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Meetings 2006 |
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January Ivan Frey demonstrated how to make wheatheads using lead came and 20-gauge wire. Thanks to all the outgoing officers for the wonderful job they did this last year! Our new officers are Gloria Henson - President, Ivan Frey - Vice President, Linda Zimmerman - Treasurer, and Suzanne Hamilton Mies - Secretary.
February Our new project is an exercise in creativity. A blank 90-degree fan outline with 18-inch sides was handed out to members at the meeting. It is up to each member to create the pattern to fill the outline. Once finished, no two fans will be alike. And it is a project for making a leaded, foiled, or mosaic piece. The frame could be of wood, zinc, or lead. Rebar can be soldered onto the edges for strength. If made as a mosaic, a base can be cut out of wood and glass glued on. Or, the pattern can be placed behind a clear piece of glass and glass glued onto the clear glass, then framed. Or, a mold can be created for pouring a stepping stone. Some suggested design ideas for the pattern are tropical scenes, underwater scenes, birds, flowers, butterflies, something exotic, traditional lace and roses, Japanese scenes, etc. Original patterns can be created or existing patterns can be modified. It's a project with a wide range of possibilities.
March Our March meeting was held on March 8th at Beardens Stained Glass. Randy Rayer, owner of Beardens, hosted an evening of demonstrations for the Guild. We watched a PowerPoint demonstration of the Cosmosphere project now installed at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. Beth demonstrated how to create "perfect" circles using the Morton Teeny Circle Cutting System and Randy showed us how to do it with the Glastar Circle/Strip Cutter. The Morton Safety Break System and the Morton M-80 Safety Break were demonstrated. Beth showed us how to cut strips, squares, diamonds and panels for lamps with the new Morton System and Randy showed us how to do the same with the old Morton System. We met Craig Green, one of the Artists in the Attic. Sterling Sowers showed off his sandblasting studio and answered questions. Since we have already paid for the meeting room at the Evergreen Branch Library, we will use our 3rd Tuesday of the month as a work night for any who want to show up.
April Karen Russell and her husband own DiamondCRETE, and Karen very graciously gave us a demonstration on using DiamondCRETE to make a wallhanging that incorpated a photo. Plus, she shared lots of tips and tricks. Needless to say, all of us veterans at doing mosaics learned something new. Karen is a super nice lady and gives very interesting demonstrations. We enjoyed her so much that she has agreed to come back in June to help us all make our own DiamondCRETE stepping stone. Announced at the meeting was the request for a Guild member to give a half hour demonstration to benefit the Maude Carpenter Children's home (1501 N. Meridian, Wichita 316-942-3221) on June 12th and Jack Carlton volunteered for the task.
May Judy Barnes brought several of her stepping stones and other mosaic pieces and explained how she uses different techniques to make her pieces unique. She told us that each time she pours a DiamondCrete stepping stone, she also pours a stained glass mosaic box using her mosaic box mold. Troy Welty brought in a marblescope to show us that he had made from a kit. We all liked it so much that we decided to make marblescopes our July project.
June The meeting started early at 6 p.m. to give us time to get our projects finished. Karen Russell of DiamondCRETE was on hand to assist us in making a DiamondCRETE stepping stone. Each of us brought our own mold and precut glass. Karen had fresh DiamondCrete for us to purchase, along with the candle stone plug that she and her husband invented. It was a fun night!
July At the meeting, we cut glass strips for our marblescopes. When Troy Welty makes his marblescopes, he adds 1/4" to the length of the strips to accomodate an additional endpiece triangle. The pattern only calls for a triangle at one end of the marblescope. Troy adds another endpiece to the opposite end to prevent dust from getting into the marblescope. Mathews Gallery ordered our marblescope kits and donated the clear glass for the end piece triangles to be made. Ivan Frey took the clear glass home to cut the triangles for eveyone. If you ordered a kit but didn't pick it up at the meeting you can still stop in at Mathews Gallery to get it as it has been set aside with your name on it.
August Troy Welty is overseeing our marblescope project. Everyone was cautioned at the July meeting: "Do NOT touch your mirrors until we are ready for that step." One member has since then learned the hard way that this was a serious warning, and that member had to get a replacement set of mirrors. This is front-surface mirror that scratches VERY EASILY, so handle with extreme care. Ivan Frey brought our cut triangle end pieces to the meeting. The steps completed at this meeting was to solder our outside strips together and solder one triangle endpiece on. September's meeting will be held at Valerie Burgdorf's house and then we will continue with our marblescope project at the October meeting.
September We had a great time at Valerie Burgdorf's house. We met her family and friends. We toured her yard to see all of her mosaic garden art and shed door windows, along with her pouring shed. Valerie treated us with cookies, brownies, spicy pinwheel rollups, trifle and coffee. After our break, we toured the inside of her house to see all of her beautiful suncatchers and lamps. She's bought some beautiful lamps for a song at yard sales. Her studio is very organized and spacious, taking up half of her full size basement. She said she had work space for 8 and has different family members and friends gather together weekly to work on stained glass. Valerie has a great sense of color, as exhibited by the blues, purples and pinks combined together in the Tiffany Woodbine Lamp replica that she made. After seeing everything, we gathered around the firepit on the back patio for a nice visit. It really was a wonderful evening for everyone who attended. October We had a good working meeting. Some worked on their marblescopes and others on personal projects. Kathy Smallwood told us what to bring to the next meeting so she and Ron Hayworth can show us how to make kaleidoscopes out of Pringles cans. Sorry, no newsletter this month.
November We met on the 21st. This is a great project to make if you are working with a group of kids. Kathy Smallwood said she gives Pringles can kaleidoscopes away to company that visits. She said she's made so many that her husband built a jig for her to make the viewing hole in the end of the can. For us to make one, we took the following to the meeting: an empty, clean Pringles can and lid; three mirror strips cut 8” long by 2-3/8” wide; two clear glass circles 2-3/4” across; transparent glass chips (1/4 to 1/2 cup to have a choice of glass to pick from); our ceiling tile work board and tools. The grinder was available. Kathy sands the lid to make it opaque. If the lid is clear, you look right passed your glass to see items beyond the kaleidoscope. Making the lid opaque limits your view to the images created with the glass chips. Kathy brought cans to the meeting with the holes already cut in the ends, and rubber gromits already placed in the holes to exchanged with the rest of us who didn't want to cut our own. Janet Jacobs and her husband took a jig to the meeting to use for cutting our own holes and inserting our own rubber gromits. Kathy also brought a hot glue gun, to help attach our glass circles in place. This is the third time for us to make this project in the last 6 years, and a few chose not to make this project again. But for others it was actually the first time they'd made this project. Also on the agenda for the meeting was election of 2007 officers and December meeting ideas. Our 2007 officers are Gloria Henson as president, Ivan Frey as vice-president, Carole Smith as secretary and Janet Jacobs as treasurer. December meeting to be held at a local restaraunt.
December We met on the 13th at Hometown Buffet for a nice dinner and visiting. Don't forget dues are due. Once again, $24 for one person and $36 for a couple. Please mail dues checks to our new secretary, Carole Smith.
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