Our book has officially hit the virtual shelves at Amazon for Preordering!

We are so excited that we can hardly contain ourselves. You know Ilysa and I are super-sharers, always wanting to show off the new things we figure out to do with our polymer clay. But we can’t share these things with you yet, you’ll just have to get your hands on a copy of our NEW Polymer Clay Art Jewelry BOOK and see for yourself!

Welcome our new team member Elizabeth Dyer, who hosts this week’s podcast and will show you how to make a square cane and create a polymer clay “veneer” to make a little bowl you can use for rings or keys! Enjoy.

This weekend Kira is coming up to film the next 6 episodes of Polymer Clay TV & Polymer Clay Classroom. We have lots of great projects in store and we are really looking forward to sharing them with you. Speaking of things to share with you, we just received a shipment from Design Originals with 4 different books to give away to our audience. Stay tuned to find out how you can win one of these great books. This month we are giving away a copy of  the book Polymer Pizazz and the first 2 issues of the new Make It Mine Magazine. We also have an announcement on the next podcast about how you can win a copy of Lisa Pavelka’s DVD from Page Sage.  Make sure to come back next week to listen to Polymer Clay Podcast for the review we do on Lisa’s DVD, you won’t want to miss it. We are also planning on starting some weekly themed challenges that our listeners and viewers can participate in to win some fabulous prizes. Stay tuned for that, they are sure to be a blast.

Since a lot of you are new to podcasts and videocasts I wanted to give you an idea of how we work so you can understand everything better. We are similar to a magazine in the way that we are always open to suggestions and submissions and plan our shows ahead of schedule but we are independent of large corporations and we don’t have to answer to anyone. Kira and I make all the decisions for the shows and love to have your input.  It is important to us to keep growing and expanding and providing quality content. Our podcasts and videocasts will always be free to listen and watch. Your support is necessary in helping us grow. There are many ways you can support our show such as signing up for the newsletter, leaving a review on Itunes or other directories, purchasing a download or products from our shop, purchasing books, products  or magazines from our affiliates & sponsors, clicking on some of the ads on our site, sending a donation and of course by sending us comments and e-mails. Check out the support the show links for all the details. Thanks everyone for your continued support, it means a lot to us!

Hope your week is getting started right. We have a lot of things going on this week and something we would like your help with. We have been in contact with a woman named Barbara that would like to help organize some Bottles Of Hope to be given to the patients at Dana Farber Cancer Int. in Massachusetts. For those of you who don’t know about the program, it is an amazing program where approximately 4 inch glass bottles that are embellished with polymer clay are given to cancer patients. These bottles make a difference to a lot of people. You should check out our CHA videos we did to see just how much these bottles mean to people that are going through this terrible disease and also to their families. I encourage everyone to make a bottle or two and send them to Barbara to give to the patients. Here is the address to send them to:

Attn: Barbara Reider

PO Box 143

North Scituate, MA 02060

Barbara is also looking for some artists who live in the Massachusetts area to help with demonstrations at Dana Farber as well.  If you can help out, please send us an e-mail and we can forward it to Barbara. Thanks everyone!

This Friday we have a new episode of Polymer Clay TV coming out as well as a new episode of our full project download Polymer Clay Classroom. On this episode we show how to use polymer clay and stamps to make unique pendants. The stamps we use are from a company named http://www.stampzia.com

Her stamps are unusual and don’t usually require a release to be used. The rubber is different from red rubber and has some quality that the clay does not easily stick to. The stamp we used can make 8 different designs and the sky is the limit with the number of combinations you can try. Make sure to come back Friday  to watch. If you haven’t joined the mailing list make sure t0, we have a bunch of great prizes we are giving away and if you sign up for the newsletter you will automatically be entered to win. Hope you have a creative week!

In case you haven’t heard the National Polymer Clay Guild will be having a conference in Maryland in Feb. They just released their catalog of events and I thought I would post them for you all to see. Make sure to listen to Polymer Clay Podcast this Friday to hear more about what the NPCG has planned for the event. I am really looking forward to getting to meet everyone in person. I have never been to a polymer clay retreat or event so it will be great to attend this one. I encourage you to consider going to this event especially if you want to take your polymer clay art or business to a new level. There are some amazingly talented artists attending and giving seminars that you won’t want to miss. Here is some of the things they have planned.

Sessions

The NPCG 2008 conference is a new kind of conference for the polymer clay, metal clay, mixed media, and sculpting communities. Rather than hands-on classes aimed at teaching specific creative techniques, this conference is full of 90 minute seminars, lectures and panel discussions aimed at promoting sharing and communication between presenters and attendees alike.

In addition, Synergy will give you the opportunity to speak with teachers and bring back their proposals to your local organizations, purchase supplies, tools, and finished work, network with other artists, and attend the American Craft Council show (separate fee).

