OUR NEXT MEETING

We meet on a Zoom platform the 4th Saturday of the month at 12 noon. Meet & greet starts at 11:30am. Due to the Holidays there is no Zoom meeting in November. December we meet the second Saturday in December. We will post if a meeting is cancelled. We also have a Queen City Clayers Facebook page. Guild members have access to the Facebook guild group.

Friday, December 8, 2017

December Meeting cancelled

Hi everyone,
Due to weather and to very low attendance, we are cancelling the QCC Christmas Party / meeting tomorrow, December 9.

May everyone have a Merry Christmas,Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year!


Cheryl Smith

Thursday, November 2, 2017

October Clay Meet Up

Business:  Next month (November) no meet up.  December meet up will be the 2nd Saturday of the month.  Make note.  This day will be for sharing pot luck and great foods (remember that things need to be designated if they have any dairy products or are not vegan or gluten free).  We may see some Blue Ridge Guild members.  As for claying, it could happen.....  usually someone has a Christmas ornament to show off and we usually try to duplicate.  It isn't a has to happen though.  We plan to party, talk and enjoy!  Bring your tools and clay just in case...

Demo was given by Nancy.  She showed how to make a burl wood cane and how to put it on the pen kit tubes and while the tubes baked, she showed how to put the pen together.  There were some awesome pens that happened.  If you haven't seen the pic check on facebook.  They are really nice.  Great job all.  This burl wood cane was a Cindy Lietz class that Nancy had taken, so credit to Cindy Lietz.

Attendees:  Maggie, Cheryl, Nancy, Brian, Michelle, Kathleen, Pattie, Christine, Linda, Marcia, Sally and new member welcome to Sarah.

Friday, October 20, 2017

October clay day is for making pens.  The guild has purchased one pen kit for each member of the guild.  The kits will arrive with me on Saturday.  These kits are the inexpensive slim lines and they have many kits to choose from, should you desire to have more kits.  I will show you how to make the burlwood cane for the pens.  The faux wood seems to be very popular so I thought I'd share that one with you.
 
We will need minimal amts of clay for this.
 
Mostly we will use the metallics to get that shimmer we want.  Additional highlights of a couple other colors sometimes bring out the wood look so approximate amts are below and all are premo brands.  Figure approximately about 1/4 to 1/2 of a section of each of these colors (a square of clay packet has four sections in it).
18 K Gold
Copper
Bronz
Antique Gold
Gold
Pearl
 
Highlights require even less than the above so grab some scrap of Aliz Crimson, Ecru and Burnt Sienna (Like maybe a pinch of each if you use them).
 
Bring your usual clay tools
Buffing squares (I have a set and you can use mine if you don't have them)  Sandpaper will do also but I like the pads.
A dish to do your sanding in. 
A scrap of denim
Renaissance Wax (Mine can be shared)
A hammer and a wash cloth that can be ripped (in case you ruin it)
Ruler
,
If you don't want to make the burl wood pen, bring a sheet of decorated clay for your pen approximately 4" x 6.  Keep your design small as the actual amt of clay placed on the tubes is probably 2 x 3"
 
I'll bring alcohol wipes
I think that will do it.  Looking forward to seeing you all.
Nancy

Sunday, August 27, 2017

August 26, 2017

Business:  Laurie is looking into a group getting together and going off to Into The Forest.  More info to come.  Kathleen was working on getting a date for us to have a lesson on photographing our work.  More info to come later. 

 Demo is not in stone yet for the month of September.  Laurie is working on it.  More info to come.  October demo is Nancy with the pen kits.  Pen kits have been ordered and there is one for each (paid) member provided by the guild.  If you desire more than one pen, these pens can be purchased at Penn State Industries, you can find them on line (I normally go for the less than $4 slimline ones.)  If you are bringing a friend, let me know so I can pull a pen kit from my personal stash so everyone has something to work on.   I will demo how to attach your clay, how to sand your pieces to smooth as butter finish and lastly show you how to put your pen kits together. 

