UK Polymer Clay Meet Up in Manchester on Oct 3, 2009

Cindy Lietz Polymer Clay Badges

“Cindy – the dots on your badge pictures are sparkles – not faults!” ~Penny-V

I was thrilled to get an email from Penny the other day… with a photo of some ‘Cindy’ badges for an October 3rd, polymer clay UK meet up she is organizing.

You may remember reading about the planning of this event at the original announcement blog post on August 1st, 2009. Here is the link in case you missed it: Update on What’s Happening With Polymer Clay in the UK and Europe

Anyways, here’s the latest on what’s happening with this get together…

Cindy,

As promised details of what has been arranged on your blog.

There are a group of ‘Cindy’s girls’ from the UK who will be meeting at 11am on Saturday October 3rd.  We will meet at ‘The Tie Rack’ on Piccadilly Station in the middle of Manchester.  The intention is that we will find a coffee shop and sit and talk about, guess what, Polymer Clay!  Apart from exchanging ideas and being thrilled to meet other clayers, we will be talking about how we can promote the skills of the Polymer Clay art in Britain.  As I have said before, not enough people have been introduced to this amazing craft.

The other thing we thought to do was to make a visit to Fred Aldus (this is a well established craft store which is very close to Piccadilly) although once we all meet we are open to ideas. We are suggesting that everyone bring lunch with them so we don’t have to spend a lot of money in the centre of the city.

So, are there any other Polymer Clay addicts in Britain who have the time and inclination to meet with us? It should be fun. I have even made us some badges. The dots on your badge pictures are sparkles – not faults!

~Penny Vingoe (from the Wilds of Wales)
“…there really is no better way to live than in the countryside.”

If you can get yourself to Manchester on October 3rd, please do inform Penny in the comments section below. She is a wonderful person to know, and you are sure to have some fun at her informal meet-up event. I wish I could be there too.

Also, it would be great if you could help spread the word for Penny. Here’s some ideas of things you can do…

  • Tweet about this post on Twitter.
  • Announce at other polymer clay forums you participate in.
  • Post a note at your own blog.
  • And… anything else you can think of.

Cindy Lietz SignaturePolymer Clay Tutor


  1. Elizabeth, 15 September, 2009

    Penny,
    I am so excited for all of you. Please, please take pictures and send some to Cindy so we all can “meet” you, too.

  2. sally, 15 September, 2009

    I would love to have attended but I’ll be in Canada visiting a friend and lots of craft stores!

  3. Elizabeth, 15 September, 2009

    Oops! Cindy, I forgot to tell you how cute you look “badged”.

  4. Silverleaf, 15 September, 2009

    I’ll be there! I’m really looking forward to it, will be great to meet you all. :)

    Love the Cindy badges too, what a cool idea!

    Just thought, we could do a swap – everyone make little things to give to everyone else as a kind of memento of the day?

  5. Silverleaf, 15 September, 2009

    Ooh, I’ll have my phone with me to take pictures too, that means I can avoid being in most of the pictures, lol!

    And I’ll probably be tweeting during the day, too.

  6. Melinda, 15 September, 2009

    How fabulous and exciting!!! You guys will have so much fun, I just know it…

  7. Ken H., 15 September, 2009

    Want to see the photos and read the stories as well. Oh btw, love the badges as well.

  8. Ritzs, 15 September, 2009

    I would just love to be with you all, but alas it cant be done. maybe next time. I look foward to seeing photo;s and envy you all but have a great day

  9. Catalina, 15 September, 2009

    I can’t be there either but I look forward to seeing all your photos and comments. Have a safe trip all you who are going and have a blast!

  10. Rachel, 16 September, 2009

    Yes Penny – I look forward to meeting you there:)

  11. Penny, 16 September, 2009

    Have you heard of bead exchanges? From Silverleaf’s idea: It would be fun to bring a handful of beads with you, and then we exchange beads when we meet – so we all get interesting work done by other people. I’ll certainly bring a collection – it only needs to be one per person and currently we have less than six people – come on everyone in the UK – where is your sense of adventure?!

  12. Polyanya, 16 September, 2009

    I’m sure you’ll have a great time, I’m dead jealous!

  13. Silverleaf, 16 September, 2009

    Yay, bead exchange! Now what shall I make?

