London Polymer Clay Group - Background

In May 2007 I started The London Polymer Clay Group. I'd been contacted by a beader keen to get started with polymer clay. Our first meeting was in the coffee shop of Waterstone's bookstore in central London, we both brought work to 'show and tell'. We arranged to meet there again the following month. I posted a flyer on the British Polymer Clay Guild website. The next meeting attracted 5 people and we have met three times since then. I post a summary of each meeting at http://www.bpcg.org.uk/london.htm and have pasted them here too.

London Group - July 2008 Newsletter
by Caroline Schuck

The London Polymer Clay Group met on July 10 at Caroline's house. The day was a feast of clay and food sharing which flashed by with hardly a moment to draw breath.

One of the themes under discussion for the day was the need to expand the group and the members expressed an interest in attracting artists working in different media to increase the cross fertilisation of ideas. At present we have Debbie who also works with Precious Metal Clay and Caroline who works with pottery. The day started with five of us: Caroline, Claire, Carol, Debbie and Susan. We decided that we would be organised and have an agenda for the day, though our enthusiasm got the better of us once we had had some food, delicious as ever, and all thoughts of the agenda went out of the window.

We started with our usual Share and Tell. An exciting moment where new ideas and concepts are shared. There is a hugely generous sharing of techniques, websites and hot tips as well as honest feedback on each other's work. Each person opened up their boxes of recent work revealing the diversity of our visions. Claire who runs polymer clay classes for children shared two of her latest projects: a Father's Day card sporting three ties made of polymer and a noughts and crosses game in polymer both beautiful and quirky. Following on from our last meeting she also covered a hairslide with a complex cane. Caroline shared her latest work in which she incorporated hessian into clay. Susan had a range of beautiful objects she had made including one using extruded clay. Having seen this we all decided to do some extruding. She had also worked using piñata inks and also using Angelina fibres and gloss to achieve a dichroic effect. Carol had much wisdom to share and great examples of subtle gradations of colour made by Dan Cormier. Debbie brought new books to share as creative jolts and we salivated over them before admiring her work. Some of her pieces were crystal encrusted, she also worked out a way of making bangles using a foil armature, another idea we decided to work on later.

Before lunch we practiced extruding and I am sure that this will spawn much new work for next times sharing. But as ever one thing led to another and as we were feasting our new member Helen Philips appeared fresh with her box for sharing. She soon discovered that she had been using quick drying clay and not polymer so a quick crash course in polymer ensued with demonstrations of skinner blends, skinny blends, jelly rolls and stacking. A lot of ground was covered in a short time and she made some objects from polymer for firing at home.

After this Caroline started to play with the idea of making a bracelet and helped by Debbie managed to achieve this managing to work out how to impress a texture on both sides of the bracelet without compromising its shape.

Despite wanting to organise the day in a more structured way the pull of the clay seemed to take us elsewhere and we all left filled with new ideas.

For next time we decided to set a theme, The Vessel. We are each going to bring some ideas with us and then build our object during the session. The idea is to share and to break new ground with the clay.

Next meeting will be at Debbie's house on Sunday 28 September 10-4pm bring lunch to share. If you would like to join us contact Debbie on:

Report written by Caroline Schuck

April 2008 Report by Clare Mcknight

It was our seventh meeting, and this time, it was my turn to host it at my home in West London.

Everyone arrived around 10am and once the kettle was on, we got straight down to catching up on what had been happening since we last met around two months ago.

The previous weekend had seen a popular event in the British Polymer clay calendar. “Polydays”. Several of us had attended and so we started by hearing all about what they had learned and done. This opened up many interesting and varied avenues of conversation.

At the last meeting, Caroline had shown us a technique for texturing clay, using a very simple little gadget. (Actually a spiked onion holder!) To our surprise she kindly gave us each one of our own, so that we too could make regular lines, curves, waves or holes to our hearts content! Often when working with polymer clay you will find that the most useful tools are small inexpensive things that you may already have around the home.

As always, we had a very impressive show and tell session, with some beautiful professionally made items of jewellery that Carol and Debbie had brought back from a recent visit to the US, together with peoples work from the Polydays workshops and other interesting “experimental works in progress!” I always look forward to this bit as there is always such a range of projects and ideas to see. Also, it has been very interesting to see as members grow and improve in their work.

After our coffee/tea and homemade muffins, we got down to actually having a go at a few techniques. We experimented with translucent clays, layering them with different coloured foils to great effect. This we made into beads and brooches.

Next, Carol showed us her “Chop & Change” method or Bargello technique. Which produces a wonderfully colourful sheet of patterned clay with a woven appearance.

Susan explained how she had been playing around with a thin sheet of clay one day and created a way of making the clay look like it had been smocked. This was fiddly but looked both very effective and pretty.

With every inch of our table space covered in our tools and creations, we moved into the other room for lunch, which was once again a gourmet affair. (A word to anyone interested in joining our London group, “it is worth coming, just for the lunch!”)

Lunch was followed my more endless chat and a bit more hands on claying, before we all packed up around 4pm.

The day always seems to fly past, I am sure we could just go on and on!

All in all the day was a very enjoyable exchange of creative ideas and friendly chat.

