PCAGOE is an acronym for the Polymer Clay Artist’s Guild of Etsy.com.

It all began on December 26, 2006, when Ilysaart (Ilysa’s user name on Etsy.com) put up a forum post titled “How about a polymer clay street team?” On Etsy, street teams are groups of members who ban together in order to promote themselves and Etsy. She also included a request for someone interested in joining such a team, who also had the web skills to perhaps get the team on the web. Studiobijou (Kira) answered the call that same day, and a rudimentary site was put up on blogger as the street team started to flesh out with more members. At some point, we decided to call ourselves a Guild, in keeping with the many other polymer clay guilds that have united artists around the world in their love of polymer clay. The Etsy Guild is different, in that there are artists from all over the world, working and sharing together. Most of them will never meet. What a strange and welcome surprise then, that Ilysa and Kira both live in Florida, only about 5 hours apart. Their proximity has allowed them to meet frequently in order to manage the guild and their site, PolymerClayProductions.com.

The PCAGOE has bloomed into a vibrant coordination of talent. They have Guild Officers who tackle many aspects of managing the guild’s efforts, a flickr page and discussion group, a great website, over 80 active members, a charity program, a weekly Featured Artist with an interview, and a monthly challenge.

The PCAGOE holds a monthly themed challenge, in which the artists challenge themselves to create something that represents the monthly theme. Etsy users and the public vote on their favorite entry. The winner of the challenge gets some great prizes, and a random winner is selected from one of the voters to win some of the PCAGOE artists donated work. Make sure to visit the guild’s site during the contest which takes place the first week of each month. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite entry.

Please visit the Guild and see all of the amazing talent at www.pcagoe.com.

If you are an Etsy member and would like more info on joining the guild, please send a convo to our membership Secretary - http://huntersdesigns.etsy.com.