July 2016 Clay Day

We had a really great day on 31st July!

Although the summer holidays meant that there were fewer of us than usual, the sun shone and there was a warm and friendly atmosphere all day with our lovely members helping one another with ideas.

We started off with a fascinating demonstration of Mokume Duo by Alison Clarke. Alison began by telling us about her difficult journey to reach the current stage in the development of her technique.

It was such a relief to learn about her early mistakes and failures – so it’s not just me then – but brilliant to watch how she has overcome these difficulties in order to achieve the beautiful beads she now creates using just two layers of clay – but of course it is not quite as simple as that.

She showed us in detail how to achieve success – who knew that nail art glitter could be so useful? By the end of the day the ovens were full of intriguing work created by members following Alison’s ideas – proof of her skill in demonstrating and explaining her methods.

Carol Blackburn then gave a short demo about sanding and buffing. It was really instructive and Carol showed us that with the sensible use of different grades of sandpaper the process does not have to be as painful as we might imagine.

The Show and Tell table was groaning with wonderful work and it was a treat to be able to chat about how some of the pieces had been made.

The future is looking rosy for the London Polymer Clay Group. Your Steering Group consists of Carol, Bridget, Ruth, Ann, Jude, Chris and Theresa, who has just agreed to become treasurer.

Ann has offered to be our events organiser in addition to all her other tasks, and she has some interesting ideas – so watch this space. Ruth is about to start building a new website which is sorely needed.

We are looking forward to our next Clay Day on Sunday 25th September – why not put the date in your diary now? We will let you know what demonstrations are planned well in advance of the meeting.

In the meantime get busy creating so that the September Show and Tell table is brilliant yet again!