Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild,
Inc. ===== Suggested agenda for June 18th
Meeting ===== Congratulations to our members! +++Lynne Schwarzenberg took first
place in Polymer Clay Central's May 2002 challenge. +++Diane Villano has three pieces juried
into Embellishment's Gleaming Treasures 2002 competition, July 18-20, Oregon
Convention Center, Portland, Oregon. ==== Clay Connection 2002 - July 12,13,14 ----More volunteers will be needed, even if
you can offer just a few hours. Some jobs can be done long before the retreat,
some during the retreat. We need YOU! ==== Welcome new members! ----- Tuesday - Thursday: 11:00
am-5:00 pm Friday - Saturday: 12:00 noon -9:00 pm; The Backpack Project.
It will be on display during New Haven's Festival of Art and Ideas at Artspace
50 Orange Street at Crown, New Haven 203-772-2709 www.artspacenh.org
Come down and check it out! ---- June 20th Thursday, Rings &
Things Holiday Inn North Haven 1- 5pm in the Regency Room, 201 Washington Ave.
North Haven, CT 06473 (203) 239-4225 Driving directions: I-91, exit 12 on US 5.
Detailed info on our Guild Message Board. ----July 18-20, 2002 Embellishment,
Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, www.embellishment-show.com ----September 14, The Connecticut Bead
Society's annual Bead Bazaar, North Haven Holiday Inn ----November 17 - December 22, 2002
Crafts USA 2002, 4th National Juried Craft Exhibition, Silvermine Guild Arts
Center, 1037 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, CT 06840, (203) 966-9700. ~~~~July 1-12th: Newtown Summer Arts
and Music Program: Tracy Van Buskirk teaching kids classes, two age groups.
Two-week program. ~~~~ July 12,13,14 Clay ConneCTion
2002.
See separate heading. ---- July 18,19,20 Laura Balombini, Finding
Your Voice with Polymer Clay, Blue Hill, Maine. laura@lbalombini.com {1} ~~~~July 20th: 10-4, Sat. Tracy Van
Buskirk, "Intro to Polymer Clay" at Brookfield Craft Center ~~~~July 22-26, 10-12pm, Tracy Van
Buskirk, Fun with Polymer Clay for kids 4th grade and up, at Ridgefield
Guild of Artists. ~~~~Aug 10th: 10-4, Sat., Diane Villano, "Millefiore
Technique in Polymer Clay" at Guilford Handcraft Center ----- Aug 10-11 Laura Balombini, Woven
Wire for Polymer & Mixed Media, Blue Hill, Maine. {1} -----Aug 17 Laura Balombini, From the
Beginning, Blue Hill, Maine. {1} **** Special
Notice **** +++July 1, 2002 (receipt deadline),
Craft USA 2002, 4th National Juried Craft Exhibition,
Silvermine Guild Arts Center, Exhibition November
17-December 22, 2002, entry fee $25, up to 3 works, 2 slides each. For
prospectus, (203) 966-9700, ext 26, or www.silvermineart.org. ==== Guild Volunteers needed =====Traveling Exhibit ===== Thank
You ----- June 20, Rings &
Things, North Haven. See previous
NaN for info. ----Raffle-chain drawings will be held
Jan, Mar, May, Aug, Oct. If you win the raffle, you also provide the item for
the next raffle. Mary Guthrie won raffle item for May, made by Sharon Mihalyak.
Congratulations Mary! Mary will be donating item for August raffle. ---- Bead Bazaar was a very successful
venture last year for many members. It’s coming sooner than you realize!!!
September 14th is this year’s date. Start your beads! ====Minutes from May Meeting =15 people attended. =A demo on creating carved textile stamps
from baked polymer clay was presented by Jodi Bishel. Jody mounted the cooked
clay sheet onto wood, and then carved out a design using linoleum cutter tools.
