SCPCG – Weekend of Clay

The Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild hosts a “Weekend of Clay” every year. It’s my favorite guild event. What it is essentially, is a weekend of half day classes for guild members taught by guild members. The guild charges $10 per class and you can take any combination of classes. The teachers get paid a set amount. We usually put out a call for proposals in December and then we have a guild-wide vote on which classes we’d most like to take.

I highly recommend this type of event to other polymer clay guilds. It’s pretty easy to organize and it’s so much fun. If you are new to teaching, it gives you a chance to get your feet wet teaching in a safe and supportive environment. As a student, you can learn a bunch of cool techniques over the course of the weekend. Plus it’s a fun friendly event, kind of like a Clay Day with an extra punch. Over the years we’ve had classes in ripple blade techniques, Balinese filigree, intarsia, wire work, leaf canes, flip flop beads, kaleidoscopes, and paint & ink play just to name a few.

This year I am teaching a Cane Slice Caterpillar Bracelet class.

We are going to whip through a simple black and white cane (retro, leaf, spiral, etc., student’s choice), bake and hopefully share different slices around the room. Then we are going to bead them up into a simple, fringy, fun bracelet. It’s a bit time consuming, beading the fringe back and forth, but you end up with a cool bracelet that’s fun to wear. (makes you want to shake your wrist around a lot, LOL)

I love the black & white “retro” beads. By extruding with the large square die and a Makins Extruder, making these beads is super quick and easy. The result is so fun!