Announcing our May 16 meeting

The Clay Network of Northeast Florida is an organization where clay artists have the opportunity to improve their knowledge, to foster interest in sincere, creative craftsmanship and to educate the public in the appreciation of ceramics in our community.  If you have an interest in ceramics and pottery, we'd love to invite you to our next meeting.

We will be sponsoring selling events throughout the year.  Clay Network has a tent and shelves. We split the entry fees, take care of applications, and we help each other. This is an easy way to get involved in art festivals.  Selling opportunities are only a small part of the advantages of membership in Clay Network.  If you would like more information please contact our secretary, Mary Ellen at claynetwork.com@gmail.com.

Our meeting on May 16 will be at Vina's home. We start promptly at 2pm.

Marcia, our president, always has an agenda that we follow but new ideas and thoughts for our group are always welcome under "New Business", so we'd love to hear from all of you.

After the business meeting, Vina is going to show "How To Make A Group or Personal Totem Pole with Clay".  Several of her students, who each work with clay in very different ways, have pieces on the totem that  they will be able to discuss.

Join us for a fun and informative afternoon.  Be sure to bring your favorite food item to share during our traditional pot luck that follows the program.

Anyone interested in joining us is welcome.  If you would like directions to Vina's home please contact our Secretary at Claynetwork.com@gmail.com.

March Meeting Notes

We had a great turnout for our meeting at Christie’s.  AND we were treated to Valet Parking!  With the wet weather, it was a luxury appreciated!!   Thank you Bill!!!

We decided to continue the Library shows for 2010.  Each exhibit has a coordinator who contacts the library, obtains works to be displayed, installs the items, takes down the display and transfers the items to the coordinator for the next library display.  Watch this site for announcements of when these exciting displays will at the Beaches, Mandarin, and Regency libraries.  Members are investigating whether or not we can expand our displays to the Ponte Vedra, Fernandina, Deerwood and St Augustine libraries.

Once again Clay Network will be at the St Augustine Spring Art and Craft Festival (April 10-11). Several of our members will be conducting throwing demonstrations.   Look for us - we will be the tent with the big crowds and the bright Clay Network Banner.  Members are encouraged to contact Jerry if they wish to sell or demo.

Another selling opportunity is the Art & About (April 24) in Orange Park at the grassy park between Kingsley Ave. and Park Ave.  You will find several of our members displaying their pieces at this fun neighborhood artisan event.

We will be sponsoring other selling events throughout the year.  Clay Network has a tent and shelves. We split the entry fees, take care of applications, and we help each other. This is an easy way to get involved in art festivals.  Selling opportunities are only a small part of the advantages of membership in Clay Network.  If you would like more information please contact our secretary, Mary Ellen at claynetwork.com@gmail.com.

Program.

Marcia demonstrated Mitch Lyons’ broomstick method of forming seamless hand built cylinders.  Being able to hand build a seamless cylinder eliminates a lot of areas of concerns over a seamed cylinder like being able to stretch it uniformly.  Her beautiful teapot at the top of the page was made from a cylinder constructed in this way with some altering and darting.

-She started with a  one pound ball of clay (she recommends starting small and increasing your clay amount as you master the technique) that she rolled into a solid cylinder that was the approximate length she wanted the finished cylinder to be – the form will grow in width but not height.

-She carefully threaded a small dowel through the center of the clay – be sure to keep it in the center -  much like centering on the wheel.  Then she rolled the clay and dowel rolling in one direction until the hole in the middle was large enough for the next larger dowel to be inserted.

- She then inserted the next larger dowel and repeated the process until the cylinder walls were the thickness desired.  The cylinder was completed by adding a bottom. 

-Lastly she showed how to make the spout using the above technique starting with a small cone-shaped bit of clay.

After the program, people were encouraged to try this method, and then we ended our fun afternoon with our traditional sumptuous pot luck meal.

First dowel is small.

Roll in one direction.

                                                       Increase the size of the dowel

                                                                 Finished wall thickness

                               Making a small spout

Members give it a try

Beginning our 17th year

woven coil pottery demonstrated by Pat

Our January meeting was held at Lisa's home in Neptune Beach.

It was a good way to start off 2010!

We had Marcia's “Photo Cube” set up for members to take some nice photos of their pottery. If you didn't take advantage of it this time, we will have the opportunity again when we meet at Christie's place in March. Once you have your pictures on a disc please send it to Marcia. She will make sure that Randy gets your work displayed on the “gallery” pages of our under-construction web site.

The Clay Network board has allotted funds from our treasury for donation to Jo Nell's church, in her memory. We had loads of goodies for everyone from Jo Nell's studio. Everyone selected items they can use, and in exchange we added our personal donations to increase the monies we will send to a favorite ministry of Jo Nell's.

We will pursue some group sales for the spring. Art & About in Orange Park sounds like a good event. The St Augustine Spring Art and Craft Festival is another one for which we will be organizing a group booth. If you want to be a part of either of these, please jump in. Whether you are a beginner, or a more seasoned potter, we will have a great time together as we share the space, the work load, and spend happy times together. Clay Network handles the tax collections for you. We have the tent and shelves. We split the entry fees, take care of applications, and we help each other. This is an easy way to get involved in art festivals.

We have been talking about a saggar firing workshop and we are going forward with that. We will have more information when we meet next time about preparing pots for that. We plan to fire in saggars this spring.

A raku workshop is in the planning stages as well.

The most important item of business was our yearly election.

Our officers for 2010:

President - Marcia Scheeter

Vice President - Christie Rogers

Secretary - Mary Ellen Davidson

Treasurer - Jane Langford

and in appointed positions:

Librarian – Pat Robey

Historian – Carole Malcolm

Hospitality – vacant at this time

We thank all of them for stepping up to lead us as we begin our 17^th year.

We are always welcoming new members. Come and join us in our Clay Network.

We would love to have you with us.

Please remember our dues are now due for the new year. Please send your check to Jane.

We have Clay Network T-shirts available for $20.

Program
Pat demonstrated her technique for making woven coil pottery.
She uses extruded coils of very soft stoneware clay. She starts with slightly flattened coils around the rim. A coil then crosses over the center, and another is placed perpendicular to the first, making a cross over the hump. She used a hump mold to shape the piece over, but you could also create this weaving inside a bowl type form. Coils are added and the under and over pattern is created. She lifts a coil over, and pokes the clay under using a gentle touch. She warned us not to cut the coils too short as some of the length is taken up as you weave. Pat smooths the coils to the rim making a good join. Then she adds a flattened coil over it to make a solid, strong rim. The form must be allowed to stiffen, then it is flipped over and the rim is refined. Perfect for bread! Nice for fruit too.

We finished up with our traditional potluck meal, which was enjoyed by all.