Penni Jo taught a class on making a rose cane. Everyone had very successful attempts. It was fun to see the variety of colors.

The treasurers report was given and the guild now has 21 members.

Lee Ann announced the upcoming classes:

• Oct - Lisa will teach the Ikat cane
• Nov - Cheryl will teach covering an Altoid tin
• Dec - will be a swap, usually something we’ve learned during the year
• Jan - Lori will teach

The guild will again demonstrate at the State Fair on Sunday, Sept 16. The demonstration will take place in the crafts building which is next to the OKC Arts Center. You may enter through Gate 3. LeeAnn has the banner. Bring a polymer item to work on and be ready to answer questions. Nance will have Bottles of Hope available at the fair.

The April retreat was discussed. Lisa will help with donations. Penni Jo handed out the submissions for teacher selection. The guild voted and selected Syndee Holt. She will teach her “Four Fauxs” and transfer techniques.

There was no swap this month. For next month’s goodies, Tom, Cheryl, Lori and Kay are responsible to bring items.

Next month’s meeting will be Saturday, Oct 13, at 1:30 pm back at the OKC Arts Center.

Reminder: Sept. meeting will be at Southwest Oklahoma City Library, at 2201 SW 134th, OKC (SW 134th is about 4 mi. south of I-240, down Penn. From I35, turn west onto SW 4th in Moore. Drive about 3 mi. Library is on north side of road, just west of Pennsylvania. Moore Norman South Penn Campus is just to the north of it. From I44, turn east on SW134th and go almost 2.5 miles. Just before Penn.) Bring floor covering for your space (shower curtain from Dollar Store would work. Also, nothing is to be taped or hung on walls.) 2201 SW 134th Street

There were 12 members in attendance.

Show and Tell: Lee Ann showed 2 necklaces, both Bargello but opposite coloring, that she had made. Myra showed a writing pen she had covered with a leaf cane at the top was a cute little lady bug. Nance showed a ‘bottle of hope’ that Lee Ann had made and donated. Kay showed a woven blanket button she had made.

Program: Finishing Techniques and Protective Finishes - Lee Ann and Shirley Shirley gave a demonstration on how she sands and buffs her pieces. She had a handout for everyone, “Finishing Techniques for Polymer Clay” and she explained her techniques. Lee Ann spoke on Protective Finishes. She also had a handout for everyone. She showed various products and had examples of pieces using those products. Lisa had a handout for everyone on TLS, mica and Future.

Business Meeting:

*1. Approval of July Meeting Notes *- Motion by Angela, second by Myra; approved

2. Officers Reports: Vice President - Lee Ann: Upcoming programs: Sept. - Rose Cane, taught by Penni Jo Oct. - Ikat Cane, taught by Lisa

Treasurer - Angela gave the treasurers report.

Bottles of Hope Coordinator- Nance: Nance gave an update on the ‘bottles of hope’ project. She received one donation bottle at the meeting from LeeAnn. Nance had blank bottles available for whoever wanted to work on the project.

Librarian- Jane and Lee Ann will continue to bring books at our meetings.

Web Master- Stacie will do updates, Angela will do major web revisions and Myra will update the retreat page.

3. Old Business: State Fair Demo - (Angela) The guild is scheduled to Demo at the State Fair on Sunday September 16th from 2-6pm. Contact Angela for parking and fair passes.

Retreat 2013 - Penni Jo has posted a call for Artists with a September 7 deadline.

4. New Business: Guild Library Storage: Discuss possible options (Angela has some thoughts)

Other New Business: none

Announcements: No raffle in September.

Penni Jo is going to show us how to construct a rose cane and teach us a little about color values. She is very knowledgeable on all things polymer and on color palettes. Penni Jo is the co-founder of the guild and has her own mold business.

Materials needed:

• Polymer Clay
  Rose cane, three values of three colors of clay.

One very light, one dark and one medium. (Actually It’s a good idea to bring more than three colors as you may change plans as the class progresses)

Be sure to bring white as it can be used to lighten a chosen color if needed. If making leaves, bring three values or colors to make the leaves.

The value (light and dark) of the colors are as much or of more value than the actual color selected. If your primary color is #5 value, the dark color value needs to be nearer 8 than 7. The lighter color value will need to be nearer 2 than 3. Value Chart

If making a bracelet, bring clay to cover the bracelet in that color of your choice. I covered the DIY bracelet that was in the goody bag from our retreat.

