Nadia Michaux.









There was a slight change to our plans as Terry, who was scheduled to do our first demo, was unable to be with us as she is not able to drive at the moment while she waits for an operation on her ankle. Hope your operation is successful Terry and best wishes are sent from all of us.  

Notices. 

1.Twinning with guild from Greece.
Sue Heaser has been liaising with a polymer clay artist from Greece who has just started a guild there. A twinning was suggested and all were keen.

Our first activity will be a flower bead swap. Everyone who signed up will make 5 flower beads between 1cm and 2.5cm in size.  They can be the same or each one can be completely different – the choice is yours.  Once we receive them at our next meeting on 17th March they will be posted and everyone who submitted beads will receive 5 beads in exchange.

So, if you are participating, don’t forget to bring those beads on 17th March!

2. NWPCG Seattle twinning. Two items for discussion:
a. E-mail pen friends
Members are invited to become an e-mail pen friend with another polymer clay enthusiast from the NWPCG. Those who were interested picked a name to link with.  We’ve already had great feedback from Maxine who is very enthusiastic about her e-mail friend. They will be coming up with ideas and we look forward to seeing some of their work.

It’s not too late, if you would like to do this just let us know.

b. Texture plate swap

We will be doing a swap of our own designed texture plates. We will talk more about this at our next meeting and aim to have swaps ready to send in May. 

Show and Tell:There was a lovely range of items to see and admire. This is always fascinating as there is such a diversity of ideas. Pictures are displayed in our website gallery so do have a look.

Trash to Treasures: This was inspired by Enid who unfortunately couldn’t make this event. Items no longer required were placed on a table with a price and name attached. Members were then able to buy items they wanted. (Note from ed: it worked very well and I for one was able to buy a book I had been eyeing up for ages!) As it worked so well, it was decided it will be a regular feature of our meetings now.

Demo 1 Cardboard presentation boxes - Tricia showed us how to make cardboard boxes for display and sale of items.  This is such a useful craft – purchasing ready made boxes is much more expensive than making your own so thanks Tricia.

Demo 2 Texture plates - With our NWPCG swap in mind, Sue Heaser gave us a demo on how to produce texture plates. There were some lovely ideas and inspiration.

Sue also gave those new to polymer clay a run through the basic techniques for making canes and skinner blends.  

Demo 3 Mokume Gane Jackie treated us to a demo on the making of Mokume Gane. There are so many possibilities and varieties of colour and style here. Thanks Jackie.

Raffle: We had a range of item for our raffle. Jo brought along items of chocolate and some bantam eggs. There were some of the new Premo! colours to be won and we had 5 prizes in total.  (Note: Jo confessed that she had eaten the chocolate intended for January and had to go out and buy some more)!


Thank you everyone for a wonderful, inspirational day. What a friendly group we are!

Here are some lovely new items from our members Enid, Fiona and Sue I.  Do send us your photos and we will post them in our gallery here.

We are organising email penfriends with the North Western Polymer Clay Guild of the USA. Any of our members who would like a polymer clay enthusiast penfriend in the US, please email to register. We need your name and email - and a short list of your hobbies and interests (apart from polymer clay which is, of course, the main one!)

We will match up people with similar likes as much as possible. Any young members, please give your age and we will try to find someone of the same age for you. Please email the information to us at: apcg@live.co.uk