Meeting Announcements

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, May 13, 2017 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

Betty Bolerjack will be presenting our project for this month’s guild meeting. We will be making a handwoven neck wire which can be used in place of a chain when creating a necklace or can be the basis of a more elaborate piece. We will be embellishing it with beads, and will be doing some practice wires to begin with which can be finished with chain to create a necklace, bookmark, or earrings.

 Recommended wire is Artistic Wire or Parawire in your choice of color. Hobby Lobby carries both. They have silver Parawire with the other wire and antiqued colors under the brand name Vintaj which is with the charms. Other dead soft wire will work also. One spool of each recommended gauge of wire should be plenty. The prices range from $3.99 to $5.99 for the Artistic Wire and the Vintaj Parawire. 

 Supplies

• 18ga wire
• 24ga wire (same color as 18ga)
• 20ga or 22ga wire for practice (can be a different color)
• Approximately 12-36 beads of your choice in various sizes for embellishment (can be purchased or made from PC)
• Chain to match your practice wire (optional)

 Tools

• Side or flush cutters
• Chain-nose pliers or bent chain-nose pliers
• Round-nose pliers
• Bail-making pliers (optional)
• Hammering surface or anvil (optional)
• Nylon or rubber hammer/mallet (optional)

 The basic tools for working with wire are the first three which most everyone has, I think, but we will be making limited use of all the tools, so it should be easy enough to share.  If you have the optional items, please bring them and plan to share. 

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, March 11, 2017 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds. Our lesson will be different than announced at the last meeting – Deb Hart will be showing us how to make her adorable chili peppers!

Materials

• Skinner blend – Shaped into block that is 3/4″ wide across the face. Something with dark on one end and light on the other (green, red, orange or whatever color you want). Deb used a fun purple blend in her tutorial that turned out very pretty. You can bring canes to embellish your chili pepper – like the cane we created for the owl earrings – otherwise, she’ll have some available for folks to use.
• Canes for embellishment (optional)
• A small amount of scrap clay
• Poly Paste
• Eye pins
• Ear wires

Tools

• Pasta machine
• Clay blade
• Ruler
• X-acto knife
• Wire cutter
• Round nose pliers
• Pin/needle tool/sharp sculpting tool

It’s not a complicated project, so folks should be able to make their Skinner blends at the meeting. Deb will also have a few blends along that she can make a slice and share with people – it doesn’t take much.

Deb will have a small abridged handout for everyone attending, but if you’d like to order a more detailed copy with instructions on the various canes she’ll be using, you can download a copy for $4. She’ll be putting it up on Etsy and on the written tutorial section of CraftArtEdu.com for $10, so she wanted to make it reasonable for anyone interested. She is still working on finishing the editing, but when it’s done we’ll get the link and share with the guild to order it.

Our next guild meeting will be Saturday, February 18, 2017 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

This month, we’ll be making miniature succulents, with Almond Eastland as our instructor. Almond 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
• Work surface
• A container for transporting your unbaked piece, just in case.
• Favorite clay tools, such as:
  • Round miniature cutters (the kind Lori used to sell). These are used to make a bunch of evenly-sized clay balls. You could probably use the tiny leaf-shaped Kemper cutter, too.
  • Ball stylus tools for making indentations in which to plant your succulents.
  • Long straight pin to help place your plants, etc.
  • Small knitting needle
  • Blunt needle tool
  • X-Acto knife

Supplies

• Tiny clay pots – about 1″ tall (Almond will bring several in a few different sizes) and, if desired, a little bit of foil with which to texture the soil and pack the pots. Note that you can also make your own planters out of clay, but they need to be pre-baked, so we’re starting with the clay pots in the interest of time.
• PVA glue (such as Crafter’s Pick or Aleene’s Tacky Glue) and your favorite applicator. This is to help make sure the clay sticks to the foil and the foil sticks to the pot.
• Clay glue, such as Kato Poly Paste, Transluscent Liquid Sculpey, Bake & Bond, etc. and and your favorite applicator.
• Small quantities of clay in various colors. This is a great time to use your scrap clay, since succulents come in a variety of colors, and of course, you can always make up your own fantasy succulents! You might like to bring some translucent clay to mix with it, too.
• A little bit of dark brown clay for the potting soil!
• Chalks or artist soft pastels, along with your favorite applicators.
• Baby wipes or alcohol wipes.

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)