February 21st meeting

We will have our next meeting on February 21st at 10:30 am at Rita's house. (Directions below)

 Cynthia will be demonstrating the "Crushed Velvet" mica shift technique.  (Photos of earrings at end of post) You will need your usual clay kit plus the fettuccini attachment for your pasta machine.  That is the big, heavy attachment that fits on the back of the pasta machine and has two different sizes of cutting rollers - we all take it off and put it who knows where.  I can find one of mine and if we have a couple more, we should be fine.

You will also need metallic clay to take advantage of this technique.  Any colour of metallic clay will work and you can make your own colours by adding some opaque clay to pearl.  You can use your crushed velvet to make anything you want.  You don't want the clay to be too sticky because we are going to put it through the narrow cutters.  If your clay is very soft and sticky, you may want to leach it a bit.

Please let Rita know if you are coming to the meeting so we can be sure to have enough chairs. Email is ritamicallef@rogers.com

Address is:  320 Trudelle St., Scarborough.  M1J 3K1.  which is on the north east corner of Trudelle and Torrence.  The driveway is on Torrence Rd.  Telephone:  416-289-1674

I’m one street north of Eglinton, between Bellamy and McCowan.  (McCowan becomes Danforth Rd. around Lawrence)

For those coming from the west end, take the 401 going East.  Get off at McCowan, turn south (right) Go down to Trudelle St. and turn left.  This street meanders a bit just go past 2 or 3 stop signs and turn left onto Torrence.  Its the first driveway on the right.  If you miss Trudelle St. coming off McCowan/Danforth Rd. don’t panic, go down to Eglinton and turn left.  You will then pass McCowan and turn left on Torrance and I’m on the first driveway on the right. 

For those coming from the EAST, take the 401 and get off at Markham Road.  Travel south to Eglinton, turn right on Eglinton, go past Bellamy and turn right on Torrance (stop sign), cross the street and I’m the first driveway on the right.

November meeting

Please note that our November meeting is on the 22nd, NOT the last Sunday of the month.
10:30am-4pm   Bring lunch
The location is Judith Ann's condo building.

Location Details:

650 Lawrence Avenue West, just east of the Allen Expressway

There is visitor parking in the garage.   Go to the console in front of the building and enter 7777.  Judith Ann will buzz you in and the garage door will open.    Drive in, turn left and park in a spot with the letter V in front of it.

We are in the Party Room on the Ground Floor.  Press G in the elevator.

Ink Painted Triangle Books

In Sunday's workshop we'll be making ink painted clay triangle folding books that can tell a visual story or simply be an interesting coloured design piece. People love to play with these as they try to make the pyramids. They could make a good Christmas stocking stuffer. 

You'll need to bring your basic clay kit along with the following: 

Index card or heavy paper to make a template

2 or more packages of white clay 

Cornstarch for a release 

Piñata or Adirondack inks

Rubbing alcohol 70% or higher

Spray bottle for alcohol 

Small narrow paint brush 

Paint tray  - plastic egg cartons are great

Container for cleaning brush

Medium or course regular sandpaper for texture

Texture sheets

Kemper and other assorted cutters

Tools to make designs in clay

Needle tool

Make up sponge

Liquid clay

Drywall sandpaper

Thin waxed cord

Small drills

Scissors 

Index cards and small tiles for baking

Preserve Your Memories spray - optional 

Gold marker - optional 

Next meeting in September

Our next meeting will be September 27th. 

The location is Judith Ann's condo building.

Location Details:

650 Lawrence Avenue West, just east of the Allen Expressway

There is visitor parking in the garage.   Go to the console in front of the building and enter 7777.  Judith Ann will buzz you in and the garage door will open.    Drive in, turn left and park in a spot with the letter V in front of it.

We are in the Party Room on the Ground Floor.  Press G in the elevator.

May meeting details

We will have two teachers for our May meeting on the 31st from 10-4.  Bring lunch.

Rita will show us how to make some lovely flowers which can be used to make a brooch.  You need to bring basic clay kit,  20 gauge wire, wire cutter and white clay, green clay for the leaves , brooch clip and mica powders.

Kathy will show us how to make faux soutache: 
-Basic kit
-Extruder
-2 or 3 colours of clay plus black
-Glass or stone cabuchon
-Small seed beads or crystals for embellishment
-Thin wire that'll go through the beads
-Texture sheet
-Bail or jump ring

I have extra cabs, seed beads & wire for anyone who needs themas well as an extra extruder to lend

Location Details:
650 Lawrence Avenue West, Party Room, Main floor (just east of the Allen Expressway)

There is visitor parking in the garage.   Go to the console in front of the building and enter 7777.  Judith Ann will buzz you in and the garage door will open.  Push elevator button G to get to Main Floor.  Drive in, turn left and park in a spot with the letter V in front of it.

