**ISSUE #015**
Hello Potters
It’s the end of the year already so I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a **happy holiday season** and to **thank you for reading** this newsletter over the past year.
It’s also a new financial year for the Club so don’t forget to **renew your membership** if you haven’t done so already. **Membership was due in October**, so don’t delay. There’s a link to the Membership Renewal Form here and below in the club news.
Plus there are some **useful pottery tips** further down that may make your creative pottery life much easier – so read on.
We really want to see our talented members’ work, so **upload your pics** to our **instagram** or **facebook** page, or **email** them for inclusion on our social media.
**Ed Trost** - newsletter editor
club email: shorncliffepotteryclubinc@hotmail.com

Hi Everyone and welcome to our **December** edition!
Like Ed, I can’t believe we are at December already and it feels like it is going to be another quick month ahead. I hope everyone is able to stop and take some moments to enjoy life along the way … **clay time = serenity time**.
The Club has just had its AGM and I send a big thank you to all members who were able to came along last Saturday, and Congratulations to the election of the continuing committee membership and to our **new committee member - Robyn Brown**, who was elected as Treasurer! The previous committee accomplished a lot over the last 12 months, and I look forward to seeing how our club can grow and our members can develop their skills over the next 12 months.
Now onto the upcoming events:
**Friday 3rd December - Jingle All The Bay, 6pm - 9pm ~ Sandgate Town Centre**
We are proud to announce that the SPCI will this year have a stall at our local annual Christmas event - Jingle All The Bay! Please see the event’s Facebook page for all the details of the street party, which will include live music, stage entertainment, food stalls, community stalls, children’s rides and Santa photos!
Thank you to our members who have provided pieces to sell and/or volunteered to help at our stall. We hope to see many of you, and your families, down in Sandgate Town Centre on Friday 3rd December, between 6pm and 9pm. Come and say Hi!
**Saturday 4th December - SAS Art, Artrageous and SPC Inc Xmas Party - Brighton Bowls Club**
The annual Christmas party with our local art groups, SAS Art and Artrageous, is happening again on Saturday 4 December at the Brighton Bowls Club. We hope a lot of our members have RSVP’d to, and paid, SAS Art. We can’t wait to have a fun night with other local creatives.
**Christmas/New Year Club Shed Closure - 19 December to 4 January**
Like everyone, our volunteers need a little down time too. So the Club’s shed will be closed from Sunday 19 December and reopening on Tuesday 4 January. But please keep an eye on our Facebook page where we’ll post if someone finds they are available to open the shed during that break.
I hope you all have a wonderful festive season ahead and get to enjoy some (or a lot of) down time - particularly with a creative pursuit, like **playing with clay**, involved.
*Cheers and happy reading!*
***Tamara Vitale –*** *President, SPC Inc.*

Tuesday + Wednesday + Thursday
+ Saturday Mornings
9:00am—1:00pm
Thursday Evenings
6:00pm—9:00pm
**SESSION FEE —** $7.00 per visit, payable either in person using your **debit or credit card** or by EFT to the club’s **bank account**.
**Account name**: Shorncliffe Pottery Club Inc.
**Bank details**: BSB 064124
**Account number**: 10518225
**Please let us know** via **email** if you are intending to come to the club so we can maintain COVID-19 regulations on numbers within the studio.

From the Kiln Corner
Well , it is hard to believe this is the end of the year. Start practicing writing 2022. As usual the kilns have been working overtime. Gus just turned on Midfire load 81 and I just loaded Bisque for number 82. We hope we will do at least 6 more loads before the end of the year. Even with Covid 19 and several lockdowns the club members have kept us busy and produced a lot of pottery. The novelty of opening the kilns remains exciting.
We do ask that you read the **new firing forms**, that we need for safe firing, and help us by filling out the temperature information of **both your clay and matching glaze**.
To identify the glaze you need, Gabriel and Catharine have made **mid fire glazes** with a temperature between 1162°C and 1240°C in the **green buckets**. We aim to fire at cone 6 -1200°C for best results using the glaze in the green buckets.
The **stoneware/high fire** glaze with a temperature range between 1263°C -1280°C is in the **white buckets** marked SW. We aim to fire at cone 9 -1260°C for best results using the glaze in the white buckets. Please match your firing temperature of your clay to the correct glaze.
We have commercial earthenware clear in the kiln room with a temperature range of 1100°C to 1120°C. We fire our Earthenware to 1100°C cone 03.
Keep on playing with clay.
**Greg, Linda, Catharine and Gabriel**

Do you know anyone that shows an **interest** in your pottery?

If you do, why not invite them to **come and** **try pottery** for themselves. The first session is **free** and you know that once you have made something with clay…
**you’re hooked**!