Note: To be able to complete the canes have your clay already conditioned.

• Pasta machine to make the Skinner blend.
• Acrylic Roller
• Blade: tissue or other blade, not an Exacto blade.
• Ruler
• Small Peej Pick or a round skewer or toothpick
• Your Favorite polymer clay tools, you never know. …
• Optional: Metallic gold or tan clay for tiny dots
• Gold Mica Powder

Important note: Use the same brand for all of the colors. This is important for if you use more than one brand of clay, some brands will move faster than others and, in doing so, will distort the pattern.

There will be no swap or raffle this month.

It began with Show and Tell. Tom brought thumb drives that he had covered in polymer, using several different techniques. Myra showed two candle holders that she had made using translucent polymer tinted with alcohol inks. Penni Jo showed a cross she had created and faux pearl earrings that looked very authentic. Best Flexible Molds has just come out with a new sea shell mold. Penni Jo also showed pearl pens. They can be used on baked clay. The company that makes the pens is helping to sponsor Penni Jo’s faux embroidery book that is in development. Jane showed several different bowls that she had made using the techniques that she will be teaching today.

The raffle was next. Tom, Lisa, Kay and Angel brought goodies this time and there were two retreat goody bags. Kay got Tom’s, Tom got Lisa’s and Kay’s, Cheryl got Angel’s and Angela and Angel got the goody bags. Kay, Tom, Cheryl, Angela, and Angel will be bringing items for September’s Raffle.

Jane taught us how to make a lace cane and then demonstrated different techniques to use with translucent clay. She showed samples of the different brands of translucent clay and their transparencies when baked. Jane taught us how to make small bowls, using a glass bowl as a form. The bead rimmed bowl was a terrific idea and all the bowls were great examples of ideas and techniques that can be done.

Bottles of Hope - Nance reported that more and more people are aware of the Bottles of Hope program. Her oncologist greeted her at her last appointment by saying, “You’re the one who’s involved with the Bottles of Hope!” Centers are thrilled to have the bottles available for patients. Nance will take some to her doctor’s office to be given out.

Programs - Lee Ann announced the up-coming programs:

August - Protective Coatings taught by Shirley and Lee Ann

September - Rose cane taught by Penni Jo

October - Dekat cane taught by Lisa (bring an extruder for this class!)

August Swap - The theme for the August guild swap is “Dog Days”.

Library Drawing - Jane reported that this month’s library purchase was the Polymer Café subscription. She reviewed the latest issue. This issue’s contest is “Nature”. The entry is due by August 30. You just need to send a photograph and entry form to the magazine. Scott Publications is also looking for entries for a steampunk magazine.

Old Business - 2013 Retreat - Penni Jo reported on the spring retreat. We discussed the theme and decided to keep the safari theme. There are many options within the theme— The swap could focus on flora or birds or animals—lots of opportunities. We already have reserved the church for the second weekend in April. Penni Jo had a list of 13 committees that will need a chairman or co-chairmen and then a committee working together to make their responsibilities happen. We have doubled in size this last year so we should be able to spread the responsibilities out among more people. The committees were: Chairman - Penni Jo was voted to again head up the retreat. Cheryl will serve as a “vice-chairman” to help her. Decoration - Ruth agreed to handle the decorations.
Food - Jane will head Demonstrations - Cheryl will work on getting the demonstrations and scheduling them. Treasurer - Angela has agreed to do again. Registrar - need volunteer Swap - Marcia will chair Donations - need volunteer Ovens - Tomnotbob will be the “oven chief” again. April and Nance will help him. Printing and Artwork - Myra will cover Publicity - Shirley will do Website - Myra will update the retreat part of the website We agreed to leave the schedule as it was last year. Penni Jo will put out the word looking for a teacher. We agreed that $50 was the limit for guest teacher’s classes. We will work with the teacher regarding who collects the fees for the class.

New Business -

State Fair competition - The guild will again sponsor a polymer clay division at the Oklahoma State Fair. Entry applications are available at okstatefair.com. Applications may be turned in from July 2nd through August 15th. All entries must be taken to the fair grounds on September 8th or 9th. You can enter one item per category.