  14. Laurel, 17 September, 2009

    Oh this sounds like so much fun. You guys have a great time!!

  15. Rachel, 20 September, 2009

    yep, i’m up for that – what a cool idea:)

  16. Jocelyn, 24 September, 2009

    Love the badges, and so glad you all will be meeting up. Hope you have great weather and a great time!

  17. Silverleaf, 25 September, 2009

    I wonder… for those who can’t be there for the meet but want to join the bead swap, we could do something by post. Say you could post beads to me, I could take them to Manchester and swap them, then send your package of “swap” beads to you. Maybe too late to organise now, but we could certainly do something in future.

  18. Polyanya, 25 September, 2009

    Oh I’d really like to do that, then I’d feel like I was part of it. How would we do the address thing? Not a good idea posting addresses on the web.

  19. Cindy Lietz, 25 September, 2009

    Great idea Silverleaf! I did a search to find where this topic of bead exchanges has been discussed elsewhere here at the blog. Arlene Harrison shared some information in the comments section of the article I linked to by my name [See: Handmade Packaging].

    …oh and another good word to search on is “swap” — it’ll bring up some other references too.

  20. Ken H., 25 September, 2009

    Here’s an idea, one person could collect email addresses, and then communicate with each person through regular email (not facebook)to get the snail mail address and then circulate a list of the addresses through regular email, then nothing is posted to the internet.

  21. Silverleaf, 25 September, 2009

    I like the email idea. But actually only one person needs to have the email and snail mail addresses of everyone.

    It makes sense to send everything to one place for “distribution” because that would cut down on postage. (Eg, 10 people in a swap all posting individually = 90 x postage, whereas with a central distributor that goes down to 18 x postage.)

    I’m happy to put myself forward as distributor if people trust me with their beads and home addresses!

    Drop me a mail if you’re interested, scarlett_silverleafATyahoo.com (you’ll have to replace the “AT” with “@” to get the address to work.

  22. Polyanya, 26 September, 2009

    Brilliant!

  23. Polyanya, 28 September, 2009

    I’ll mail you this week, Silverleaf.

  24. Penny, 28 September, 2009

    I am not sure how many people are going to be making it to Manchester on Saturday – we suggested 11am meeting at ‘The Tie Rack’ in Picadilly Station – another Clay addict from Wales is coming with me, but I have only just looked up the trains and our only train will arrive at Picadilly at 11.15am (the previous one means leaving the wilds of Wales well before dawn!) – will everyone wait for us please?

    I will be bringing beads and badges!
    Penny

  25. Silverleaf, 29 September, 2009

    Better get on and make some beads myself then! Still have no idea what I’ll make, to be honest…

    I’ll be there before 11, since I’m on the train as well. But coming from Chesterfield is pretty uncomplicated as we’re on the main London to “The North” line, lol!

    Anyone else up for the postal bead swap?

  26. Cindy Lietz, 29 September, 2009

    I’m excited for you guys to be able to get together like this. Don’t forget to bring your cameras. Everyone is going to want to see pictures so that we all can feel like we were “kinda” there too :-)

  27. Silverleaf, 03 October, 2009

    Well we had a great time, beads were swapped and money spent on crafty stuff and lots and there was lots and lots of clay chat!

    Really nice to meet (in alphabetical order, lol) Angela, Pam, Penny and Rachel, hopefully we can meet up again soon. :)

    I wore my sparkly Cindy badge all day too. ;)

    I took a few pictures as well, so I’ll get those posted asap.

  28. Polyanya, 06 October, 2009

    Sent the email before I read this Anna – its ok I know how many beads to send you! Looking forward to the photos.

  29. Cindy Lietz, 08 October, 2009

    In regards to the Manchester Meet Up Event that took place on October 3, 2009, Penny Vingoe wrote a wonderful summary of the event, complete with a nice gallery of photos from both Penny and Silverleaf (Anna). The link by my name will take you to that post.

  30. Hoda M, 10 June, 2022

    Hi Cindy,

    I found you through a Google search.
    I make polymer clay dolls I want to know if there is a place in Manchester where I can grow my art.

    Many thanks,

    Hoda

  31. Cindy Lietz, 10 June, 2022

    Welcome to the PcT community Hoda. I would suggest as a first step, if you have not already done so, to connect with the British Polymer Clay Guild.

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