She then mixed a textile medium into acrylic paint to serve as the fabric paint
to be stamped onto cloth. Thank you, Jodi for showing us yet another use for
polymer clay. =We also had a guest speaker, Barbara
Edery, who is an activity director for a Hamden, CT assisted living community.
She told us of her work with polymer clay with residents who are in their 80s.
She is looking for people to come and share some of their ideas/projects with
the residents. =Retreat News: 21 people have signed up
for the retreat so far. A suggestion for an "Ask the experts" Table
for a panel discussion on various questions was suggested and approved. =BOH: Tracy Van Buskirk talked about her
experience at the Relay for Life in Bethel on May 17 where she and Lynne
Schwarzenberg had a tent set up for people to make Bottles of Hope, as well as
giving bottles to participating runners. The experience was very successful -
many people volunteered to make bottles. An article about the BOH tent will
appear in the Danbury News Times. =Artspace Backpack project: Our guild is
participating in this New Haven gallery's "fill a backpack with Art"
project to be hung June 14th. Sharon has asked that people donate brightly
colored Bottles of Hope to put in the backpack. =Tracy Van Buskirk will be doing a BOH
workshop at the Helping Hands Children’s Bereavement Center, where the kids
can keep or donate the bottles. ++Barbara McKie mckieart@earthlink.net
http://www.mckieart.com/ ++Libby Mills mills3456@cox.net
www.hobbystage.net/art/libbym
++Tricia Hamel tjhamel@peoplepc.com
http://www.collagefh.com/ ++Lucille Schacht
Lucille@cshore.com Links for art in New Haven and CT: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Not-A-Newsletter for June 15, 2002
Message Board http://pluto.beseen.com/boardroom/n/55120/
+Demo by Laura Orlomoski --
different techniques to attach BOH bottle tops
+ Clay ConneCTion 2002 Retreat update (Last meeting before the retreat!)
+Backpack Project feedback from Sharon Mihalyak
+Announcements
+ Show-and-Tell/Show-and-Help/Show-and-Brag
+++Looking Ahead:
July meeting -- Pricing discussion for Bead Bazaar
Post Retreat Melt-down
August meeting -- Beads are due to Diane Villano for the Bead Bazaar
Check out her amazing work for the theme Elements at http://polymerclaycentral.com/chall_may02.html.
Be sure to clink on the Information link for the symbolism Lynne employed in
this piece.
Coordinators:
Retreat Coordinator - Diane V
Registration - Sharon
Graphics - Sharon
Promotion - Debbie and Barbara
Hospitality - Laura and Twinkle
Studio - Laura and Lynne
Demonstration - Laura and Diane G
Ask the Expert - Cindy
Video Screening - Sue R
Retreat Raffle - Diane G
Bead Strand Coordinator - Rose and Terry
Retreat Pin Swap - Tracy
Bottles of Hope Challenge - Tracy
Clean Up - Terry, Laura, Debbie
Deborah Edery from Hamden
Margaret LaRose from Canterbury (referred by Pat Portnoy)
==== Exhibits and Shows
Directions: Take Exit 48 from I95 to merge onto I 91. Get off at exit 3
(Trumbull Street), then left onto Orange Street. The Chamberlain Building is the
last building on the right (Corner of Crown Street). Parking lots are found on
Crown Street.
=====Classes, Workshops, Retreats
==== Calls for Entries
Dear Guild Members:
Sorry for the short notice, but I -JUST- received an exhibit invitation that was
sent to Guilford Handcraft Center faculty. There will be a six-month show at the
Pediatric Oncology Center (the red building in front of the Guilford Handcraft
Center) starting June 20th. I spoke with the contact person, Sara Nebel, and
she's very excited about displaying our Bottles of Hope there. She's giving us
the centerpiece space, a fireplace mantle, about four feet long. I'd like to ask
you to bring in Bottles of Hope for our Saturday meeting, especially those
appropriate for pediatric patients. I've already gotten the time off from my
real job so that I can set them up next week. Thanks in advance! Diane Villano
---Promotion Coordinator
- someone to help get the word out about the guild and our programs
---We will need volunteers for the Retreat. Please let us know even if you can
only offer a few hours of your time, either before or during the Retreat.
