| Daytona Beach Clay Retreat Review |
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| Written by Barbara Forbes-Lyons | |
North Central Florida Polymer Clay GuildDaytona Beach RetreatOctober 13-15 2006 What a wonderful idea, what a lovely retreat, what delightful artists, what a great time we all had! Attending were members from the Ocala and Orlando Guilds as well as others like Dee De Carlo from Ormond Beach and the editor of Polymer Café, Joan Clipp, who is moving to the beach area. Present were Diana McNamee, Carole Trachy, Lois Lin, Connie Ferreira, Pat Sistrand, Bev Moreau, Bette Richards, Rhonda Colcord, Janet Garber, Nancy Welch, Alice Townsend, Gayle Thompson, Carol Hess, Richard Bassett, Brenda Squires, Mary Jenkins, Joan Clipp and Dee De Carlo. Sally Murphy registered but was not able to attend as she went to Albuquerque to her daughters wedding. She was missed. We set up in the beachside room and went to work. Everyone worked on their own projects for a while and visited with others. Our first demonstration was by Lois Lee Lin Who showed us how to put little slices of canes on the inside of tiny bottles in the fashion of ancient Chinese opium bottles. She created her tools herself from the wires of Chinese take-out boxes. We had a Bottles of Hope challenge too and the lineup of small bottles to be voted on was impressive. The BOH challenge was won by Mary Jenkins who made a Japanese geisha bottle with zoris and an umbrella. A close second, necessitating a run-off vote, was Nancy Welchs clever giraffe. Bottles of Hope can be a creative tool for using up your odds and ends of clay while you are working on a project. Keep them coming. The Orlando guild demonstrated Hearts for Heroes, a project to support our troops overseas with quarter sized hearts attached to snap swivel hooks used in making fishing lures. These can be hung on anything to help the soldiers remember that we do care what they are enduring. Diana McNamee demonstrated transferring images as requested but also showed us how to make signature blocks with our initials to put on our creations. Carole Law Trachy gave her a difficult task with her loopy initials but with a lot of patience they came through. Lois then proceeded to make the tiny word HOPE by using Dianas lesson. Alice Townsend showed her unique method for a kind of Makume Gane for which she used small squares of the plastic canvas made for counted cross stitch. We all learned new ideas and methods at the retreat. Beverly Moreau ran the silent auction most efficiently, making cards for bids and keeping track of time. The hour went by quickly as several people kept returning to up the bids. Money raised went to the NCFPCG treasury. Andy from The Clay Store was there and did a busy business providing new tools and supplies for our attendees. People from other groups wandered in to see what we were doing and we spread the Polymer Clay word. Several people set up items for sale and there were sales by the visitors and, of course, from our own group. We do admire each others work. We had those wonderful goodie bags, thanks to Gayle Thompson whose collecting ability also provided door prizes. The brown bag gift exchange was organized by Carole Law Trachy. Everyone went home enriched with new ideas, new friends, and new material.
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