Saturday’s MVCT Mini-Retreat was a big success and even ended on time! When an IADCCT chapter sponsors a Regional Educational Event, only members are permitted to attend. However, if they have a Retreat, it is open to the public.
These are the two projects that everyone got to do. The Halloween Cauldron Mug was changed to an Easter theme and was taught by Sheryl Wilder. After base-coating our mug with a selection of spring colors, we added a variety of foam Easter stickers as shown in the picture. Making sure they was pressed down, we then glazed the piece with a choice of Duncan Shimmer glazes. After the glaze dried we removed the stickers. A little clear glaze on the designs and a little cleanup wherever the glaze seemed under the sticker and these will be ready to fire.
Dancing with Dandelions is the title of the plate we painted. Taught by Laura Gilbert, we painted the flowers with toilet paper tubes! First we brushed on a background using three different shades of green Concepts and a fan brush and making wavy lines. We cut the tubes about 2″ up from the bottom into narrow strips and dipped this into Really White paint to make our flowers. The centers were added using a paper towel or a sponge. Then we finished by adding leaves and outlining them with a liner brush. After drying for 24 hours, we will clear glaze and fire.
All of the Make-N-Take classes and seminar classes at Convention taught us new products or new ways to use old products. Since the Make-N-Takes are one-hour classes rather than three-hour seminars we were able to do two projects during our retreat.
Carol Warneke demonstrated the Frog Bank which is done in a similar manner to the mug. Instead of using stickers, they used fabric fringe at Convention and she used regular yarn for the demo (on a soft mushroom fairy house, not on a frog). The effect of the fringe shows up best on the green frog.
Mira Rulong and Lucretia Kaiser are MVCT members who sell both finished pieces and ready-to-paint bisque at Craft Shows. They did a nice presentation, giving us lots of good ideas and resources, including handouts for future reference.
Attendance: We are sorry that some folks who wanted to come had to work or had other commitments. It is difficult to find a time when everyone is available and we did have a last minute change this time.
Carol's Carousel Creations 