Never say never!

I've done a lot of crazy things over the years, including serving as an officer in various organizations. As I've gotten older I've made a conscious decision to NEVER serve as an officer of anything ever again! (I know, somebody has to do it, but I've served my time, right?) So what do I do? Get elected to be the first Secretary/Webmaster! Yes, that's me in the middle in black and white (I didn't get the "wear red" memo!) So never say never! You just never know where your creative passion will take you. And the bonus is that I've made new friends and I'm having a blast!

You know, while we were onboard, everybody kept telling us to form our own guild! Sounded like a great idea, right? But now we're off the ship, back at home in our own individual environments, with our own lives, problems and commitments to take care of. But the passion to create is strong and the "core group" from the cruise move forward.

Everybody was instrumental in keeping things on track, but I've got to send out a special "Thank You" for all the hard work and encouragement to the lady who is now serving as our first President, Joyce King. She did a lot of the "behind the scenes" stuff and kept us focused.

We had a great installation meeting in December 2008. Joyce is pictured accepting the official CMSPCG gavel covered with clay and crystals by Lisa Pavelka! Christi Friesen made one of her unique pendants for each of the non-officer members. Julie Picarello made custom pendants for each of the officers and Judy Belcher installed the officers - via cell phone! We had a great time and were thrilled to have these fabulous polymer clay artists participate in this event. Thanks to Jennifer Griffin for all her hard work in pulling together the best installation meeting anybody could ask for!

I'm delighted note that our June 2009 meeting will celebrate the anniversary of the first meeting of the Central Mississippi Polymer Clay Guild. I won't go into a lot of detail about the trials and tribulations of setting up a new guild but I do want to emphasize just how much I've grown as a polymer clay artist by being a part of this group. I see similar growth in some of our other memers, too, including at least one member who took a polymer clay class at a local bead store and was hooked! We now have a paid membership of just over 20 and usually have at least 10 to 12 members at every meeting.

Now, what does that have to do with my journey?

Everything!