Meeting of the London Polymer Clay Group

16 May 2010

Report by Alison Gallant

Photos by Susan Rimmer and Ana Kolesnikova

To celebrate we had a treat with Christine Dumont showing us how to make her ‘Cellularia’ beads. Before demonstrating the focal beads, Christine showed us what she termed her ‘failures’! Now, everyone else would have been very happy to produce such work! Christine demonstrated the beads and we started to make our own. The group ranged from newcomers to old hands and there was a wonderful array of colour choices.

While the canes were firming up, Lisa Fagg showed us her sample tiles based on Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio’s book, ‘Polymer Clay Color Inspirations’. Rather than compile a collage of favourite snippets from magazines, Lisa produced tiles based on Lindly and Maggie’s pivot tiles project. She used the package colour for one tile and added amounts of white, grey and black to the other three, in warm and cool tones. This was a most interesting exercise, Lisa, and brought the pages of the book to life, thank you.

After lunch it was back to the demo table and Christine showed us how she arranges the focal pieces on a base of scrap and then fills in the gaps. Following that she rolled the completed piece, without distorting the pattern, and finally formed a pendant shape. Christine then sent us to work on our beads.

To mark the day as a celebration, Carol had bought an iced cake and a ‘jelly roll’ cake. Chris was the only gentleman present and it fell to him to blow out the 3 candles before we all enjoyed a slice with our tea.

The ‘Show and Tell’ table was groaning and everyone was encouraged to speak about their creations. Why are we Brits so reluctant!

When the beads were baked, Christine demonstrated her way of finishing them, firstly with sanding pads and then micromesh cloths to give the smoothest of surfaces. We all went home clutching our beads (some were more prolific than others!). Thank you so much, Christine, for a brilliant workshop.

We are looking at alternative venues for our meetings, preferably with tables and a kitchen! Sue Margetts will be in touch with details of our July get together and we hope to see you all there.

Alison Gallant.

And, as a bonus, lovely shots taken by Ana Kolesnikova! Thank you Ana, you're such a sweetie!