June Meeting Highlights

Very nice turnout! We had a lovely and lively group :-)
Tejae Floyde and Kaye Wilson gave us a terrific primer on taking photos of our work. They helped me figure out a couple of my own recent problems! I hope everyone feels a little more comfortable with their skills :-) I want Kaye to be my photographer with the HUMONGOUS wonderful camera she brought - WOW! We had a chance to practice some with our great advisors there with us
I (Peg M) did a quick demo of different bracelet styles in preparation for our SWAP - and we have 8 people signed up - Louise F, Lynn T, Shane, Cathie G, Karen F, Sue M, Kaye, and Peg M. SWAP is closed for sign up - we will trade at the meeting in August. I also showed a quick technique for making tube beads and how to tie off a stretch cord bracelet. I totally forgot that I was going to show how to roll that tube on a texture sheet to make a whole different kind of tube bead. But give that a try - comes out great... and when baked you can use acrylic paint to bring out the texture effect by "antiquing" it.

August will find us in our new location - not too far away... a little east on Colorado AV near the curve that scoops you on to Pikes Peak AV. We will be doing our SWAP and perhaps a Pot Luck
Thank you Darlene Clark for stepping up to be our new librarian. Darlene dove right in and learned the system. Anne Morris will continue as treasurer, tho she will be unable to attend during the summer because she is now the proud owner of a Phatt Hatties BBG business and will be at the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo and all manner of events making great food :-)
Speaking of the Library, be sure to buy a library card if you do not already have one. We have a wonderful array of books, magazines, videos and DVDs available. It's a great way to decide if you want to buy a book for your own library or just take in the ideas you see while borrowed.
Have a wonderful June!
Peg

What do Clayers love as much as Clay?

A Great Bargain!

Leslie Blackford in Colorado Springs

for one day only!!

Leslie will be in Colorado for other reasons and

we want to take advantage of her being close! ...

She has agreed to do a one day workshop on Saturday June 21st to teach us her famous Magic Beans ideas... anyone who was able to get to Clay Carnival last winter had fun making these wonderful one of a kind beads (just ask Peg Harper :-)!

Leslie will also do some fun creative spark activities.

Fee 60$ at Cottonwood Artists School

Colorado Springs Colorado

Sat June 21 9:30 AM to approx 4 PM

Please send me a quick reply at the email listed below

if you intend to sign up or if you want more info...

I will then send my address so you can mail the fee and registration...

I have always found that my skills seem

to take a little leap every time I take a workshop...

just so inspiring.

Leslie is a terrific teacher.

This should be fun!

PPPCG President
Peg Montieth

pegmontieth@aol.com

June Meeting

June 8th - at the current Cottonwood location

Tejae Floyde and Kaye DelMar Wilson will be teaching us photo techniques. Taking good pictures of ones work can be even harder that making the item! Trust me, I know this personally. I will demo making tube beads and making bracelets using stretch cord (my favorite brand is PowerCord that I buy from Fire Mountain Gems.

We will also have some catalogs (bring your favorite) to see if we can put together some group orders to get great discounts.

Have a nice Spring (yep, looks like it is finally here!)
Peg

May Meeting Rocked!

Shane Smith (shall we call her Wilma or Pebbles ? :-) did a great job teaching us to use inclusions from the spice cupboard in tinted translucent clay to form little "rocks" - wouldn't that make a fun bracelet? She also brought a "stone" bowl that was great... polymer clay can pretend to be so many things! Thanks Shane... and I overheard someone asking if you would teach us cane methods sometime.... we will be sure to see that it happens :-)

We voted on a SWAP and will be making bracelets this time... please contact me or Cathie Graeser cathiegraeser@juno.com to sign up.. we will do the actual swapping at our August meeting. This should be fun... I can show anyone interested how to use stretch cord at our next meeting if you want to try this quick and easy alternative.

Dayle Doroshow

On April 19 and 20th, Pikes Peak Polymer Clay Guild welcomed reknowned artist Dayle Doroshow to Colorado Springs to teach a two day workshop featuring chaos cards and messengers and storytellers. I was lucky enough to have Dayle stay in my home for the weekend! A great time was had by all and we worked through our creative blocks on Saturday by making "chaos cards." These very thin, flexible cards were made entirely of polymer clay using various techniques that each of us wanted to explore. We had to come up with a list of trigger words that name the cards ( that was harder than I thought it would be) The purpose of this deck of cards is to throw a little chaos into your art making process. By doing that, you can become unstuck if you need it, change direction in your work and come up with a way to solve a problem.

Tina Holdman won the official "most Cards" made in the room that day. I think she made well over 40 cards!

On Sunday we made our messengers and storytellers. These "dolls" all turned out to be very sophisticated and personal to each participant.
Dayle first showed us how to make the head using various techniques and colors of clay which we then antiqued with burnt umber or even white paint. Some of us even tried animal heads which all turned out great. Then we got to work on the bodies. We could decorate them any way we wanted to using any and all techniques. Everyone "dolls" turned out terrific!

Dayle is a wonderful teacher and really helps her students think creatively and outside the box. While hosting her in my home, I heard wonderful stories of all her travels around the world, in particular, the workshops she teaches at Gwen Gibson's polymer clay retreat in the south of France. It sounds like the most wonderful place to go take week to relax and clay. She is very knowledgeable about travelling abroad and I learned a lot from her.

Hopefully, you'll be able to see from my photos all that we learned and made!

Tracy Miller

Dan Cormier

For any of you that are fans of Dan Cormier, his new website is officially up!
Talk about inspiration!
It's http://www.dancormier.ca/ have fun looking! Tracy

PCAGOE

Have you ever wanted to promote the value of buying handmade goods directly from the artist?

Want to have your own online store and the support of others in your craft? Want to inspire people to return to the time when we valued items that have been shaped by human hands and given life through the creative soul...well then perhaps PCAGOE is for you!

PCAGOE is an acronym for Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy.com you can read about them by following this link. http://pcagoe.com/about/