Next meeting in May

An exciting announcement! Rita has graciously offered to assume the role of president for our guild. She is very passionate about the guild continuing. Rita will be great in helping to keep us organized and working with all of us to build our membership base. Thank you Rita!!!!!

We've have had quite a time securing a meeting room.  Places seem to be one of - not available, too expensive, need insurance, not a central location, etc. But we have a neat idea to try, and if it works, then we can decide if we continue with this. Judith Ann lives in a very central location just south of Yorkdale and has been able to line up the party room in her condo building. The rent is more then we usually spend but I will propose that we make it a full day meeting and have a couple of people teach. This is something we had already spoken about. Would 10am to 4pm work with everyone?

Do we have people interested in teaching on May 31st? I hope Kathy is available as she had been changing plans to be able to teach in March and now our next meeting won't happen until May. 

Location Details:

650 Lawrence Avenue West, Party Room, 1st floor

There is visitor parking in the garage.   Go to the console in front of the building and enter 7777.  Judith Ann will buzz you in and the garage door will open.  Drive in, turn left and park in a spot with the letter V in front of it.

February meeting

At our meeting on the 22nd, which will be held at BeadFX at 1pm, I will show you how to make the following earrings and pendants.  Also, since we missed our January meeting, bring your tips and tricks to share.

Here is what you need:

Clay colors of your choice

Threaded rods, but I will have some to share

Circle cutters 1.5", 1", 5/8", 3/4", 3/8"

20 ga wire. 2" for pendant, 1.5" each for earrings

Round-nosed pliers for bending wire

Earwires

Bail or Jump ring

Chain

Your regular clay kit

November's meeting

We had a great time on Sunday making miniature Christmas cookies and candies.  Patti brought a whole plateful of examples and told us how she made them and then we all made our own.  Here is Patti's plate.

September 28, 2014 Meeting

Hi Everyone,

Now that fall is rolling in we hope many of you will be back to guild.

This month Barbara B will be teaching a cane by Meg Newburg.

 

Please bring your basic kit and two contrasting colours of firm clay. 

Barbara will be using black and white classic Fimo.

If you are using Premo, you could leach your two colours between sheets of paper overnight to firm it up.

See you there!

May 25th meeting

Hello all, here is the supply list for this months meeting:

"Spring Flowers"

Regular Clay kit

2  -  5 colours  - skinner  blended on one sheet (or less colours if you prefer)  (I used Premo clay)

Kemper cutters - oval or tear drop

Medium ball tool or ball tool set

Wire - 22 or 24 gauge - wire cutters, needle tool pliers, etc.

6  mm fire polish beads

pin backs / magnets

SMILES

2014 Workshops

Jan 26 - Our New Years party!
Feb 23 - Bottles of Hope
Mar 30 - open
May 25 - Rita
June 22 - BB2Shoes
Sept 28 - Barbara B
Oct 26 - Cathy
Nov 30 - Patti

October Meeting - Brainless Cane

I will be teaching the "Brainless Cane" which is being generously shared by Julie Eakes who taught it at Clay Carnival in Las Vegas.  It is an easy and fun technique and makes a surprisingly complex looking cane.

Julie taught us using Delft colors, shown in the following example, but you can use any colors you want.

You need a dark version of a color and a medium version plus white.

For the Delft colors using Kato clay:
Medium Blue - 1/2 package blue, 1/4 package white, 1/4 inch ball of orange
Dark Blue - 1/2 package blue, 1/8 package black, 1/4 inch ball of orange
White

Those using the same colors and the same brand of clay can exchange cane pieces.

Pixelated Retro Canes

Barbara Colautti taught a great class today featuring Bettina Welker's Pixelated Retro Cane.  The class results are below:

Crackle Techniques

Don't forget - Sunday September 8 is our special "make-up" class for the one we had to cancel earlier this year.

I will be demonstrating a variety of crackle techniques using different materials.   Because some of these methods require some drying time, I recommend making something simple like earrings or a small brooch.  There will be a two-page handout.