November is a no meeting month as it falls on Thanksgiving weekend and that is an issue for many.  December meeting will be the usual party and ornaments or whatever you might want to work on.  The date is the 2nd week of Dec rather than the 4th.  Make note of this.  Keep in mind when you bring treats that there are some with allergies to some food items.  I know there are some that need gluten free, some are vegan, and some cannot do any kind of dairy.  So, with that in mind, please prepare some goodies and be certain to know absolutely what the ingredients are so no one is getting ill.  Label things if you know they have dairy and we can prevent anyone going to the ER! 

Pattie gave a wonderful demo on a surface technique for transparent clay.  Chalks, pan pastels, silver leaf, gold leaf were all used, and from what I could see before I left, colors were varied and bright and everyone was getting ready to do some carving/cutting and forming.  Pattie had shown us several different techniques she has experimented with and brought some finished items as well.  Everyone was busy creating and enjoying.  Thank you Pattie for being so generous with your time and patience.  It was splendid.

Attendees:  Laurie, Pattie, Sally, Maggie, Cheryl, Kathy, Linda, Michelle, Brian, Nancy and Sally brought her daughter in law as a guest.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

July 22nd meetup

We all met at Linda's home to learn a bit of wire wrapping.  Linda provided us with tools, wire and stones.  We went crazy with wrapping and making necklaces and then we began on bracelets.  She gave us excellent instruction and guidance.  Thank you so much for being so kind and generous to the group.

Attendees:  Laurie, Linda, Sandy, Bridget, Maggie, Nancy, and Brian

Thursday, July 6, 2017

June's Meet Up

Business:  Linda Simon will be doing the demo on wire wrapping for July.  The meeting may be held at her home.  More info on that will come in personal emails.

Maggie gave a fantastic demo on the tile bracelet for us to use our tessellation canes.  After the demo we all worked on various projects and though we all started the bracelet, I'm uncertain if anyone finished their bracelet while at the meeting.  I think many of us carried it home to cook at a later time.  There was a lot of gabbing and fun!  Excellent demo.  Thank you Maggie.

Attendees:  Cheryl, Maggie, Kathleen and Nancy

Friday, June 16, 2017

June 17 meeting

Hi Y'all, Almost time for our next meeting. We are going to be making tile bracelets from the canes we made last time. If you didn't get to make the cane last time you can still participate. Just bring a 1" x 1" cane or a decorated sheet. If anyone has one of those fancy cane cutters and could bring it that would be great. If you don't have everything don't worry. It's going to be lots of fun! Maggie Supplies: Clay kit 2 blocks Premo clay color to accent cane choice 2 long small gauge knitting needles clay blade Mold release (corn starch, armour all or water sprayer) Texture sheet of choice to texture the back of tile Index card Elasticord (stretchy plastic cording) Spacer beads to match with holes large enough to take the elasticord. Markxit Ruler

Monday, May 29, 2017

May Meet Up

Business:  Dues are still being collected for this year.  If you have not gotten your dues paid to Cheryl, please put that on your list. The member list is being updated and if you have not supplied your name, address, email and phone, please contact Nancy and do that so the list can be updated and complete.  Thanks

Next meet up is in June and Maggie will be demo-ing how to make a tile bracelet from the canes you created at the May meet up.  If you missed the May meet up come with a cane, any cane that is rectangular and you can get at least seven slices off of it for your tiles. All is not lost if you were not able to attend.  Print outs of the directions for this cane are available upon request. 
July meeting is going to be wire wrapping.  Linda will demo for us.  More details to come later.

Demo today was done by Nancy using Judy Belcher's lesson on Tessellations.  Everyone seemed to understand the concept of the jelly roll cane and the skinner blend plug.  That made our efforts easier.  Everyone dove in and we took it at a pace that all seemed to be able to keep up with.  The components were made, the placements were shown (randomly) and the cane ends were used to reduce our canes.  Once we had a good four inch cane (and some were way more generous with their efforts and had a great deal of cane to play with) we began the magic of cutting and placing and reducing and creating designs.  What fabulous colors came about and the class attendees did a fabulous job!  Pics did not come of all the canes and some were made after the pics got snapped but this group dove in and made absolutely lovely designs. 
It was amazing to see the fantastic canes that happened.  I think these individuals have learned the technique for this method and could produce another set of canes if they so desired.  Very proud of you all for taking on this beautiful process.  Every single individual left with a variety of canes with coordinating colors.  FABULOUS!  Seriously I was so proud of you all taking on this task and sliding right on to the end with very little effort and big results.