September Meeting - Our meeting in September will be held at the SW OKC Library because the City Arts Center will not be available during the state fair. Everyone agreed that the new meeting place was great. Lots of room!

Library Drawing Change - We discussed doing a library purchase every other month rather than monthly. Penni Jo made the motion and Angel seconded it. The other months we will purchase items needed for the guild such as oven thermometers or rental space.

Meeting Time - We agreed to leave the meeting times from 1:30 to 4:30 pm. We must be out of the building by 5:00 pm or there is an additional charge. Leaving the time as is will allow us a few minutes to prep and set up and then time afterward to clean up.

There was no other business and the meeting was adjourned.

Our next meeting will be August 11 from 1:30 to 4:30 at the City Arts Center.

This meeting is on July 14, 2012 from 1:30 to 5pm.

Jane will be the first teacher in our new place. She has worn many hats in the guild, among them being president and librarian. Polymer Cafe has published her works and we have benefited from her lessons. She will teach us about transparent clay.

July’s Guild Meeting Supply List—

• 2-3 oz. translucent clay, any brand (Pardo is the whitest but maybe
• hard to find locally)
• 1 oz. conditioned white clay (not Sculpey)
• Pasta machine
• Blade
• Ruler
• Scissors
• 2 or 3 deli papers (if you don’t have any, I’ll have extra)
• Smooth work surface
• Favorite tools
• Brayer or acrylic rod
• Craft Knife
• Knitting needle or Penni Jo’s tools
• Sand paper, 400 grit

Optional: Choose 1 or 2 you want to try on translucent—

• Chalks, (soft paint brush, about 1/4 inch)
• Crayons
• Acrylic paints, brush
• Alcohol Inks, (alcohol in sprayer, glove, paper towels)
• Colored Markers
• Colored Pencils
• Pearl powders
• Glitters, metallic leafs
• Canes
• 1/2-1 oz. different colored clays
• Stamps

Raffle

July is raffle month, so bring a few extra dollars if you want to participate! May’s winners (Lisa, Tom, and Lori) will be supplying the prizes.

Starting with our next meeting on July 14th, we will be meeting at the City Arts Center at the State Fair Park (3000 General Pershing Blvd, Oklahoma City). They have several large rooms available, all of which have plenty of space, good lighting, durable floors, and plenty of sturdy tables and chairs to accommodate our group. We liked Studio 2 the best, and hope to make it our main meeting room; however, we may be moved to other rooms, depending on what’s available on a particular day. We’ll post the current month’s meeting room on our website in the monthly meeting announcement.

It’s easiest to get to the City Arts Center off May Ave at the fair’s Gate #3 (most other gates stay closed). You can use this map to help find your way to the building. Once there, you can load in and out using the drive-through. For those of you carrying heavy items, they have large rolling carts available — just ask at the front desk. Their staff can also assist with any other questions you might have.

We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting!

Shirley opened the meeting by welcoming new members and guests, Marsha, Barbara and Lisa. She announced that the IAO Gallery would be hosting the Fiberworks showing beginning on Friday and going through July 7. She also told us about a bead shop at Sante Fe & Danforth in Edmond, Beadle Dee Beadle Done. It is a welcoming little shop with lots of fun stuff!

Show and Tell started off with Jane and Penni Jo showing translucent earrings and butterfly. Alex showed a cute purse holder and Lisa showed multiple marbles that she had made. Angela showed a picture of a dog as a muse. She did the artwork in polymer on an 8 x 8 canvas. It sold at a benefit for Pets & People—hence the reason we only got to see a picture of the piece! Kay brought several items from the kitchen and sewing tools and showed how to use them for polymer. She also had two “peelers” from Dan & Tracy’s website, www.dancormier.ca. They shave perfect slices from canes. The business meeting started with the approval of the minutes.

LeeAnn announced that the classes for the next meetings will be: July - Jane will teach how to use translucent clay August - Shirley & Lee Ann will teach different protective coats for polymer September - Penni Jo will teach how to make a rose cane

Angela gave the treasurers report.

Nance reported that she has found a great source for bottles for the Bottles of Hope project. She passed out several bottles to members. Nance taught a class to 22 ladies who had a great time. She invited them to come to the guild meetings.

Jane gave a review of the guild’s new book, Enlightened Polymer Clay. She showed a leaf necklace she had made following the book’s instructions. She said the book was very inspirational but the instructions were a little sparse.

