June 2013 Polymer Clay Guild News

Next Meeting – June 1

The next meeting of the Guild will be Saturday, June 1 from 1-4 PM at Lafayette Arts & Crafts Center. This month, Lizette, Emily, and Barbara will be demonstrating UV resin, mold-making and using mylar foils with clay. Please bring your basic clay kit, small items for the mold-making demo (button, seashells, etc.) and, if desired, a bezel setting for the UV resin demo. A limited number of earring bezel findings will be available. If you’d like to make a number of molds by sharing items amongst the members, please bring 2-part silicone mold-making material (such as Amazing Mold Putty). This can be purchased at most craft stores (don’t forget your coupons!).

July, August, and September Meetings

Due to summer scheduling at Lafayette Park, our Guild will not be able to teach classes in exchange for room rental fees. If we want to meet in July, August, and September we will need to pay the room rental fees each month, approximately $70 (total $210). After September, we will need to renegotiate our arrangement with the new Center director (Pat is retiring this September). We will not know until mid-September if we can continue to teach classes in exchange for rent.

Although we have money in the treasury, paying room rental each month will quickly deplete the account, making it difficult to purchase items for the Guild, make deposits for visiting teacher workshops, and add to our Library. We have some options, however, as follows:

• Raise annual dues to offset monthly rentals at Lafayette Arts & Crafts Center.
• Raise dues by a smaller amount, and find a location where we can charge for classes, using the money raised to pay our rent at Lafayette. Members would donate their time to teach, and class fees would cover supplies and be used for rent.
• “Pass the Hat” each month for donations.

Please be prepared to spend a few minutes at the start of this week’s meeting discussing these issues and reaching consensus.  Meeting at Lafayette has been very good for our Guild and I really, really (really!) don’t want to start the hunt for another meeting place.