Attendees:  Maggie, Cheryl, Michele, Sally, Brian, Linda, Kathy, Kathleen, Laurie and Nancy.

Monday, May 8, 2017

Supply List for your Tessellations Cane

1 full 4 oz package of white and the color you want to be your main skinner plug.  Go with a bold dark color.  Dk Blue, Dk Purple, Dk Brown, something that will give you a nice skinner plug with a variance of color.

Also need: 
Black 1- 4 oz pkg
Another White 1 - 4 oz pkg
Gold  2 oz
Green 2 oz

This should give you the basics for your cane.  If you desire another color then add it as well.  I try to go with the main color for the blend and almost always use the black & white and gold and green as it adds enough colors to make your cane pop.  Bring enough clay for you to use the full 8 oz for your plug as this may very well be the BEST CANE you'll ever create!  You want enough to have extra!  So your plug is going to use 1 full 4 oz of color and 1 full 4 oz of white to get your basic blend. 

Bring your usual tools etc to play.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

April meeting supply list

Reminder, I think this is the month to pay dues. I think they are still only $15. Mica Shift Demo A variety of different techniques will be demonstrated using rubber stamps, extruders and twisting clay. Clay with mica included such as Premo Accents clay works great, however you can blend Pearl with a standard color to obtain a pretty good result. Besides your usual clay kit, bring the following. I will have some stamps and extruders to share. You don’t need to have all the colors listed in the supply list they are just suggestions. Gold generally produces the most dramatic stamp and shave product. I did a skinner of two Accents colors and had pretty good result stamping with them. Supply List: Usual Polymer Clay kit including blades, tiles, pasta machine, etc… Extruder Premo Accents clay (the brown pendant uses Gold, Pearl, Copper and Brown) (spiral uses White Pearl, 18k Gold, Bright Green, Purple Pear, Blue Pearl, Orange and Purple) Cutters (optional) Deep rubber stamps See you Saturday, 12:00. Laurie

Monday, April 17, 2017

April 2017 Meeting

Hi Y'all, Our April meeting is coming up fast! This Saturday, the 22nd. Laurie is going to demo a mica shift technique. The usual meeting place, usual time. See you there. Maggie

Saturday, April 1, 2017

March Meet-Up

Business:  April will be the new dues date.  Dues are $15 for the year.  Once the forms and dues have been received a new listing of members will be shared.    Another reminder that Into the Forest has a new May 2nd deadline.  Cheryl's Dad is improving.

Kathy gave a fantastic demo.  She shared her techniques and bails and resin with the group.  Linda brought opals to share.  There was some major creation going on in the temp meeting spot.  Ideas, gabbing, creating, and chocolate ....what more could girls want!!!  Thanks Kathy for that fantastic demo.

Attendees:  Kathleen, Sally, Michelle, Kathy, Brian, Laurie, Linda, Julie, Maggie, Christina and Nancy

Saturday, March 18, 2017

QCC March meeting

Hi all, Hope everyone has gotten the notice of the meeting place change. If you haven't please contact me or Nancy. Here is the supply list from Kathy: Sorry this is so late. We will be working with layered translucents and resin to create pendants. Please bring your normal tools. Supply list: Translucent clay - 2 blocks Pearl clay 1 - block Colored pearl clay - assorted colors A combination of the following: canes, small charms, swarovski crystals, buttons. I will be providing pendants (2 each), ICE resin, gloves. I will have additional pendants available for $1 apiece. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Friday, March 10, 2017

March meeting important announcement

Our March 2017 meeting will not be at our usual meeting place. Cheryl will be out of town. Kathy will be doing the demo. More info to follow. Please contact me or Nancy to let us know if you plan to attend. Thanks, Maggie

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Feb 2017
Business:  Into The Forest submissions deadline is the first week (or so) of April 2017.  Address to send your items to:  Laura Tabakman, 137 Alleyne Drive, Pittsburgh, PA, 15215. 
Dues are due in April and will stay at the $15 for the year.  Cheryl is now our treasurer and will be taking your monies.  March demo will be presented by Kathy Hood.  Unsure at present what she plans to demo.  I'm certain she will have a supply list before the meeting.

