November 15, 2015

Minutes for November 15, 2015
 
Attendees:
Laura Guzy
Holly Gage
Christy Anne Miller
Carol Eldridge
Helene Richardson
Linda Green
Bill Poller
Paul Stieff
 
Show and Tell:
Paul Stieff (new member): brought his forged leather and metal links men’s bracelet and 2 PMC pendants to share. Paul’s background is traditional metalsmithing and lapidary work.
 
Linda Green (new member)
Linda shared spinner rings and bezel set stone ring. Linda’s background is traditional metalsmithing and lapidary work (she has taken classes at Tuscarora Lapidary Society and with Marthe Roberts Shea).
 
Helene Richardson
She brought several earring and pendant sets to share. She will be selling these at the Mt. Airy Art Garage on December 6-7, 19-20.
 
Christy Anne Miller
She shared many pieces she has made recently in Hadar’s base metal clay. She will be attending another of Hadar Jacoben’s classes on 3D design in March in Berkely, CA.
Carol Eldridge: Carol joined us after taking a few months off from her studio work, welcome back Carol! She shared a bezel set titanium druzy piece that she made in Wanneree Tanner’s Silouhette Cameo class.
 
Bill Poller (new member)
He shared a belt buckle he made using traditional metalsmithing methods. Bill’s is a former art teacher who is new to metal clay.
 
Laura Guzy
Laura shared her piece from Anna Mazon’s “herbarium” class as well as two pendants made with Art Clay Copper.
 
Holly Gage
Holly shared an update on the Impact Artists Project. She explained the “point system” for member rewards based on participation. She also said she is adding more links to member classes and galleries on the website: www.impactartistproject.org. She is trying to promote outreach among young artists through high schools and colleges.
 
WEBSITE
Laura Guzy shared information on the new Guild website. The site is up and running with new features still to come. The address is: www.gpmetalclayguild@jimdo.com. The site is a drag and drop designed website created for free at Jimdo.com. Site features include a monthly event calendar, member gallery, links to events and member sites.
 
SURVEY RESULTS
Laura Guzy reviewed the results of our member survey which was sent out electronically via Survey Monkey and MailChimp. The survey was sent to 125 members with 12 responses returned.
 
The survey featured nine questions with the results as follows:
1. Membership in the Guild (100% of respondents said they plan to continue membership for 2016)
 
2. Date and day preference for meetings (evenly split between Saturday, Sunday and weeknight choices)
 
3. Would you be willing to host picnic, holiday party, meeting (0% of respondents volunteered)
 
4. Would you be willing to pay dues (45% would pay $20 per year, 27% said they would pay $50 per year and 27% said they would pay $10/$15 per meeting)
 
5. Which features would members like to see on the website (#1 calendar, #2 tie between helpful tips, links to shows/member sites and galleries, #3 contact information and archives, #4 links to other PMC guilds)
 
6. Guest instructors (#1 Holly Gage w/4 votes, #2 Patrick Kusik w/3 votes, #3 Terry Kovalik, Pam East and Tracey Spurgin w/1 vote each)
 
7. Topics for monthly meetings (stone setting, resin, enameling, photography, ring making, flex, pricing and vending at craft shows, marketing, textures, Silhouette machine, 3D printing in metal clay)
 
8. Would you be willing to teach (1 offer for micro mosaic workshop, 1 offer for textures)
 
9. Suggestions for improvement (1 suggestion for trips to salons featuring metal clay work, 1 suggestion for weeknight meetings, 1 suggestion to refrain from charging dues as it will move the Guild away from original goal and feel)
 
Discussion following the survey results:
 
Attending members voted on the class they would most like Holly to teach. The top choices were #1 petroglyph pendant, #2 kinetic pendant, and #3 Viking purse.
 
Holly volunteered to contact Pam East regarding a class on enameling and Tracey Spurgin.
 
Holly showed the attendees a video of a 3D building process designed by Bill Struve called “The 3D Metal Creator.” The machine is a handheld extruder that uses a propulsion tank to extrude specially formulated base metal clay that can be either drawn on cork clay or on a prepared 2D surface. We would love to get Bill (or someone familiar with the technique) to come and demo this for the Guild.
 
Linda and Paul offered to set up a session with traditional metalsmithing or lapidary techniques. Linda also mentioned that she will be taking a class soon on air chasing with copper tubing.
 
Options for calendar dates focused on a few meetings at Christy’s workshop with some offsite meetings at other art venues (including the Tuscarora Lapidary Society in Brookhaven, the Bead Lounge in Phoenixville and Buttercup Beads in Audubon). There is also interest in taking a “field trip.”
 
Other suggestions included a meeting on pricing/vending/gallery consignment, photography and making rings with metal clays.
 
HOLIDAY PARTY
Christy offered to host the Guild holiday party at her home which is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, December 13th. Christy will check with her schedule and confirm the date and time. As always, members are asked to bring appetizers, drinks and dishes for all to share.
FLEX CLAY DEMO
Christy Anne Miller gave a brief demo on how to use Hadar's new base metal flex clay. Christy mixed up a batch of bronze flex clay for us. Christy recommends putting the clay powder into a small mixing bowl and then using a mister containing distilled water to moisten it. The key is to add water gradually to achieve the correct consistency.
Christy then rolled the clay out to 2 cards thickness on a prepared surface which was lightly coated with olive oil. The rolled clay cured for 20 minutes in open air before it was ready for use.
Christy demonstrated the many uses by cutting the clay with textured scrapbooking scissors, punching it with paper punches, and making a bezel strip with an elongated stamp. Christy then shared samples of her work using layered flex clay pieces.
She also shared a print out of the firing schedules and recommends keeping detailed records for each firing to become familiar with the individual kilns that are used for base metal clay. If the clay comes out of the kiln underfired it can be refired to achieve proper sintering. However, if a piece is overfired, the results cannot be corrected. Christy provided a piece for examination which was the result of overfiring and had buckled as a result. Christy shared that she has fired the flex clay in both a muffle and brick kiln, but now prefers to use only her brick kiln for firing base metal.
The fired pieces are finished using traditional techniques and then can be enhanced with patina designed for base metal clay (such as Baldwin's patina). Advantages to using the base metal flex clay include cheaper pricing for materials and a longer working time for wet clay.
Christy will be posting workshops in the base metal clay on her website: www.christysjewelryworkshops.com. She also has material available for purchase at her shop.