Clay Day Report 17th February 2013

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.
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.

Carrie Harvey
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.
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.

Amelia Joselyn
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.

Diana Day
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.

Nicky Harris
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.
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.

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