****Traveling Exhibit is at the Blackstone Library in Branford for the month of
June. Please go across the street after the meeting to see it if you haven't
been able. Get some ideas of items to add to the display. We are still accepting
additional items to display. The display seems to have many ‘jewelry’ items.
We’d like to show some of the alternate uses of polymer clay. Any ‘other’
items are solicited, for example -salt and peppershakers, -notebook covers,
-serving ware with pc handles, -curtain finials, -tiles, or anything.
Traveling Exhibit Schedule:
JUNE -Blackstone Library, South Main Street, Branford
AUGUST -Milford Library, 57 New Haven Ave
SEPTEMBER -Hamden, Miller Memorial Library
OCTOBER -Cheshire, 104 Main St
A special Thank You goes to Debbie Goodrow who opened
her home to members of the guild to
produce polymer clay nametags for Clay ConneCTion 2002. And a big thanks also to
those who participated: Deborah Edery, Debbie Goodrow, Barbara Heinisch, Sharon
Mihalyak, Sue Rankin, Lynne Schwarzenberg and Diane Villano.
===== Reminders
Respectfully submitted,
NaN Editor, Vice President, Promotions Co-Coordinator,
Clean-up Co-Coordinator, Hospitality Co-Coordinator,
and Official Guild Clown;
Debbie Goodrow
203-245-2910 <-> deb_twinkle@yahoo.com
====Member Links
++Lynne Schwarzenberg
River Poet@aol.com http://www.wtcpins.com/
Polymer Clay
http://lujs.tripod.com/my-polymer-clay.html
Egg Lessons
http://members.tripod.com/~LuJS/EggLessons-INDEX.HTML
http://www.artscouncil-newhaven.org
www.ctarts.org
{1}
July 18,19,20 Laura Balombini, Finding Your Voice with Polymer Clay, Blue Hill,
Maine. New Students will learn the basics & how to use them. Advanced
students will learn how to turn their ideas into 3-D forms using new surface
& hollow form techniques. Unique Teapots and Fanciful Birds with steel wire
embellishment will be the result. COST 250.00 includes lunch, some materials,
and an evening trip to Haystack School of Crafts for slide night.
Aug 10-11 Laura Balombini, Woven Wire for Polymer & Mixed Media,
Blue Hill, Maine. Simple basketry techniques will be used to manipulate steel
wire into vessels and torso shapes where polymer or some other medium,
figurative or not, can be attached. Students are encouraged to go in their own
direction. COST 150.00 includes lunch & some materials.
Aug 17 Laura Balombini, From the Beginning, Blue Hill, Maine. How
to work with polymer clays, (color blending, caning, molds, surface techniques,
buffing) all the basics. Buttons and beads will be made. COST 75.00 includes
lunch and materials.
Laura Balombini has been exhibiting polymer jewelry and sculpture
nationally for 12 years. She holds a BFA in Ceramics and Fiber Arts and has
shown her new wire and polymer clay figures and vessels at the Phila. Museum of
Art Fine Craft Show 1999, 2001, 2002. She has taught at National Polymer Clay
Guild Conferences as well as Haystack School of Crafts and Arrowmont and
published in Wire and Design (Krause Pub.) Classes are taught in her private
studio open evenings for extra work time.
My private studio is near the beautiful coastal village of Blue Hill, Maine.
Minutes away are bike & kayak rentals, hiking, whale watching, sailing,
Acadia Nat. Park & Haystack Mt. School of Crafts. Nearby are galleries, good
food, motels, B&B's & camping. Spring fed pond & organic garden on
premises.
To view my work please go to www.lbalombini.com
L. Balombini
P.O.Box 733
Blue Hill, ME 04614
ph/fax 207-374-5142
laura@lbalombini.com