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Meeting
of the London Polymer Clay Group
28 March 2010
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Report and photos by
Carol Blackburn |
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The London Polymer Clay Group is growing and going
nationwide with people travelling from Gloucester, Manchester and Kent to join
us and at the March clay day 22 came, some new and some old
hands.
A warm welcome to new visitors Angela, Toni, Selina, Mel
and Christina.
We began the day seeing the class work
pieces that Sue Margetts and Angela Smith had made during 3 days
of workshops at Clay Corbieres Creatives1 near Narbonne in the south of
France recently. Christine Dumont and myself were among the 6
tutors there and Christine showed some of the hollow beads from the
project she taught.
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Show and Tell table |
Angela'a class work |
The 'show and tell' table was full of newly made
creations, giving rise to lots of questions and discussions.
Our next demo was more of a show and talk. Ann and
Emily Parker and Janet Roemmel had been working on colour mood boards following
directions in 'Polymer Clay Color Inspiration' by Maggie Maggio and Lindly
Haunani. They had been scouring magazines and the internet for interesting
pictures, colours and textures. They tore these out and pasted them onto
large pieces of card. They were beautiful and I can see there will be many
inspirational ideas coming from these. I'll look out for mood board
inspired polymer pieces appearing on the 'show and tell' table at the next
clay day! |
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| After lunch Julie Smallwood demo'd Faux
Ceramic. Julie had found the free tutorial on the internet, a simple
but very effective technique. All you need is white clay, liquid polymer
clay and some coloured spirit inks and a rubber stamp or two, as well as a
craft heat gun. After baking a piece of white clay impressed with a rubber
stamp, she mixed liquid clay and a drop of Ranger's Adirondack spirit ink,
which she applied to the 'valleys' of the impression. This was baked
again for 20mins. After baking it had a dull
matte appearance but here is where the heat gun comes in.
After heating the 'tile' the surface went from matte to
shiney! It looked just like a piece of glazed ceramic. Where
Julie left the hot gun a little too long and slightly burnt the clay, it
looked exactly like the worn edge on a tile! |
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Mood Boards and Colour Samples
Artists at Work |
The remainder of the day was spent with some
people having a go at the faux ceramic and generally talking polymer as
only polymer people know how!
We formed a informal steeing group to organise the LPCG as
it continues to expand. You'll be hearing more about this at the
next meeting, which will be on Sunday 16th
May at the London Bubble, Rotherhithe.
Oh! yes, it will be our 3rd anniversary and so we hope to
have lots of people helping us celebrate the occasion.
See you on 16th May.
Carol
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