Thank you to Lynne-Marie Doherty, for adding information to her new "Member's Page" on the BPCG website: (http://www.bpcg.org.uk/members-pages.html). Lynne-Marie has only just joined the BPCG, but from the standard of her work it is obvious that she has been using polymer clay for a long time.

If you are a member and would like your own page on our site, please contact our webmaster, who will be pleased to help set it up.

Alison Gallant (co-founder and life member of the BPCG), has just emailed to let us know that she is organising a Polydays for 2012.

This is being run by Alison independently of the BPCG, but as Alison was the main organiser of most of the Guild's own Polydays events, previous attendees will know that a fantastic weekend can be expected.

For those who have not attended one of these events before, it is a whole weekend dedicated to learning new polymer clay techniques, with internationally-renowned tutors as well as an opportunity to meet like-minded polymer clay enthusiasts from all over the country.

Polydays 2012 will run from 14 to 16 September, at Toddington, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. There will be three full day workshops with Carol Simmons from the US, Bettina Welker from Germany and Alison Gallant. Full details can be found at: www.millefioristudio.com.

In the meantime the BPCG committee are currently in discussion with other international polymer clay artists, with the intention of running similar event in the future. If you have a favourite polymer clay artist that you would like us to contact, please contact any of the committee via the 'contacts' link to the left of this page.

March is a busy time of year for the BPCG, with stalls at two of the largest crafting events in the country: Miniatura 17th/18th March, and Hobbycrafts 22nd to 25th March (both at the Birmingham NEC).

These giant shows are really fascinating, and if you are a BPCG member and are able to get to the NEC on any of the above dates, we would love to see you. Better still, we have an opportunity for several members to gain FREE ENTRY if they are able to help for a few hours on the stall. It is great fun and a brilliant learning experience - see here for reports by previous participants. Please contact Allan Marshall to find out more.

Sue Heaser (founder of the BPCG) has been in touch to let us know that she will be re-starting the BPCG Eastern group in 2012.

Within England we therefore now have a 'full set' of branches, covering North, East, South, West, and Midlands, plus several more. We also have some tutors who may be able to travel to you if you don't live in the areas above. So if you would like to meet up with like-minded polymer clay enthusiasts then this could be your lucky year!

Thanks to Cara Jane Hayman ("Surfingcat"), a new tutorial is now available in the members' section of the website. Click here to view it.

Cara is the organiser of the new BPCG Bristol branch, and her blog can be found here.

The last few months have seen an explosion of polyclay activity in various regions of the UK, with four or five new groups starting or about to start around the country.

Kerrie Venner has contacted the Guild to let us know that she would like to start a group based in Bournemouth. If you live in the vicinity or are able to travel there for meetings, please contact Kay Vincent who will pass on your details to Kerrie.

If you are a current member of the BPCG you should have received an email today telling you how to access the "Members' Section" parts of the website. If you have not received this email or other recent messages, please contact Kay (membership secretary and webmaster) to check whether we have your correct contact details.

Member Sheila Smith has contacted the Guild to let us know she is starting up a polymer clay group in Skipton, North Yorkshire. For the moment the group is called the "North Yorkshire" branch.

The first meeting is 7 February 2012, so if you live in Yorkshire or are able to travel there, please do get in contact with Sheila and go to the event.

You can contact Sheila by clicking here

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