Myra

UPDATE: Due to the impending ice storm, our meeting has been postponed one week, to January 21, 2017. Same time as usual, but we’ll be in Studio 2. Please check in at the front desk when arriving to get a sticker to wear while you’re in the building.

Happy New Year! Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, January 14, 2017 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

Katherine Barnes will present our lesson this month. We will be making a Leaf Pin, either a “spring” version or a “fall” version.

Materials

• Bake & Bond (must have to attach the cabochon to your raw clay)
• Polymer clay for your leaves – your choice to make a Spring Leaf pin (green clay) or make a Fall Leaf pin (several different fall colors)

Tools

• Pasta machine
• Work surface/4×4 tile
• Blade
• Scissors
• X-Acto knife
• Needle tool
• Brayer or rod for rolling
• Favorite claying tools

Optional Items

• Small ball stylus (add texture)
• Small knitting needle (for tendrils, if desired)
• Soft, small paintbrush (for antiquing, if desired)
• Leaf molds
• Mica powder or chalk (to accent your leaves)

Katherine will provide:

• Moon Face Cabochon (green; made with Premo; about the size of a quarter)
• Pin Back w/clutch
• Leaf template (paper outlines; you’ll need scissors to cut them out)
• Leaf canes (Katherine has made several, very small, leaf canes to add for accents. Feel free to take a few slices to add to your pin creation)
• Acrylic paint for antiquing (colors: black, white, dark brown, or turquoise)

Reminders

This Saturday we will have a:

•     Swap: Winter-themed inchies
•     New drawing: The people who won the last drawing are: Laura, Angel, Tom and Deborah.
•     Election of officers: If you have a person you would like to nominate please send this info to Penni Jo or bring it up during the election.

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, December 10, 2016 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

As usual during our December meetings, we will not have a lesson – but we’ll have snacks, a social time, and play Dirty Santa (so much fun!!!) So please bring some yummy goodies to share with the group, and we’ll have a fun afternoon!

About Dirty Santa: REMEMBER the items in the Dirty Santa game are NOT gag gifts but should be something you’d like to receive. Everyone playing the game brings a hand-crafted polymer item. An item using a technique learned this past year or one you just enjoyed making and sharing. Playing Dirty Santa is optional – but please, please do bring an item. It is so much more fun with many participants, we had such a good time last year.

I’m reposting the rules that Tom has adapted for our Dirty Santa game:

How to Play Dirty Santa

Everyone playing the game brings a hand-crafted polymer item. Sometimes an item using a technique learned this past year or one you just enjoyed making and sharing. Please, please bring an item. It is so much more fun with many participants.

VARIATION: Since we will be showing off our gifts during Show & Tell, I will bring gift bags to mask the items for the game. Just to keep it in the spirit of Dirty Santa.

Numbers are written on pieces of paper for every gift and placed in a basket, bowl or hat.

Each person draws a number. Getting a higher number is actually better because you will have more chosen gifts to choose from.

The person with #1 picks a gift to open from the array of gift bags. The person with #2 can choose to take another bag or steal the gift from #1. If a gift is stolen, the person who had it then steals from someone else or picks another gift to open. Gifts stolen cannot be directly stolen back. They must be in the pool of opened and unopened gifts for at least one turn.

The game continues like this until everyone takes a turn select an item or stealing an item. The last person to go can steal from anyone in the game or select the remaining item.

NOTICE: If the first person has not had their selection stolen during the game, they may steal a gift from anyone else. This may open a new round of stealing, but that’s the nature of Dirty Santa.

Once a gift is stolen three times, it is retired from the game.

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, November 12, 2016 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

This month, Angela will be talking about chalking and carving. We’ll focus more on technique than on a specific project, so if you have an idea you want to do, bring what you need for that. Otherwise, just come ready to play. Angela will have some extra supplies, and we’re good at sharing, so don’t feel obligated to buy any supplies you don’t have.

Tools

• Pasta machine
• Small ceramic tile for curing and working
• Scissors
• Carving tool, such as Speedball Linoleum Cutter
• Clay blade and any other favorite clay tools
• Work surface

Supplies

• Chalks or artist soft pastels * (If you have them lying around, Angela likes scrapbooking chalks such as EK Success Chalklets or Inkadinkadoo artistic blending chalks, but these aren’t readily available anymore.)
• Chalk applicator, if desired (fingers work great if you don’t mind getting messy)
• Light neutral color clay such as Premo ecru, about 1 block (this should be enough for the main project and the fortune cookie mini-project)
• 3″ cookie cutter
• Rubber stamps and solvent ink (such as StazOn), if desired for project *
• Baby wipes

* Note: Pastel sets and rubber stamps are 30-40% off at Hobby Lobby this week. 

In addition to the main project, since the guild’s first meeting was 10 years ago this month, Angela will revisit the polymer clay fortune cookies from our very first lesson.

If you have old handouts or other memorable items from the guild’s early days, we’d love for you to bring them along.

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, October 8, 2016 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds. We will have our drawing at the meeting, so be sure to bring something if you won an item in our last drawing! This is also inchie month, with a Fall theme.

Deborah Di Maggio will show us how to make these pinecone ornaments. Looks like fall is definitely here!

Materials

• 3 packages of clay (Premo), using any of these possible colors: raw sienna, black, gold, bronze, burnt umber
• Paper maché egg (Deborah will provide these)

Tools

• Pasta machine or roller
• Knife blade
• Teardrop cutter (other suggested cutters shown in photo – click to enlarge)