[tags]ipca, progress and possibilities, book[/tags]

Have you joined the International Polymer Clay Association yet?  Prompted by their survey, I finally purchased a family membership yesterday.  This is the organization that used to be know as the National Polymer Clay Guild, but has changed its name in response to the international nature of the polymer clay community.  In addition to supporting the polymer clay art form, benefits of membership include (taken directly from the IPCA website:)

-monthly e-mail newsleter, the International Polymer Clay News*

-ability to add classes to the Event Calendar

-ability to submit articles and class announcements to the Web site

-access to member’s only content on the Web site.

-entry in the quarterly Membership Appreciation Drawing **,

-ability to participate in the annual Progress & Possibilities competition and exhibition

-ability to participate in the ACREs of Opportunity program

-discounts to classes, workshops and conferences (when applicable).

-inclusion in the Membership Directory and the Web Link Directory

-option to have your work featured in the page banner on our web site

-borrow from our library of books and videos

-rent our educational slide show for presentations

-acesss to the online POLYinforMER, a newsletter devoted to increasing the knowledge of IPCA members

There are individual as well as family memberships available, in addition to junior memberships if you have a polymer clay artist under the age of seventeen.  We opted for a one year family membership, because everyone in this household regularly raids Mom’s clay stash.   The direct link to membership information is here.

[tags]ipca, polymer clay groups[/tags]

The Houston Polymer Clay guild has announced their Lone Star Retreat 2009. They have three stellar instructors booked for this event, Kim Cavendar will be teaching “Faux Sticks and Stones,” Dayle Doroshow will be teaching “Shimmering Rattle Beads,” and Barbara McGuire will be teaching “Mokume Gane Collage Pendant.”  Sounds like a fabulous and inspiring time!

Check out the guild’s website here.

[tags]Lone Star polymer clay retreat 2009, houston polymer clay guild[/tags]

you’re tweet Valentine’s Day card

Originally uploaded by threemoonbabies

Found these adorable little birds on Flickr this morning, aren’t they precious? This was created by Marjorie Dalgarn of Three Moon Babies. Her etsy shop is here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=97201

And she can be found at Lollishops here:
http://www.lollishops.com/threemoonbabies

Her blog is here:
http://livingwiththreemoonbabies.blogspot.com/

As I was enjoying looking through her Flickr photostream, I also was introduced to a cool Flickr group I had not seen before, the “Shadow Boxes & threedimensional pictures ~ polyclay, handmade” group, which can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/shadow-boxes/pool/

There is lots of fine mixed media and polymer clay work to be seen in this group, check it out!

ArtFire is one of several new venues offering artists and crafters a place to sell their handmade goods.  They have recently launched their Guilds feature, which gives artists with something in common, whether that be materials or location, a place to connect, network, and promote.

“Polymer Clay Smooshers” is the name of the guild for “artists who use polymer clay alone or in mixed media creations” created by Brittney Gobble of BGobble Art.  You can check out the Guild page here, and the Flickr group here.

There’s an Etsy shop I’d like for you to see, it’s for charity and all proceeds go towards helping other organizations that are helping families. Here’s a blurb from the shop :

This is a non-profit shop that takes art work from any polymer clay artist that wishes to contribute. Every four months the PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artist Guild on Etsy) will vote on a children’s charity for which to donate ALL of the sales from this shop to that orginization.

So. thats about it for today. I have other things that need attended to. Like washing clothes, cleaning toilets, I might need to the toilets first, then me,

Getting back to voting, While I can’t sit here and tell you word for word what’s in this issue of Polymer clay. I will tell you that the tutorials are great. I hope I get to keep it long enough to do the ones I want to try, or well ….. until I have to mail it to the winner sometime this week To be entered to win,all you have to do is go to PCC and vote for your favorite entry  then email me with who you think will win in the PCC drawing

                Don’t forget   Email me at polymerclay@craftgossip.com  if you think you know who will win

Hi ladies (and gents?) !

