NWPCG History

In 1994 under the umbrella of the NW Bead Society, the NW Polymer Clay Artists formed and soon decided to hold its first ever conference on the art of polymer clay. Before jumping in to do a conference, Karen Murphy, Maggie Maggio, Natasha Flechsig, (creator of the famous Natasha bead) and Gail Ethier decided to try a test event in 1995 and call it Clay Camp.

The first Camp was held at Camp Long in West Seattle. Sixty-five people from the U.S. and Canada came! The response and results were so positive that it was decided to go ahead with the conference. At that time, the group also changed its name to NW Polymer Clay Guild (NWPCG).

The first ever, week-long conference on the art of polymer clay was born: Convergence at Ravensdale. Held in 1996 in Ravensdale, WA, the event had a total of 196 hours of class programming and 265 participants attended! Teachers included many that we now regard as masters in the art of polymer clay: Kathleen Dustin, Nan Roche, Kathy Amt, Tory Hughes, Ford and Forlano (City Zen Cane), Cynthia Toops, Judith Skinner (Skinner blends), Klew, Kathy Dewey, Susanna Oroyan, Barbara McGuire, Donna Kato, Pier Voulkos, Lindly Haunani, Linda Goff, Laura Balombini, Susan Hyde and many others. After that huge success, it was decided to run Clay Camp every other year, alternating with the Ravensdale Conferences so NWPCG was running an event every year from 1995 through 1998. The second Clay Camp was held in Carnation at Camp Don Bosco. Again, people came from surrounding states. In 1999, Clay Camp was moved to Camp Huston in Gold Bar, WA and was held there every year for 20 years.

After Ravensdale 2006 planning began for Ravensdale 2009 but the economy of 2008 made us realize it wouldn’t be fiscally responsible to continue with our plans. Later, upon further review, so many new events similar to Clay Camp developed that NWPCG didn’t feel that further Ravensdale conferences would be able to pay for itself so they were discontinued. NWPCG made history with the first conference about polymer clay in the world and changed the face of polymer events worldwide by creating the first ever “community work space” which we still have at every annual Clay Camp, now held at Artworks in Edmonds, Washington.

-Meredith Arnold