Stacie will not be able to attend as many meetings. However, she will continue to work on the website.

Old Business opened with great praise for the April retreat. Penni Jo’s vision and diligent work helped to make the event a great success. Christie Friesen’s classes were fun and great learning experience. The general consensus was the theme helped provide “flow” to the whole event. Bob Linn has been nominated as an honorary member of the guild! His help with set up, clean up, bringing in pizza and just generally checking to see if anyone needed anything was a huge help! Different ones commented on how good the food and programs were. It was an all-around success.
Discussion was held regarding whether we wanted to have another retreat next year. Cheryl made a motion to do so and Marsha suggested that we amend the motion so just set a retreat for next year and then revisit the idea again year to year. The motion passed.

Some things that need improvement for the next time are having more people involved so that just a few are not carrying too much of the load. We discussed having the food catered or splitting the meal planning among different groups so that one person was not in the kitchen so much. We talked about moving to a different venue and decided to stay at the same place for at least one more year. Penni Jo contacted the church and we have received permission to use the rooms again next April. Marsha volunteered to plan the table set up for next year.

The finances were for the retreat were also a success, resulting in actually making money for the event. The event the next year may result in more expenses depending on the teacher we choose and the food factors. Everyone felt the registration fee was very reasonable and we want to keep it that way for next year. Penni Jo will check on teacher availability. We’d like to have different techniques taught each year. We discussed new meeting place options, as we have grown too big for the Hobby Lobby classroom. A group will go to the City Arts Center located on the Fair Grounds to see if it is suitable. It was agreed that if the group felt it was a good place, they would go ahead and reserve the space.

Kay taught the guild how to make gift tags with polymer and gave out stamps and little goodies to embellish them. They were easy and fun to make!

The next meeting will be held on July 14 at 1:30 pm at the City Arts Center on the Fair Grounds. The meeting was adjourned.

Questions & Answers

Instead of doing a lesson this month, we had an informal Q&A session. Some of the topics discussed included using polymer clay on canvas, different ways of using mica powders, and how to create armatures. We’re so fortunate to have such knowledgeable members who are so willing to share!

Raffle

Our bimonthly raffle included a prize from Alex plus a retreat goody bag and a mish-mash of leftover retreat items. The winners were Lisa, Tom, and Lori. They will be bringing July’s raffle prizes.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be Saturday, June 9, 2012 from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm at the Hobby Lobby in Moore, when Kay will show us how to stamp and texture name tags.

Officer Reports:

• Vice President - Lee Ann - Upcoming Programs
  • June: Kay - Stamping and texture on name tags
  • July: Shirley and Lee Ann - Protective finishes for our projects
  • August: Jane - A transparent clay demo
  • September: Penni Jo - Rose cane
• Bottles of Hope - Nance recently led a Bottles of Hope class at the Norman Breast Cancer Center. She helped them make their own bottles to take home, then she also delivered 25 of our completed bottles to them. (Pics to come!)
• Treasurer - Angela reported that we now have 19 members (Lisa and Tina have joined since the last report). Angela also gave the full treasurer’s report and a brief report on retreat funds.

Old Business

Since several members were unable to be at this meeting, we tabled the retreat assessment meeting until June. No other old business was discussed.

New Business

State Fair Demo: The group showed interest in doing a demo at the state fair again this year, and agreed to the September 16th 2-6 p.m. timeframe. Angela will let the fair coordinator know we want to participate. We’ll wait til closer to fair time to make additional plans and determine how many tickets we need.

Leftover Goody Bags: The group ended up with a few extra goody bags from the retreat. Angela motioned, Ruth seconded, and the group voted to give bags to the members who were unable to attend. The other bags will be raffled off in coming months.

New Meeting Location: With 19 members, our group has just about outgrown the Hobby Lobby classroom. Several members gave reports on the locations they’d researched. Tom called many places, and the prices ranged from $30 for 3 hours at a Metro Library location to $75 and up. Angela reported that the South OKC library wasn’t ideal because only one meeting at a time could be scheduled. There was a lot of excitement about the City Arts Center option. The price there was $40 for 4 hours. Tom offered to get a bit more info from them, and other members mentioned a couple of other places they plan to contact. We will gather a little more info, communicate by email, and plan to decide this at the June meeting.

