Meeting Announcements

Our next meeting will be Saturday, December 13, 2014 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

As we usually do for our December guild meeting, we will not have a lesson. Instead, we will bring items for show & tell, and then (optionally) swap our items in a Dirty Santa exchange. You don’t have to swap your item if you want to keep it, though! We’ll also bring goodies to snack on, and just generally have a good time of claymate fellowship.

Tom has adapted the rules of the Dirty Santa game to our purposes, so if anyone isn’t familiar with the rules, here they are:

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 places them 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 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.

So, let’s all come and have a great time!!!

Penni Jo will show us how to create and embellish a tiny dress or gown for pendant, earring, ornament, etc. Dresses can be fancy or plain, your choice. The same technique can be used to make pendants or pins if you do not want earrings.

Materials

• Wire plain or coated: 22 to 24 gauge
• Polymer clay: Solid color of your choice for gown. Small amounts of two or three shades of clay for ombre ribbons. Flower & leaf colors. Translucent & white for swirls
• Mica Powder: micro pearl, or for dark colors, interference gold or other interference colors. If you choose a light colored clay, you’ll need regular Gold Mica powder as Interference Gold will not show up well on light colors. (I will have a variety of mica powders for use in class for use.)
• Findings: jump rings – 4, earring wires – 2, optional: eye pins and or headpins if dangles are desired.
• Optional: Bake ‘N Bond or Poly Paste. (Penni Jo will have some in class for use)

Tools

• Clay tools like Penni Jo’s Clay Tools or your favorite
• Jewelry tools: round nose pliers and a wooden clip clothespin
• Scissors

Guild announcements: We will be voting on Lisa Pavelka’s classes for our upcoming retreat at the November meeting. See the choices here. If you can’t come to the November meeting, contact Tom or someone else to act as your proxy. Let your voice be heard! It’s also inchie month, and our theme is Fall/Thanksgiving.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, October 11, 2014 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

The topic for our October meeting is what to do with your inchies, and how to display them. Penni Jo will have some thoughts on displaying these miniature pieces of art, and as a special treat, she also will show us how to make Chris Crossland’s adorable candy corn!

This is also our raffle month, so if you won something last time, bring some goodies to the raffle this time!

Supply List

To make the candy corn, bring the following:

• Polymer clay – translucent, orange, yellow, and white
• Triangles push mold – PJ049 Caboshapes III  (Penni Jo will bring some molds for folks to play with or new ones if they wish to purchase the mold.)
• Your usual clay tools
• Water spritzer
• Pasta machine for mixing the clay for the candy corn
• Working surface

NOTE: Construction is still likely on May Avenue next to the fairgrounds. Enter through Gate 5 further south on May, across from Forest Lumber. See this map for reference.

Meeting announcements: Due to the State Fair, we will be meeting this month from 1:30-4:30 p.m. at the Covenant Life Church, 3106 N. Utah Avenue, OKC, instead of our usual meeting place. Utah Avenue is about halfway between Meridian and Portland – here’s a map to help you find your way. This is also inchie month, with a theme of “back to school”, so bring some inchies to swap!

Chris Crossland will be our teacher this month, along with her friend Karen. Here’s her intro and supply list:

Hello, fellow clay addicts! Here is the supply list for the September 13th guild meeting. We are going to feature clay creations for fall and Halloween which incorporate glass pebbles, and we are totally excited about it! We will feature a snaggle-toothed green witch hovering over her crystal ball.

However, if you are just not “into” witchy things, you can make a beautiful fall leaf and acorn pendant instead. Karen and I will be providing the glass pebbles and everything you will need other than clay tools and the supplies listed below for each project. It would save a lot of time if you can have your colors mixed ahead of time. I have given the exact proportions below for the witch color mixes and they are based on the standard 2 oz blocks. Since such small amounts of wart-brown and snaggle-tooth ivory are needed, we will provide them for everyone. If you have any questions, just email me or ask in the forum.

Per special request (and you know who you are), we are also going to demonstrate and provide a handout for a black cat holding a pumpkin…we think you are gonna love this little guy!