Registration includes six 90 minute seminars, all presentations and panel discussions, admittance to the Synergy Gallery, Teacher Fair, and Vendor Fair. Additional seminars can be purchased for $30 each. Tickets for the Closing Banquet and Auction are $35 each.

Registration will open on October 1.

---

To view detailed descriptions of each seminar or the biography of the presenter, click the title. For an overview of each day’s event, select the desired day in the menu or click the date title, below.

Thursday, February 21: Craftsmanship

8:30 am – 10:00 am
	T410	Creating Custom Colors and Stencils	Greynolds

Friday, February 22: Business

8:30 am – 10:00 am
10:30 am – 1:30 pm
	Gallery Open
5:00 – 7:30 pm
	Gallery Open
	B410	Finding your Niche in Beads	KLEW

Saturday, February 23: Design

8:30 am – 10:00 am
11:30 am – 1:30 am
	Gallery open for pickup only
11:45 am – 1:15 pm
	Lunchtime Seminars
	D200	Personal Icons	Preston
	D210	Sculpture on the wall, Painting on the sculpture	Gozonar
	D220	Art Jewelry Designing	Friesen
	D230	Creative Sparks	Doroshow
	D240	Unconventional Polymer	Woods
	D250	A Whole New Dimension	Benzon
		Banquet Keynote: Cynthia Tinapple
		Honoring NPCG Founders
		Live Auction
		Closing Ceremony

]

This Friday on Polymer Clay Podcast we will be releasing the four interviews we did with Sarah Shriver, Seth Lee Savarick, Maureen Carlson & Maggie Maggio. They shared a little about themselves and about the part they will be playing in the National Polymer Clay Guilds Synergy Conference next February. Check out the NPCG website for all the details. The conference will be three days long, with lots of well known polymer clay artists giving seminars and sitting on panel discussions. If you have ever wanted to  meet some of the polymer clay artists you see in magazines and books and hear their prospective on things, this will be a great opportunity to do so. There will be discussion panels, keynote speakers and lots of seminars.  Make sure to listen to Polymer Clay Podcast this Friday to hear some of the fun things that are planned for the conference. It is sure to be a good time and we plan on attending and getting lots of footage to share with our listeners and viewers.

Kalmbach Publishing is coming out with a new magazine called Make It Mine and it sounds like it is right up my alley. I always loved to add my special touch to my clothes and spruce up my home and this magazine will give lots of easy ideas. I am really looking forward to the first issue. Kalmbach Publishing also publishes some other great magazines like Bead & Button & Bead Style so this magazine should be another great addition. The great news is that Kalmbach Publishing is giving a copy of the first two issues to one of our lucky listeners or viewers. All you have to do to be entered is to follow the link to the new magazine, Make It Mine and let us know what you would like to see in the magazine by leaving a comment at our website and you will automatically entered to win a copy of the first two issues. The first issue is due out November 13th and I can’t wait to see it.
Make sure to sign up for our newsletter so you will automatically be entered in our monthly giveaways we have lots of great prizes to give away!

We are getting ready to film soon and have lots of great projects planned for upcoming episodes so stay tuned. Hope you have a creative week!

This Friday we have a new episode of Polymer Clay TV where we demonstrate how to work with dye ink. It is hard to believe there is only one more episode before we start filming again. We usually film 6 episodes of Polymer Clay TV at a time and 6 episodes of Polymer Clay Classroom which is our complete project downloads that can be found in our shop. We have all kinds of projects planned so we hope you stay tuned. If you have any suggestions feel free to post a comment, send an e-mail or give us a call. We are always open to suggestions and submissions. This months newsletter went out with a coupon so if you are on the mailing list check your inbox for that, if you haven’t subscribed to the newsletter make sure to sign up so you don’t miss anything or any of our special offers or coupons. Every month we will be giving away prizes to some of our lucky newsletter subscribers so make sure to sign up to automatically be entered to win. We have been in contact with publishers and product manufacturers who are sending us goodies to give away. If you haven’t checked out the videos by Page Sage you are in for a big treat. The nice people from Page Sage have sent us an extra copy of Lisa Pavelkas DVD to give away to our listeners and viewers, so make sure to stay tuned to find out how you can win a copy for your very own. We will be doing a review of Lisa’s instructional DVD in an upcoming podcast that you won’t want to miss. I will give you a hint, Lisa’s DVD is so packed with goodies that it is over 2 hours long. We also found out that Page Sage will be releasing another polymer clay DVD by Judy Belcher and it is on learning the millefiore technique. We will have more on that as soon as it is released. I think that learning from video’s and DVD’s are a fun way to learn when you don’t have the opportunity to take a class. They also allow you to sit at home and watch them as many times as you need until you can create your own masterpieces. Polymer clay is so versatile that in 18 years I can honestly say I have never been bored with it. I encourage you to seek out guilds, groups, classes, video’s and DVD’s to help you learn different techniques and projects and I promise you, you won’t ever get bored either. Happy claying!