Cynthia

Supply List for Crackle Class

Regular clay kit
Black clay
White clay
(any other colors you might want to use)
Paint brushes
Container for water for washing paint brushes
Silver leaf or gold leaf
Alcohol inks (preferably Piñata)
Mica powders
Little paint mixing pots or palette
Alcohol
Don't go out and buy any of the following, but bring them if you have them
Daler-Rowney FW Pearlescent Liquid Acrylic
Inca Gold paints
Viva Precious Metal Color
Deco Art One Step Crackle
Jones Tones Foil
JAZZ brand tempera paint
Future floor finish
Glazes such as Golden Polymer Varnish

anything else you'd like to experiment with

Meeting Changes

Because of the holiday weekend and expected low attendance, the June meeting has been cancelled.  Instead, we will have an extra meeting in September on the 8th.  Cynthia will demonstrate a variety of crackle techniques.  The September 29th meeting will go on as scheduled.

March Meeting

Hi Everyone,
This months meeting has been changed to the 24th of March because the usual weekend is Easter!
Rita is teaching and here is her list of what to bring for her Sea foam brooch or pendant:

2 Polymer clay –  1 white and 1 rhino gray – Premo is fine

Liquid polymer clay

pin back finding if making a brooch

regular clay kit

watercolour paints – I will bring this
small brushes

textures – mesh is great

clay extruder
small sea shells  - about the size of a dime  - I will bring extras
 4-6 mm freshwater pearls – optional


Looking forward to this.
Cheers
Rita

More name tag samples

Name Tag and Image Transfer Workshop

We are making name tags next week so please bring the following:

- a pin back - the largest you can find (you may have old pins around the
house that you can dissect for this )
- clear packing tape (if you don't have any don't worry, someone else will)
- usual claying kit plus black and white clay (plus any colours you want to
decorate with)
- extruder
- paper, pencil and scissors
- TLS
- anything else you'd like to decorate your tag with - molds, stamps,
veneers, beads, glitter, etc.
- you may also want to bring a variety of cutters both for cutting out your
id tag and for adding elements to your tag


We will be doing an image transfer for the SOPCG logo, so this will give you a chance to try image transfers.  Logos are optional.  Bring a bone folder or something to burnish the transfer if you wish to use it.


Here is an example of one name tag:

November Class - Ribbon Candy Ornaments

For our last class of the year we'll be making candy ribbon ornaments.  The photo above shows just a few things you can do with them.  The materials list makes plenty so we'll be able to swap and share.

You'll need:

• Basic clay kit
• A small package each (or thereabouts) of red, green, gold, white, pearl, and translucent, or other colours that you would like to play with.  The translucent, white, and pearl work well together, so try to bring one of each if you can.
• About a dozen toothpicks
• Wipes
• A 4x4 tile and paper or card stock

Optional items include

• Christmas embellishments if you want to add other decorations
• Christmas cookie cutters
• Pearlex
• Scrap clay
• Whatever other inspiration you need
• Ribbon

I will bring Future Floor polish and other items.

Cheers,

Sandy

Oct notes

From: Je V <claychick64@gmail.com>

Subject: [sopcg] Oct notes

Date: October 30, 2012 7:48:20 PM EDT

To: sopcg@yahoogroups.com

Reply-To: sopcg@yahoogroups.com

 

Here are the instructions for BB's workshop - I had drawn sketchs too but I can't add them here, sorry.

Choose 2 colours. Condition and roll out first to #3 (#1 being thickest).
Cut 5 circles decending in size, the largest the size you want your pendant.
Use the kemper cutters to cut out centre holes from the circles again decending in size (start with 2nd largest kemper)
Put your smallest "donut" on wax paper
Stack the remaining getting larger but leave the largest off.
Flip over and press down to get all sticking together - try to make a nice slope with the clay - but don't over-press and squish.

Top piece. You may use the one you cut and decorate it by cutting and adding spokes, or use colour 2 and cut out as you did the top piece.
Flip stack over and place your top on top smoothing down the edges. Flip and ease down edges. Flip back onto a tile.
Cover with Saran wrap and re-cut with large circle cutter to make nice edge.

Remember as you are stacking to keep the centre circles consistant - here's where a pic would help - It will look like steps going down a hole in the center.

Bake for 10-15 mins and then sand the back on dry wall mesh to make it nice and flat.

Cover back with TLS (less is more!) and place on a piece of colour 2 clay rolled out to #2.

Using a chopping motion, go around the piece cutting straight down going around and around until it is same size as top (we call this the "Dan" cut). If you angle the blade in slightly all around you can pick up the piece and using your finger gently smear the 2 clay edges together for a nice finished look (think pie in pie pan).

Sixth and last group of images from Barbara's October class