The January meeting of the Kansas City Precious Metal Clay Guild will be Tuesday, January 17 at 7:00 p.m. at Harder Driving School, 10362 Mastin. Overland Park, KS 66214
The hands-on demo/topic will be lead by one of our newer members, Kim Keane. Kim is a polymer clay artist who will show us how to draw (or use our Zentangle skills learned from Susan Silvy last fall) onto pre-cured polymer clay.
Cured clay pieces will be provided. Please bring your Micron or Millennium Pen #01 and optional 005 pen. Sakura is the name brand of the pens which work best. Available at Michael's. Those who participated in the fall Zentangle meeting received a pen in their kit.
This is the first meeting of 2012 and member dues are now due. $24 per year provides our budget - which will be used to cover materials costs for more hands-on projects at our meetings. That's just $2 a month for lots of fun learning experiences. Check back here or check our website for the 2012 program schedule.
Ready to make charms for our annual exchange?? The October meeting is next week, Tuesday, October 18 beginning at 7 pm. Dinner at 5pm (for those who are interested) will be at Fans Tea and Dumplings (the little Asian place across the parking lot from Harder Driving School at Mastin and 103rd).
We have 21 members committed to making charms. It’s too late to add more names, sorry. Members have received an email with the list. See below for a “what to bring” list.
Everyone will be getting a 16g pkg of PMC3 silver clay and will need to make 22 charms. (Last year we made this many from only a 9g pkg, so it should be much easier this time!) We encourage everyone to use your entire 16g pkg to make 22 similar charms so each person will be exchanging for a comparable set of charms. Use your own style and personality.
We have several new members participating who have limited (or no) experience with metal clay so this will be a great teaching experience for our group. I’m hoping those who know what you are doing will be helpful to these people. If you are not participating this year, you are still welcome to come and play or watch and learn.
You will also sign up with a volunteer who has a kiln to fire your pieces. If you finish them on Tuesday, they can take them, but it is likely you won’t have all your charms completed by the end of the evening. It will be each persons’ responsibility to get your charms to the assigned person and to pick them up when fired. Then at the November meeting we can continue adding finishes, patinas, keumboo or embellishments to complete your charms. We will exchange them at the December meeting.
What to bring:
1.Money or check (cost for your subsidized clay will be about $15 and there are several extra 9g pkgs available at market price).
2.Small flat box labeled with your name, email and phone with tissue to hold your unfired charms
3.PMC working tools – note: be sure they are very clean if you have used them for polymer or other clay!
oSilicone work mat, clear hard plastic report cover or tile work surface
oAcrylic roller
oOld playing cards
oCutters (cookie or Kemper cutters, straws,
oCarving and smoothing tools (dental tools, sculpting tools, etc)
oTexture plates, rubber stamps
oCraft knife
oNeedle tool, needle files
oTissue blade
oSpray bottle or mister
oAir tight container and plastic wrap to keep clay moist.
oHand balm or olive oil
oBrass brush
o cup warmer or foam block to dry pieces on
2-part silicone molding compound is available for members’ use so if you have a custom shape you have carved or found, bring it, make a mold and use it for your charms.
OK. At last week’s meeting we have decided to begin our Charm Exchange Workshop at our October meeting (Tuesday, October 18). We will then have the November meeting to receive our fired pieces and apply patinas, keumboo or other finishes you desire so that we won’t need people to drive all over the city retrieving charms in early December.
Each person signed up for the exchange will need to make 20 charms (This number could still change.) One for each participant, and one extra for a bracelet which will be donated to a charity auction from us. If you have NOT yet sign up to participate, you have 48 hours to contact us to be added before we order clay on Monday, 9/26.
This moves the sign-up deadline up a week so we can order clay. Members have all been sent emails with these details.