I was cruising around some old haunts on the web, and one of them was the Poly Clay Play website. When I found this gem of a site I was first beginning to explore clay. I love her site just as much today. Trish Hodgens is the owner of the Poly Clay Play site, which offers tools and unique supplies to help keep the polymer fun going with monthly sales. She also has monthly clubs for both, adults and children. There are free samples of a few of her her club projects on the site. Oh, and there are monthly challenges, this month was the Spooky Tabletop decor. It was a hard choice to pick from the entries . Last month the theme was “bugs”. That looked like a fun one also. She offers monthly kits for her members of the club to use with the challenges. Then, there’s the Yahoo group where you can keep up with the going’s on over there and to vote in the challenges.

The thing that I loved on the Poly Clay Play site; Trish has a new way of doing color-mixing recipes and it also cures the problem you may have of storing them. She calls her system ” Rainbow of Color System” “ The Poly Clay Play Color Recipes & Storage System”

Here is a small description from the website about her new color-mixing product- 

“The Poly Clay Play” website is a superb site for polymer clay beginners to start. The monthly kits have all the instruction you need and Trish doesn’t mind answering any of you questions. She has well stocked supplies of all kind of goodies, I spotted a texture sheet that’s gonna be mine! So, beginner or pro, at least check out her supplies!

A comprehensive kit with everything you need except clay.

Color chips at your fingertips. Easy to See – Easy to Recreate !

Poly Clay Play’s ~ Rainbow of Color System Everything you need to create and save your recipes!
Binder	Recipe Card Pages hold up to 180 Recipes
Printed Recipe Cards for your New Polymer Clay Recipes	Pre-Printed Recipe Card with lots of colors to try
Inventory Sheets	Shopping Lists
Polymer Clay Color Charts	Web Access to New Color Recipes
Step-by-Step Easy to Understand Instructions for making your own or following the included recipes.

Color chips at your fingertips. Easy to See – Easy to Recreate!

 Let me know if anyone has one or gets one, so you let me know how easy it is.

[tags]Polymer Clay – General, color recipes, Poly Clay Play, monthly kits, challenges, website review[/tags]

What are you waiting on ? Don’t be shy, go ahead and post those pictures! Now I’m getting started with my featured Flickr group photo of the day.

This gorgeous piece was done by Pips Jewellery Creation. It’s a black, gray and white focal strung on a silver chain. It’s “a new kaleidoscope pattern”, says Pippa of this piece. I love how it’s perfectly set in a silver bezel.

While black and white piece isn’t in her Etsy shop yet, this beautiful green swirl focal pendant is. I love how you can see the translucency and depth in this one. Check her shop out and find your favorite.

 [tag]polymer clay, Etsy, Flickr, jewelery,Flickr groups[/tag]

VOTE for your favorite entry and be entered in a drawing to WIN one of two August prize packs. The first is entitled All Decked Out, and it contains 8 one-of-a-kind colorful accessories: necklace by michellesclay, barrettes by silvergate, pin by clayangel, earrings by vickicockcroft, bracelet by polymerclaycreations, ring by saltandpaper and key chain by irishmishly. The second is a set of two gorgeous necklaces by paperpam and pipsjewellery. There are two great prizes to be won this month.

The Polymer Clay Aritst Guild of Etsy held their monthly challenge voting this week and Elizabeth Bonura from Elizabethbonura.etsy.com won with her submission of this beautiful Orchid Hair Pin.

Visit the PCAGOE website to view all entries, including my little birds!

[tags]polymer clay, PCAGOE, etsy[/tags]

photo credits:
1. PCAGOE Sept. Challenge – Pickwick, 2. The Jewel is in the Lotus-necklace, 3. The Hungry Caterpillar Frame, 4. PCAGOE September Challenge Entry, 5. Snowy Owl Christmas Ornament, 6. September Challenge Piece

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.