Julie did a great demo for the group on leaves and pods.  We were shown several easy and useful ways to use spare (scrap) clay as well as the usual out of the package clay!  Wonderful demo on leaves and pods and her display leaves were awesome.  Her pods were fantastic as well.  We were busy in no time making our own creations.  Maggie also did a quick demo on a quick "magic" leaf cane using a bullseye cane.  So many useful techniques to practice!  Thanks Julie and Maggie for taking the time to show us these fantastic methods.  Julie also wanted all to browse this demo on a new pod that there is a demo on:  http://youtu.be/gWpaxwmi-Ko

Attendees:  Cheryl, Maggie, Julie, Kathy, Nancy, Brian, Sally, Michele

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

 Julie will be demo-ing for Into the Forest.  The is a global collaboration that myself, Laura Tabakman and Emily Squires Levine are working on which will be displayed in Pittsburgh in Nov, 2017.   I will show some leaf cane ideas, pods and maybe some other organic shapes.  The tools needed will be your standard clay kit - pasta machine, surface, blades, rollers etc.  you will need clay.  Be creative or stick with nature what ever you want.  Translucent works well with leaves.  You can bring inks to tint or just use pieces of clay.  A large ball stylus can come in handy for the pods.  Also bring old canes or scrap and I will show a modified Stroppel cane you can use.  I will try to give as much as I can but still leave time to finish.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

January Meet-Up

Business:  Cheryl has stepped down from being out VP.  She will take over the treasurer spot when Jennie leaves and that seems to be immediate.  We voted and Laurie will be our standing VP and we all wish her well.  (Pattie said she would help should Laurie not be able to do all the duties).  Great teamwork. That is exactly what we need.  Next demo will be with Julie.  We are going to make things for "into the forest".  Come prepared for fun and if you have never seen a leaf cane; pretty certain that will be one of the things that will be shown! All things you might see on the forest floor are acceptable!

Thoughts thrown out there:  We need more individuals to participate.  Those in charge need to know what you want to learn and where you are trying to get to, with your skills.  A list was passed in case someone had a desire that they learn something, but keep this in mind.  Don't be still; let everyone know if there is something you want to know how to do.  There could be one of us that knows how to do that very thing!  Relax and open up with each other.  We are a GROUP.  Also, in case it hasn't been said before; we realize that there are some that already know or have no interest in the on going demo.  There is not an issue with you coming and working on your own projects.  Remember this.  Our demo presenters will try not to be sensitive should you go your own way!  :)  There is always a rebel amongst us!  We try to realize some are more or less advanced in their process than others, and we all try to fit together and enjoy.

We had a great group show up for the meeting to learn Viking Knit.  Jennie was so kind to take the time and effort to show us all how to begin and end the projects.  She provided everything needed to get started as well.  Everyone had their dowels and wire and were working those wires and making great progress.  Cheryl was 2nd in command of helping out and she was keeping us all on track.  It was a fantastic demo.  Thanks Jennie for being so good to us.

Attendees:  Jennie, Laurie, Pattie, Christine, Maggie, Vicky, Cheryl, Michele, Marsha, Sally, Kathleen, Nancy and Kathy.  Welcome to the new group members!  So glad to have all show and participate!

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

January Meeting

Materials for Viking Knit Demo for January 28, 2017

Please bring the following if you have it available:

Cutters
Needle nose pliers
20 GA wire
24 GA wire
Awl
Old Credit Card or gift card
Painters tape
Clasp
End Caps (these could be bullet caps or cones. Whichever you have available)

I will have some available but it will help if you bring your own tools.

I will provide all wire for you to complete a bracelet.

The following will be available for sale:

24 Ga Wire
20 Ga Wire
Dowel Set
Draw Plate

Some findings. Whatever I have available.


See you all then. Jenny

P.S.  This is a finishing technique for your Polymer clay art / jewelry.  We will not be doing any Polymer clay so u will not need your basic clay kit.   Cheryl