by Libby on August 26, 2010
The Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild’s Clay ConneCTion 2010 polymer clay retreat has come and gone and it was a great success! Here are some of the highlights. August 5-8, 2010 we transformed this:
into this:
The photo makes the workroom look a bit empty. The room itself is huge and everyone gets a full table so even when everyone is in the workroom, we are pretty spread out. Plus people come and go all the time for meals and demos and massages etc. etc.
We gave out really great t-shirts. Thank you Rankin Sporting Goods for the wonderful new design showcasing the 1-inch Tile Swap.
The 1-inch Tile Swap is so much fun. Here’s a view of my tiles for swapping (on the left) and some of the tiles I received in return (on the right):
Organized people use the handy grid sheets we provide to keep track of their swap tiles. Sadly, I am never this organized:
And here’s the frame with everybody’s tiles which Helen won in the drawing:
Polyform Products gave us a huge selection of tools and clay. We didn’t have goodie bags this year so we spread everything out on the center tables. The picture was taken before the rush of people came up to get their freebies! The photo I took was WAY too much of an action shot, and totally out of focus.
We played a very big game of LCR poker:
We had a blast! Four days filled with fun and friendship, polymer clay, demos, Bottles of Hope, shopping, prizes, and so much more. I think I’ve finally recovered. Join us in 2012!
by Libby on June 15, 2010
By Thursday, I was really starting to fade, getting tired and ready to go home. And having hit that wall, I stopped taking pictures and just concentrated on getting through the last couple of days.
The classes were great overall. I left my last class, an intermediate beading class early. The instructor was good, patient and she definitely knew her material, but it was a poor fit of class for me. I was comfortable with the basic overall stitch, but the specialized stitch she was teaching kept getting away from me. I’ve come to the conclusion that as far as beading classes go, I should stick to the “all levels” classes in more forgiving techniques, bead embroidery and more free form techniques.
The Meet The Teachers event on Wednesday was really packed. It seemed much busier than last year. If you ever come to this show, it’s worth getting a ticket to the Meet the Teachers evening. It’s an excellent opportunity to see the projects, speak to the teachers about specific classes and shop for unique kits and supplies. I had fun catching up with friends around the room and eventually hanging out at Diane Villano’s table, trying to convince her to teach a class for her new hinged mixed media necklaces.
Thursday night was the shopping preview night. Preview shopping ran from 4pm to 9pm. My friends and I have learned to go out to an early dinner first and then hit the show floor around 7pm. You can avoid the worst of the shopping hoards that way, and the restaurants are less crowded as well. I made another pass through the bead show floor Friday morning before I had to head to the airport.
Impressions from the show floor: there are a LOT more vendors with metalworking tools, such as pliers, hammers, cutters, dapping sets etc. There were several specialty suppliers for metal clay artists as well. When I first started going to the Bead & Button Show, there were more seed bead vendors and more Czech glass beads. These days in addition to a wider range of jewelry making tools, there are many vendors with kits and mixed media supplies. I noticed several new types of commercial bezels which could be used with polymer clay. I bought a few to try out and I’ll write a review at a later date.
For now, it’s good to be home. Catching up on family stuff feels pretty good.
Tagged as:
Bead & Button Show
