Lets Learn Together ~ Polymer Clay ~ The Lessons

EDITED TO MAKE THE SCHEDULE MORE DOABLE

Looks like I have piqued the interest of quite a few fellow newbies. Excited much, yippeee!!!

So this is what I had in mind as far as lessons:

• Week 1 - Gather the essentials + Learn the terminology
• I figured we could get familiar with the tools and techniques and names at least in theory while we wait for our "essentials" to arrive. We will share websites and book recommendations and tutorial links and all other kind of resources.
• Week 2 - Basic Techniques
• Conditioning
• Making basic snakes and logs and simple canes (jelly rolls?)
• Making basic bead shapes - round, rondelles, disc, bicone, cylinder, cabochon, tube, any other geometric shapes :)
• Baking 
• Week 3 - Basic Finishing Techniques 
•  Sanding, Buffing
• Sealing - Do we need it? This could be an advanced topic
• Make something with the new beads :)
• Week 4 - Advanced Techniques
• Marbling
• Color Mixing - skinner blends
• Week 5 - More techniques
• Cutting/Carving - To make faceted beads
• Week 6 - Canes
• Complex cane designs - would be fun if we could make our own patterns :)
• Week 7 - More canes!
• Make canes and use them to stick them on things :)
• Week 8 - Texture
• Stamping
• Braiding (manipulating snakes)
• Get creative with what you can do with those snakes!
• Week 9 - Embellishment
• Painting
• Enamel Effects
• Metal Effects
• Week 10
• Bangles and rings!
• Learn how to attach wire to your creations to make pendants with bails, headpins, etc
• Week 11
• Show off week :)

These are just some thoughts I have had while typing up this post, and looking at the table of contents of a book I borrowed from the library today.
Please do chime in and share your ideas and suggestions as to what else we could do here :) All of us are teachers as well as students!

I am also hoping to rope in a few of my friends who have been working with PC for a while and whose work I am in awe of to be the panel of experts. The idea is that you guys will send me questions and I would forward them to the panel, and we can get advice and opinions from all of them, which I would compile and write up into a blog post.

I will also start a pinterest board to pin tutorials for each week of learning.

Ok, so I am getting thoroughly excited about this now! Can't wait to start!