Meeting Announcements

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, August 11, 2018 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

This month, Betty will be showing us how to make Faux Raku Bowls. She will show us some basic techniques for creating the raku effect as well as some variations. From there, let your imagination soar! Your finished bowl can be used as a Blessings Bowl, Trinket Dish, or any other decorative use. She will show us how to form the bowls both on the inside of a form as well as on the outside in the shape of your choice. The Faux Raku technique would also make some beautiful Bottles of Hope, if you prefer!

There is no one right or wrong way to do Faux Raku and the results are always a surprise!

Materials

2-4 oz. clay in your choice of color. Suggested colors are Premo Black, Premo Accents Graphite Pearl, Souffle Poppy Seed, or Souffle Cinnamon, but it’s not necessary to stick with these colors. The bowl with the heart in the center is made from Premo Accents Silver. White can also create some interesting effects. Souffle holds the mica powders particularly well, but any clay will work.

Mica powders such as PearlEx or Perfect Pearls. Traditional colors are green, blue, pink or red, and copper, but feel free to experiment with other colors. The PearlEx Duos can be a lot of fun. Betty will bring a variety of colors to share, as well.

Metal Leaf (optional)

Shape (can be prebaked clay) to use for center design (optional)

Tools

Pasta machine

Texture mat, sandpaper, or other means of creating texture

Brayer or acrylic rod

Clay blade

Exacto knife

Any other favorite tools

Bowl to use as form (shape and size is your choice… Betty will have some extras available to use)

Soft brush

Your imagination (feel free to Google raku pottery and look at the images that come up for inspiration)

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, July 14, 2018 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.  This is inchie month, with a theme of “Summer”. We will also have a drawing this month, so if you won something last time, bring some goodies for this one!

Tom will be showing us how to use the Tiny Pandora UV finish.

This month we will be doing a Demo/Play with Tiny Pandora DeepShine brush-on UV Finish. You are encouraged to bring a prebaked items you wish to coat. That could be earrings, pendants, bracelets or if you have baked your wolf from last month and need his/her eyes to have an extra sparkle. If you have a UV light box (36 watt or more) please bring it. There are no special tools or clay needed.

This meeting will be kind of a free to clay day because the demo will be brief. So bring something else to work on, we will have lots of bottles if you would like to work on one or two or more. (hint hint)

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, June 9, 2018 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

The inimitable Chris Crossland will lead us in making a majestic wolf bas-relief sculpture. Here are the notes from Chris:

We are so excited to be presenting the class at the guild meeting in June! Even if you do not consider yourself a sculptor, you will be able to create this majestic creature using the templates and techniques I will teach you. We will be making a gray wolf, but it can be made in any color combination by using the color mixing method I will show you. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE have your master mix ready when class starts because this mixture will be the mid-value of the wolf. The light and dark values will be mixed in class using various amounts of this master mix.

Tools

• Blade
• Exacto knife
• Needle tool
• Christi Freisen WIA (Wow It’s Awesome) tool…or your favorite sculpting/texturing tool
• Large ball tip tool
• Knitting needle in 2 or 3 sizes
• Ceramic tile 6” x 6” (wolf will be sculpted on the tile and will be baked at home on the tile)

All required templates will be supplied, cut out and ready to use. We will also provide pre-baked eyes. You will have a choice of golden or blue eyes.

Master Mix (PREMO)

• Mix one 2-oz block each of silver, pearl and white clay. Roll out on a #1 thickness or the thickest setting on your pasta machine.

Additional Premo clay needed in class (all based on 2-oz blocks of clay):

• 1 block white
• ½ block graphite pearl
• ¼ block black

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, May 12, 2018 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

Myra Cleveland will show us how to make a leopard cane, and (time permitting) a zebra cane.

Materials

• Clay – Gold, bronze, burnt umber, ecru, black, white

We will use about one section (1/4 of a package) of each, but having a little extra is good!

Tools

• Pasta machine
• Blade
• Stiff card or plastic (an old credit card or the card Connie included in our goody bags)

Meeting Notes

We will have our drawing at the May meeting. Tom, Katherine (2), Jane, and Penni Jo won the drawing at the March meeting and need to bring prizes for this month’s drawing.

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, March 10, 2018 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

In part 2 of the Building Your Polymer Clay Cane Inventory, Cheryl Reich will again lead us in making feather canes, Skinner plugs, checkerboards, and stripe sheet and blocks.

Supplies

• 6-10 Skinner blend sheets, at least 3″x3″
• All of your canes, especially the ugly ones!
• 4 oz. of black clay
• 2 oz. of white clay
• 2-4 oz. of 3 (or more) other colors, your choice

Tools

• Pasta machine
• Tissue blade
• Acrylic roller
• Smooth work surface
• Alcohol and paper towels to clean pasta machine and work surface

PLEASE NOTE:

Our February meeting has been moved back one week to the third Saturday, to avoid Affair of the Heart. We will meet on Saturday, February 17, 2018 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

Cheryl Reich will lead this two-part class to help you build a variety of canes for your inventory to prepare for the upcoming retreat in April. In part 1, we will be focusing on Skinner blends, Skinner plugs, bullseyes, spirals, and more!

Clay (prepared in advance)

Bring 4″ squares of clay in the following colors and quantities – #1 pasta machine setting (thickest):

• 3 white
• 1 black
• 2 yellow
• 2 red
• 2 blue
• 1 green
• 1 purple

Additional Clay

• 4 oz. black clay
• 2 oz. white clay

Tools

• Pasta machine
• Tissue blade
• Acrylic roller
• Smooth work surface
• Alcohol and paper towels to clean pasta machine and work surface

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, January 13, 2018 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

Lee Ann Kelley will show us how to do wire wrapping.

Supplies

• Wire – Parawire, Vintaj or Artistic – 20 gauge and 26 gauge. Hobby Lobby has all three brands. You will need 10 inches of 20 gauge wire and 4 feet of the 26 gauge wire.
• Polymer clay disks – Lee Ann will supply these, baked and ready to go.

Tools

• Pliers – round nose and chain nose
• Wire cutters
• Nylon jaw pliers – if you don’t have these, you can borrow Lee Ann’s.
• Sharpie
• Ruler
• Small paint brush or knitting needle to make a bail

If you can’t find some of the supplies, you can use Lee Ann’s.

Announcements

• This is inchie month, with a theme of Winter.
• We will have our bimonthly drawing, so if you won something last time, bring something this time!
• Guild officers will be elected.
• Time to pay our guild dues of $24 for the year.
• Retreat registration will be announced.