Polymer Clay State Fair Competition: The group decided to continue sponsoring the Polymer Clay Creations division at the Oklahoma State Fair. If it’s not too late to make changes, we will add a subcategory for mixed media entries, where the 60% clay rule doesn’t apply.

Toaster Oven: Tom agreed to transport the guild’s toaster oven to and from meetings. Jane will bring it to him at the next meeting.

Library Drawing: Our choice for this month was Enlightened Polymer Clay: Artisan Jewelry Designs Inspired by Nature. Since we have so many books — and since so few people are submitting ideas for new books — we briefly discussed cutting the library drawings to once every two months, or even once a quarter. We decided to revisit this in June when more members are present.

There’s been a request for a question and answer session where a person can get several answers to the same question. So come loaded with questions and chances are you’ll get them answered. If you’re a guest, don’t be afraid to ask any questions you may have. Bring a project to work on if you like.

Supply List

• List of questions
• Paper and pencil(to jot down answers)

Raffle

This month we’ll be holding a raffle, so bring a few extra dollars if you want to participate. March’s winners (Cheryl, Kay, Alex and Angel) will be supplying the prizes.

Our meeting will be held Saturday May 12th,2012, from 1:30 to 4:30 at the Hobby Lobby on I-35 and South 19th in Moore (2650 Service Road, Moore,OK 73160).

Here’s what some of the attendees had to say:

• “All 3 days were great, well organized, kept on time, good vendor presentation etc., etc., etc. I could go on beyond e-mail ability. In other words we had a GREAT time and will remember it all year.” - Julie
• “The creative energy in that room just washed over me like a warm wave. I don’t get to work on my clay as much as I like because….well, because my life interferes! IF I have my way, next year, I will be at the retreat from “the opening bell” till the end because I was grieving just a little knowing all the information and creativity that I was missing this time. Thanks so much for your kindness to me…..I felt right at home.” - Chris

Check out these photos, plus lots more, in our Facebook photo album (we’d love it if you shared your favorite on our Facebook page, too!)

We want to say a special thanks to our sponsors for all the goodies they donated. We’d love for you to visit their websites and say thanks for their generosity.

Thanks, too, to all who attended and to those who spent so much time and effort making our retreat enjoyable. While the bags full of goodies and swapped inchies are nice souvenirs of our time on the safari, the real treasures are new friends, new ideas and memories that last forever.

Shirley welcomed us. There were no visitors and 14 members in attendance this month. The guild is sending a card to Sue.

Show and Tell

Penni Jo showed a pendant and earring made from the mokume gane technique that Shirley taught. Penni Jo also introduced her new “Penni Jo’s Clay Tools”. There are 8 tools neatly packaged in a zipped carrying case.

Jane showed a book mark and paperclip with cross embellishments that she will give to the church that is hosting the retreat. She also showed two of the inchies for the swap. She used a giraffe cane and a transfer technique for the inchies.

Shirley showed a pendant and a leaf made from the technique she taught.

Myra showed several pens and a pendant made with the mokume gane technique and a cool black and white bracelet with beads.

Kay showed a cute name tag with a tornado for the “Twisters”.

Someone brought a pendant made from the Angelina film that Tom will teach this month.

Tom had a notebook with an Angelina film cut out in the polymer clay cover.

Program

Tom taught the class this month about Angelina film.
He showed the several different forms in which Angelina is available and how each one can be used.

He demonstrated how it could be bonded together and then melted to form wings. We were encouraged to try the different kinds and come up with our own creations.

Penni Jo showed how she had made an opal. Lori made a very pretty “peacock feather”. Angelina is an exciting product with lots of applications for use with polymer.

The Raffle

The raffle donors and recipients were:

Jane brought a Lisa Pavelka border mold and steel block for hammering which Cheryl won.

Angela gave a glitter set and ProTech powder bonding agent that Kay got.

Penni Jo brought a deep cabon mold and candy paper (burrito free) for wrapping canes that Alex won.

Kay brought a shamrock cookie cutter, a Twister name pen, a PC magazine and 2 Premo red pearl clays which Angel won.

The winners Cheryl, Kay, Alex, and Angel will be responsible for bringing raffle goodies to the May meeting.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be Saturday, April 14 from 1:30 to 4:30 pm at the Hobby Lobby in Moore.