REMINDER
Membership Is Now Due

Remember you need to be a member of our club to use the facilities and have first access to join the workshops.

Membership Renewals for 2022

The year has flown by and your membership is now due. Being a member allows you to continue to enjoy the use of the club facilities, buy clay at discount prices, have access to club glazes and firing, and attend a variety of our workshops. This year the club has grown in membership and this strengthens our support base. We have plans to keep offering new and exciting things in the coming year.

Memberships are due from the 1st October, and to ensure that your membership is current, payment needs to be made by the end of October. The fees are remaining the same, but we are streamlining the process using a digital format. This format will make it so much easier for the membership secretary and will make the information in our database more accurate.

Please fill in the online form on our website:

www.shorncliffepotteryclubinc.com.au/membership

Select your payment method on the form (via direct deposit into the Club’s bank account, or via Square when you are next at the Club’s shed) and hit ‘Send’. The form will then be automatically emailed to the membership secretary.

Alternatively we have a PDF form we can email to you, which you can complete and email back. Please make a request for the form to:

shorncliffepotteryclubincmembership@hotmail.com

Ann Gillespie – Membership Secretary

JOIN NOW

SPCI Patron Announced
We are very proud to announce that the Honourable Stirling Hinchliffe MP agreed to be the SPCI’s Patron recently!
Hon Hinchliffe MP has been our local State member for Sandgate since 2015 and has been a **valuable supporter of our Club** since then ~ sponsoring awards annually in our Expressions exhibition and providing guidance to the club’s executive when it has been sought.
**Thank you Stirling!** We greatly appreciate the support you provide to us!

Membership Update
For The First Year

In October, 2020, many of our past members rejoined our newly incorporated club. Some we lost as the committee did not have access to all past members from the PCYC. Fortunately, those who were in contact with the club stayed with us. Our first life memberships were awarded to some long standing members; Margaret Pettit, Cherryl Lever, Cheryl Ryan and Max Page.

Membership throughout the year has seen steady growth. Membership numbers to the beginning of October were 130. As the new club year ticked over in October, there has been some attrition and non-rejoining of members. This is common for clubs with 25% fairly normal. Membership as of end of November is 82 members.

The club has gained exposure from the Expressions exhibition and participation in the inaugural 4017 Art Trails. Our involvement in these activities has consolidated a closer relationship with SAS Art and we have gained greater recognition in the arts community of the area. Since these activities, the club has gained 16 new members. These membership numbers and continued growth ensure the longer term viability of our club.

Workshop Review For 2021

The new year of 2021 saw the club take the opportunity of our new independence and to provide opportunities for our members to learn new skills. The club offered a range of activities to cater for the new and inexperienced members and to extend those with more skills.

Workshops during the year consisted of workshops from Jackie Gasson with two workshops focused on ‘Pushing the Boundaries’ with hand building and wheel throwing on offer. Both workshops were successfully received by members.

Adrian Coles presented and tutored a wild and exciting concept of animal or mystical creatures hand building workshop. This was also well received from members.

Casual tuition has been made available to new members to get started in working with clay. These sessions are taken by some of our experienced members and have been quite successful.

As we have gained new members recently there have been requests for more structured workshops for beginners and the committee is in the process of organising this for members. See the newsletter for more information on these.

In 2022 the committee is looking to extend and explore new ideas in clay and will be approaching tutors to run workshops in much the same format at this year. Our current arrangement of casual tutors for new members will still be available.

Ann Gillespie – Membership Secretary

Being Respectful, Feeling Safe

The club’s Code of Conduct was written to guide the safety and respect of members. Developing friendships, being co-operative, sharing ideas and skills as well as being respectful to each other in words and actions is something in which the club takes great pride. When members are working in the SPC Inc. studio or interacting with other members via electronic means, everyone has a right to feel safe and not harrassed.

The Code of Conduct can be found in your membership documentation or you can request a copy from the Membership Officer here or you can read it here.

Club Clay Options and Details

These are the current clay bodies that we generally have in our store. If you have another clay that you prefer, speak to Gus or Linda to see if they can get it in for you.

Shorncliffe Pottery Club Inc. has signed up with Containers for Change - a simple recycling system for cans and bottles. It’s easy to do. Take your recyclables to a Containers for Change site and use our unique Scheme ID number for the money from the recycling to go directly into the Shorncliffe Pottery Club Inc. bank account.

Club’s Scheme ID number: C10465553

If the Scheme ID isn't working (argh technology!) and you get cash instead from the recycling machine, just pop the money in the tea jar in the club’s kitchenette.

Each month in the newsletter we will update the amount generated from the recycling. So don’t throw out those cans and bottles – recycle them for the benefit of the club and watch the dollars grow.