For those who are new to our exchange: At the next two meetings, we will all bring our PMC tools, extra texture plates, stamps, cutters, etc. and make charms together. This is a great chance for those less experienced with PMC to work along-side members who know what they are doing. We share cutters, stamps, etc. and we encourage everyone to make 20 generous charms, not just cut out as many tiny pieces as possible. Once fired, charms may be embellished with other materials, beads, wire, etc. and brushed, polished or patinaed as desired. In December, each participant will receive one charm from each other person to use as desired.
Thanks to Kansas City PMC Guild member Susan Silvy for the Zentangle lesson at our September meeting. Susan is a certified Zentangle teacher and she proved that it is possible to bring a group of talkative, creative artist-types to a completely quiet, focused state in just a few minutes!
Some of us had already tried Zentangling on our own and both Janice and guest Kim brought samples of their work. For others, this was a completely new activity and we all jumped in. (Thanks also to Betty who - though absent - loaned us her vid-cam so we could project Susan's instruction onto the big-screen to help everyone see, and to Janice who brought the tripod.)
In a matter of minutes the room of about 15 went from a loud buzz to completely pin-drop quiet as we all focused into a right-brain creative calm.
It's amazing what simple, repetitive pen strokes can become. Here's a mosaic of all the pieces finished by the end of the evening.
Susan teaches a more complete Zentangle class. Check her page on Facebook - Kansas City Certified Zentangle Teacher, Susan Silvy for more information.
We want to see any resulting texture plates, jewelry or other items that members come up with using the Zentangle technique as a starting point. Check out our website for meeting information.
Don't forget to RSVP if you plan to attend our Tuesday, September 20 meeting so we can be prepared for enough people. We have a video set-up planned so everyone should be able to watch Susan closely or on the big-screen. Details on the website or this post.
At the August meeting we discussed our2011 “charm exchange” and made some decisions:
a.Use PMC3 Silver Clay
b.Sign-up to participate (at the September meeting or by email to Lynette) so we know how many charms we each will need to make.
c.We will order 16gr pkgs for each person
d.Purchase of clay for members (who have paid their 2011 dues) will be subsidized by the guild so that we can all have enough clay to make nice charms.
e.Cost to each member will be about $10-12.
We hope to have everyone signed up by October 1 so we have plenty of time to order clay. If you sign up, you have made a commitment to make enough charms for each participating member. We will also need kiln owners willing to commit to firing everyone's charms.
We may use BOTH the October and November meetings for charm -making. This will give us time to collect our charms back and finish them before our December exchange party.
Our September meeting will be led by Susan Silvy, who will get us started with Zentangle. She will have small "kits" with paper tiles, pen, pencil, etc. (Kits are $5 each for non-members.) Here's was Susan says about the evening:
To see some of my work in Zentangle go to my facebook business page (fan page), Zentangle Kansas City with Susan Silvy. Please "like" me, I'm in desperate need of "likes"! I will be posting information about classes there soon.
At the meeting we will be doing some simple tangles to understand the basic concepts of Zentangling. You will get a kit with a pencil, pen and some paper tiles. I will be bringing some extra supplies if anyone is interested in purchasing additional materials after the class.
Zentangling is fun, addictive and you can take your supplies with you and do it anywhere. Long plane flights just "fly" by. I originally became interested in Zentangle to increase my design capabilities in creating proprietary texture for metal clay by using them for tear-away's, photopolymer plates and carved polymer clay texture plates. I've actually used my Zentangles to create the overall jewelry design. It's an interesting technique which really opens up the right side of your brain!
Please remember to RSVP (to the meeting EVITE) because I have to be able to order and then receive the kits a couple of days before the meeting so I can put them together. I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting!!!!!
Susan
Susan Breen Silvy, CZT Metal Clay Master's Registry I
If you are not a KCPMC Guild member but are interested in attending the meeting please contact Lynette Fisk to RSVP.
Susan will also be teaching a 2-hour Zentangle class on Saturday, September 24 from 1-3pm at her North Kansas City classroom located at 5800 NW Prairie View Rd, Kansas City.
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