Witch Pendant

• Usual clay tools
• Extruder with the disk that has about 18 holes (for witchy hair)
• Texture mat – anything simple and swirly works fine, it’s for the back only
• 3/4” and 1 1/2” circle cutters
• Sculpey large ball stylus (the one that comes in that set of 3 tools with stylus on one end)
• Mica powders: spring green and silver
• AB glitter flakes
• Green clay mix: Premo 1/2 block bright green pearl; 1/8 block Spanish olive; 1/8 block 18K Gold
• Black clay mix: Premo 1/2 block black; 1/8 block pearl
• 1/8 block Premo purple

Fall Leaf Pendant

• Usual clay tools
• PJ’s Oak Arbor mold (PJ 020). We will use molded leaves and acorns as a starting point and come up with a whole new look from this very versatile mold. We will also discuss free-hand cut leaves.
• Mix 3 fall leaf colors (or more!)…use your favorite fall shades. Some suggestions are a golden green, a mid-tone green, and a red or russet. Premo Copper makes a great fall leaf color. If you plan to make the leaf pendant and are not sure of colors, email me and I will provide you with recipes that we have used and which work well together. We will also be providing a handout to everyone at the meeting which will include our favorite fall color recipes.
• Medium brown mixture (for tendrils and acorns). Total of about 1/4 block of mixed color
• Fall berry colors: 1/8 block each of Pomegranite and Alizarin Crimson
• Mica powders: red russet; super copper; Aztec gold; mink; misty lavender (If you are like we are, you never go ANYWHERE without your mica powders, so if ya got ‘em, bring ‘em! We will, of course, bring all of ours to share.)

Our next meeting will be on August 9, 2014, from 1:30 to 4:30 at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds. This is our raffle month, so if you won something in the last raffle, bring some goodies for this one!

At this meeting, Angel Mance will explore Swellegant, a metal coating system brought to us by Christi Friesen. The process is achieved in multiple layers of the metal coating and patinas. Due to the nature of the product (drying time & time-sensitive patina application), Angel will provide each participant with a prepped polymer piece to try out the process. You will have a choice of either a heart pendant or a leaf. She has prepared samples showing the effect of the three patinas on all five of the metal coatings. Angel says she has had a ball with this stuff!!! The Swellegant products are being provided by Angel, but if you have Swellegant in your stash and want to bring it, that would be great.

Supplies:

• Work surface
• Paper towels
• Wet wipes
• Plastic gloves
• Small box (to take your piece home in)

Optional Supplies:

• Small fan & extension cord (only if you already have one)

NOTE: Construction is still likely on May Avenue next to the fairgrounds. Enter through Gate 5 further south on May, across from Forest Lumber. See this map for reference.

Our next meeting will be on July 12, 2014, from 1:30 to 4:30 at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds. This is also inchie month, with the theme of Red, White & Blue.

Supplies:

• Choose 4-8 colors clay, 1 (one) ounce each making sure that you’ve included sufficient light, dark and medium values. The value (lightness or darkness of color) is needed to achieve a satisfying result. If at all possible, please condition all of your clay (in advance) to same condition and bring in sheets rolled out on thickest setting on your pasta machine.
  NOTE: you may use more than one ounce of clay to test the design. As little as ½ ounce (one fourths of a block) will work fine. The most important color you will need is the color that will cover the extruded clay. The cover color shown on the knife project was silver.
• Choice of project that is simple enough to complete in a short time (bring needed materials for it): Bottle of Hope (small glass bottle under 4 inches), light switch cover ( bring a switch plate), tool like the knife shown or X-acto knife, etc. (bring desired tool), pendant or beads (bail, bezel, wire, eye pin, or bead wire)
• Extruder (Hobby Lobby, and Michael’s carry Makin’s and/or Walnut Hollow). If you don’t have one and not sure you want one, members that have more than one have offered to bring them to loan.
• 2 tooth picks
• Ruler
• Pasta machine
• Acrylic roller
• Thin blade
• Craft knife or X-acto
• Work surface
• Tile
• Any of your favorite tools – you never know……

Optional:

• 3/4“ round cutter
• If you have one of the nice mokume gane slicers (Simple Slicer), please bring it!

NOTE: Construction is still likely on May Avenue next to the fairgrounds. Enter through Gate 5 further south on May, across from Forest Lumber. See this map for reference.

Our next meeting will be on June 14, 2014, from 1:30 – 4:30 at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center at the fairgrounds.

For this meeting, Penni Jo will be demonstrating her fabulous tool kit, as well as doing a demo making earrings using her tools. So if you have a set of Penni Jo’s Clay Tools, bring them with you to use for her demo!

Everyone is encouraged to bring their own favorite tools and tell the group about what makes them so useful.

This is our raffle month, so if you won something in the last raffle, bring some goodies for this one!

Supplies for Penni Jo’s demo (she will bring clay, enough for everyone to have some with which to play):

• PJ’s Clay Tools (she has some to share)
• Wire tools – cutter and round nose pliers
• Flower color clay
• Sepal color clay
• 2 ear wires
• 2 head pins
• 8 seed beads
• Four 4mm beads for stamen and stopper bead
• 2 tube beads

NOTE: Construction is still likely on May Avenue next to the fairgrounds. Enter through Gate 5 further south on May, across from Forest Lumber. See this map for reference.