Our next meeting is scheduled for July 10th at 10am, in Swiss Cottage, London NW3. If you would like to join us, please contact Caroline at

February 2008 Report

'Image transfers onto polymer clay' was the theme of the February meeting of the London Polymer Clay Group but we began with our regular 'show & tell' session. This has become a much anticipated feature as everyone delves into tins or bags to retrieve their recent pieces, some finished and some as samples but all very varied. Many pieces were made at or as a result of classes that we had attended in the 2 months since the previous meeting.

We spent the morning experimenting with image transfers and baking samples though, as often happens, we ventured off at tangents to the main topic and explored various hollow forms and 'pillow' beads.

Another tangent was texturing and staining raw clay using spirit-based coloured inks. We also discussed using 2 part resins for a glass-like surface on finished pieces and canes made of translucent clay and foils. These are topics for future meetings.

After a 'potluck' lunch we continued with image transfers, trying out techniques learned at classes with Donna Kato and Robert Dancik and comparing inkjet and laser toner printed images. It seemed that the most successful transfer methods used toner prints on uncoated papers.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 17th April in West London. We have left the main subject open as it will be a few days after the BPCG 'Polydays' and we will have our class pieces to discuss at an extended 'show and tell'.

Please contact Clare McKnight for details of the next meeting venue.

2007

June 2007 Report

The London Polymer Clay Group had its 2nd meeting on Saturday 2nd June at Waterstone's bookstore in Piccadilly. Five BPCG members came to 'show and tell' over coffee in the basement cafe.

Debbie Carlton showed her silver clay necklaces with inlays of polymer clay - a perfect combination. She also had a bag full of polymer clay samples each in a different technique. We all pitched in with ideas of how the pieces could be used as earrings or brooches.

Sarah Maloney showed her miniature food models and a tiny corked bottle with 2 of the tiniest gold fish swimming around. She explained how she had made the fish with an iridescent finish and how she put them into the 'scenic' water, (a new term for me from the world of miniatures).

Jean Power is editor of Bead magazine and came to Polydays two years ago. She brought a box full of the most beautiful and intricately stitched bead work bracelets and beads. This time-consuming work prompted a discussion on how to price such work for sale.

Kotomi Yamamura, a Japanese jewellery designer now living in the UK, joined us with several of her theatrical and dramatic necklaces and explained how she uses polymer clay as a frame and a mount to hold semi precious and glass stones.

I brought along two beaded necklaces using a spiral theme and several pieces of polymer clay jewellery that I made for my bead book.

It was fascinating to see how we are each using polymer clay in a completely differently way. We chatted and swapped suppliers addresses, websites and news till well into lunchtime when we felt we had outstayed our welcome having managed to make our coffees last more than two hours.

To keep the momentum going we plan to meet again soon to use some clay and demo techniques for each other.

July 2007 report

At the July meeting of the London polymer clay group we spent the morning experimenting with various embossing, stamping and texturing techniques and the use of translucent clay sheets. As the morning flew by far too quickly we decided that next time we needed a whole day to 'play'.

So our next meeting will be on Saturday 8th September. We'll meet again at my studio in Rotherhithe, South London, begin at 10.30am and finish around 4.30pm, though people can leave at any time. We will have a 'pot luck' lunch where we each bring a dish to share as my cooking skills are rubbish.

Please contact me by email for details Looking forward to seeing you in September and do bring something for the 'show & tell'. Also feel free to bring some clay and tools.

September 2007 report

The September meeting of the London clayers was a whole day - and we needed it. There was so much to talk about and show each other that we almost forgot to stop for lunch, which was a 'pot luck', or rather a feast, as everyone brought something to share. A 'newbie', Michelle, joined us and at the end of the day went home knowing how to make a jellyroll and a bull's eye cane, cane reduction and the basics for getting started. Everyone brought their recent work, some as finished pieces and some as samples or work in progress. These pieces provided a structure to the day and stimulated many questions and swapping of ideas.

We played with the holographic effect of mica clays -the 'mica shift'- and experimented with paints and spirit based inks for colouring translucent and liquid clays. During the day we explored making texture tools and how to use them. We also compared notes on image transfers on polymer clay using laser and inkjet prints - a topic we hope to pursue further at our next meeting.

November 2007 report

Our November meeting was another lively exchange of ideas and trying novel pc techniques. We were pleased to welcome Susan Rimmer of the Mid Southern Group who joined us on her birthday -especially pleased because she brought a cake and wine to celebrate.

As usual we began with our 'show and tell' which sparked lots of talk on findings, of methods of making bracelets, of techniques such as ikat and bargello, as well as using PMC with polymer clay inlays.

Our group lunch, now an integral part of our day, was another 'feast' with everyone bringing food to share.  Later we discussed making canes using step blends, as taught by Dan Cormier at Polydays in 2005, and methods of cutting and using the veneers for pendants or bracelet tiles. One thing we touched on, but which needs further exploring at a later meeting, was the mica shift technique.

In our 'problem solving' slot we tackled 'How to stop translucent clays
discolouring during baking?'.  Suggestions ranged from tenting the work with aluminum foil to adding a pinch of white clay to the translucent mix.

Our next meeting will be on Saturday 2nd February 2008, 10.30am to 4pm, at my studio in Rotherhithe when the theme will be Image Transfers. If you would like to join in the clay fun, please contact me for venue details and if it's your birthday -don't forget the cake and wine!