December 2006 Play Day Notes

We had a great time playing with clay at our first 5th Saturday Play Day. Three people attended: Penni Jo, Sue, and Angela. We created — and ate — fortune cookies, and we all learned a thing or two. Read on for more details…

Though we left the play day open to any project of interest, all three attendees ended up working on fortune cookie bracelets (inspired by this Arte Es Vida post). Penni Jo had already made a gorgeous bracelet based on this and brought it along. She also brought a printout of the Chinese characters she referenced for hand-painting symbols on the beads. She demonstrated how to do this, using a Perfect Medium bullet pen and some powders. She also demonstrated the use of her hand drill to drill holes in the cookies after they were baked. Angela showed how great gold leaf can look with polymer clay. And Sue bought and shared a bead roller and bead baking rack. Even though we were all working on basically the same project, everyone’s results were different… and they all looked great!
We snacked on real fortune cookies while we talked business. Angela presented the About Us and Logo Design Contest write-ups for discussion and approval. The group also discussed giving a thank you gift to future meeting teachers, something to show the group’s appreciation. We decided that we will start collecting dues at the January 13th meeting ($36 per year) — though we may or may not have a bank account set up by then. Penni Jo announced that Sweetbrier Studio is in search of designers to create simple projects using their molds. She will type up the information and send it to the group.
Penni Jo’s husband had made some aluminum scrapers for group members, which she handed out to attendees. We were happy to get them, as these are very handy and kind of difficult to find. There’s still a couple left, so don’t miss the next meeting if you’re interested in getting one!
Out next meeting is January 13th, where we’ll be learning all about making Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) out of polymer clay.