2011 RCFA Meeting

Blog Site Update

Wow, it has been a long couple of days, but I have redesigned our blog.  I hope you like it.  We have moved some of items into separate pages.  Most importantly, the Events section has been given its own page.  If you wish to see what we are up to (and we hope you do!), please click on the Events button above.  On the right we have a slide show playing from our Flickr site.  If you wish to see larger copies of these images, and a description of what you are seeing, just double click on any of the slides and you will be taken to our Flickr page.  Additionally, please note that we are separating our photos into "sets".  We invite you to check out all of our sets while you are there.

Subscription Button

Finally, we have a subscribe button on the home page, right-hand column to find the button. We hope that you will consider "subscribing" to our blog.  That way you will be notified whenever we make an addition to the site.

Show and Tell

The coiled basket you see here was designed and made by Robbie Porter for a gallery show she did during the winter 2010.  We thought the ability to learn this traditional technique may allow us to turn it into a doll of sorts - so Robbie will be teaching us how to do this technique during our August 2011 meeting.  Details about the workshop and meeting can be found in the "Events" section - button above.

The two quiltlets here represent works-in-progress by Carole Staples.  She is masterful in accessorizing these wonderful pieces and we hope to be able to show you her completed designs in the very near future. 

Unfortunately, I am not a very good photographer. The coiled cup above is about 4" tall and is made from a large beading thread (used for large-holed beads and macrame').  It took Robbie Porter about four months to finish this piece. 

Katie Storer is still caught up in the process of creating Zentangles.  The Dollstreet Dreamers (an online doll club) has issued a challenge to create a doll of any sort that has been "tangled".  To start her creative juices following, Katie "doodled" this with little thought and now has bigger and better plans for her challenge project.

These two beauties were created by Liz Marten.  The doll on the left was made in a class taught by Monika Shedden at the 2011 AFIC conference.  Her dress is made with a used dryer sheet which has been embellished with pieces of lace, decorative stitching and Jacquard metallic paints.  The doll on the right was born from a challenge issued by the Waynesville Ohio doll club.  They asked members to use the cardboard cores from paper towels to create a doll.  This lavender beauty is the result of that challenge.

 Finally, another piece by Robbie Porter - this quilt is approximate 3 x 3 feet.  It is based on an AQS fat quarter challenge.  She received the dark brown fabric.  Challenge rules dictated that the quilt had to be based on a crazy quilt or log cabin pattern.  Obviously, she chose the log cabin pattern!  The center panel is of special attention as she wove metal strips with fabric strips.  She enjoyed the process so much that she plans on doing more of this mixed media work this season.

Plans for the Future!

If you are a new doll maker and are interested in learning doll making techniques, please know that two of our veteran doll makers, Nita Keeler and Liz Marten, have volunteered to always be prepared to demonstrate how tiny doll fingers are turned (Nita) and how to sculpt a cloth face (Liz).  We would love to invite you to join one of our meetings and see what we are all about.  We are in our 14th year and we remember how exciting it was to join this group a long time ago.  We would like to give you the opportunity to learn the techniques we know and are quite willing to share them with you.

In the Events section you will see that we have scheduled some special events that take us through the end of the year.  The public is invited to join us in these ventures.  You may just show up if you so desire, however, if you have an opportunity to give us a little bit of notice, we will be able to better accommodate your presence at these meetings.  Please feel free to leave a comment below, I should be notified when a comment is added here and will try and get back to you within a day or two via email.

Members - please check out the "Reminders" page to help you remember what you volunteered to do for the guild in a fit of madness....uhmmm...I mean because we are all such charming and altruistic people enthused about the direction our guild is taking and hoping to keep on track and race towards a bright future. The public is welcome to read this, although it'll be pretty cut and dried...however, it will give you an idea how we run the guild and, if you like it, where we are headed in the future.