This is the third year I've gone to the polymer clay Buckeye Bash held at the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in the Hope Hotel in Dayton. There are about 40 people (2 men, the rest women) who meet in a large room. We each have a nice area for our own work space. Natalie Harwood always saves me a place across from her. In the immediate area also are Linda Wagar, Linda Ferris, Jill Palumbo and her sister Nancy Blades.

Last year Jill sat beside me and after the Bash we started emailing. She is very talented and I enjoy visiting her flickr site to see what new things she does.

We had a lot of demos this year and I went to most of them. There were two that I knew were going to be more difficult than I wanted to learn. They were canes and I'm not very good at simple canes let alone ones with a lot of steps.

We made poker chips and exchanged them. The poker chips were varied from simple to intricate. We also made rocks, birds, twigs and things of nature to exchange. I exchanged some of my rocks for a bird and a mushroom.

In the brown bag exchange I made an interchangeable bead pendant and received a pair of cane earrings. In the silent auction I bought a set of Egyptian stamps.

I made a fish covering it with extruder flower canes. Linda Wagar saw my flower extruder canes and wanted to know how to do it. I showed her and she told someone else and I showed them and they told several people so I showed them. It was exciting for me to be able to show something new to these people who are so talented.

It was a great weekend - February 18 to 21 - and the weather coming home was great; the roads clear and no snow coming down.