London Polymer Clay Group

At the 6th birthday celebration The Sisterhood Necklace will be making a special appearance! This is a one off visit.

The Sisterhood Necklace was a donation by Melanie West at the Synergy polymer conference auction in Atlanta, Georgia in March this year. Christi Friesen and myself were both bidding and both wanted it so we will share it. We were going to halve the 2ft 6ins necklace, but this would be vandalism so we have decided to use the necklace to raise more money for charity.

The necklace has been travelling around Australia with Christi to several towns where she has been teaching. At each venue the necklace has been photographed being worn by the students and these photos have been posted on Facebook. Each person photographed is invited to donate what they can, be it coins, notes or cheques to the Samunnat Project in Nepal.

The funds raised will go to the abused women in Nepal who make polymer beads to sell to support their families. The project is raising money to help them build their own building so they can work safely and are independent of greedy and difficult landlords.

The plan is for the necklace to be photographed being worn by the most number of people where ever around the world –like a Guinness world record.

So next Sunday, during the birthday celebrations, we hope you will want to be photographed wearing the fabulous necklace and be generous at the same time.

You are all invited to be part of this fun way of raising money for a worthwhile cause for fellow polymer bead makers less fortunate than ourselves.

Carol Blackburn

edited by: Vero Sturdy

Dawn is willing to do food again for us on May 26th but as the weather isn’t very cold and due to the preparation time she is willing to make sandwiches, salads or ploughmans.

If some of you do want some please could you let her know the types of fillings or if salad etc. before Friday 24th May. The prices depending on what you would like.
Contact is Laura Zodiac Jewellery on FB or sleepless-in-ldn@hotmail.co.uk

Carol has found a design for our group jigsaw piece but she isn’t telling what it is!  However, she has suggested that you bring some black and some white clay to the meeting (plus some colours) if you would like to take part, Penny will have her Clayaround shop at the meeting if you need more supplies.

Also a reminder that to qualify for entry to the Early Bird draw you need to have registered and paid by midnight on 15 May.  Of course you can still register after that time, the deadline just gives you a chance to save the cost of the £15 registration fee

You can book now for our next meeting which will be on Sunday 26 May.  This is our birthday meeting, so we are going to try another group project.

This time we have decided to borrow an idea of Julie Eakes which Veronika came across on Facebook Polymer Clay Artists Group. Everyone got a black-and-white photo of part of the overall picture and interpreted it in clay using colours and techniques of their choice.  It was only when they assembled the tiles that they discovered the end picture! (We’ll obviously be using a different picture, half the fun is not knowing what the end result will be)

You won’t need any special equipment or clay for this meeting, just your usual kit and supplies (click here for a general list).  However, if you want to buy some extra supplies, Penny is going to bring her ClayAround shop (we aren’t doing a bulk order this time, pay her using cheque/cash only).

Because it is out birthday there will be some special Eats-And-Treats (including another of Clare’s delicious birthday cakes, the whisper is that this one will have a chocolate brownie theme), and we will of course have the Show-and-Tell table, but we probably wont have time for a demo.  We haven’t yet decided about Emily’s beginners’ group (she wants to be part of the group project), but if you need help there will be 40+ people to ask!)

The times and venue will be the same as usual – ie 10.30 – 4.30 at the Hugh Cubbitt Hall (address etc here).  Please note that the cafe is no longer available so you will need to bring a packed lunch but we will have the use of the kitchen to make teas and coffees.

To be entered into the Early Bird raffle you will need to book (and pay your £15) by midnight on Wednesday 15 May – that’s only 10 days away so don’t delay!

We only accept bookings in advance.  You can pay by PayPal when you book, or if you don’t have a a Paypal account please email bookings@lpcg.co.uk if this presents a problem for you.

LIBRARY

Finally, a reminder that you will need to bring your cheque book if you would like to register to use our library of polymer clay books and videos

Our next meeting will be on Sunday 26 May.  Last year we did the zentangle canes as a team project and we all enjoyed it so much we thought we would do something similar this year too.

After much debate we have decided to borrow an idea of Julie Eakes which Veronika came across on Facebook Polymer Clay Artists Group. Everyone got a black-and-white photo of part of the overall picture and interpreted it in clay using colours and techniques of their choice. Everyone got a black-and-white photo of part of the overall picture and interpreted it in clay using colours and techniques of their choice.  It was only when they assembled the tiles that they discovered the end picture! (We’ll obviously be using a different picture, half the fun is not knowing what the end result will be)

You won’t need any special equipment or clay, although if you want to buy some extra supplies, Penny is going to bring her ClayAround shop (we aren’t doing a bulk order this time, pay her using cheque/cash only).  There will also be Eats-And-Treats (including another of Clare’s delicious birthday cakes) and the Show-and-Tell table but we probably wont have time for a demo.

The times and venue will be the same as usual – ie 10.30 – 4.30 at the Hugh Cubbitt Hall.  Booking will open later this week, and you will need to book by 5pm on Sun 12 May to be entered into the Early Bird raffle – watch your emails!

South of the River is a satellite group of the LPCG, our next meeting will be on Sunday 28th April, all are welcome to join us. Our venue is in Selsdon/Croydon and was the venue for the recent Sarah Shriver workshops. We meet from 10.00am to 5.00pm. As a smaller group we usually have a theme for the day, instead of a demo. Theme not set yet, any ideas.
Please Email me on ann@lpcg.co.uk, for further information, or to confirm a place.
Ann

It was a lovely sunny weekend and the venue in Croydon was spacious and light, and handily right next to Sainsburys. Those of us fortunate enough to get spaces on the workshops with Sarah Shriver had a real treat. Sarah’s work is amazingly detailed and beautifully executed so it was brilliant to be able to learn from her. We had a lot of fun and learnt so much!

We also learnt Sarah likes coffee!

On Saturday we made Intricate Kaleidoscope canes. They certainly are intricate but with Sarah’s teaching experience we all achieved a magical result! Sometimes the starting components didn’t look so great but there were plenty of gasps of delight as people’s canes took shape and they realised that they had made a beautiful cane.

Cara’s canes                                 Sarah’s class pieces                    Dawn’s cane

Several of us went out for dinner to an award winning fish and chip restaurant nearby on the Saturday evening which was really nice to have a chance to talk to people away from the clay table (although I am sure we carried on talking polymer clay a lot too!).

On Sunday we made big beads. Sarah cautioned us about not trying to make too many and I think we mainly listened to her advice. The process is complex and rather involved but produces stunningly beautiful beads. I learnt so many news skills from Sarah during this workshop and have 2 lovely finished beads that I am very proud of. Can’t wait to make a few more and turn them into a necklace.