Inchie Swap

Creating your inchies

Inchies with Pizzazz!  We’d like to approach our inchie swap with a little more flair and purpose than we have in past retreats.  Flair and purpose as part of a larger plan.   We can do this and still show off our individuality and style.  To that end, we at Claycation 2025 will give you as much help as we can to create gorgeous pieces without investing a lot of your precious time and effort.  This letter will set out some ideas for you to think about.  More notices will be sent out in the next few weeks, and we’d love to hear your ideas as well.

In essence, we’d like to create  a framework that will allow us each to assemble our swapped inchies into a dazzling piece of artwork we can enjoy for years to come.

Here are some ways to make it easy on yourself so you can make as many copies as you want without making yourself crazy.  We want to make things manageable, but still beautiful.  Show off your stuff!

• Canes – old canes, new canes… inchies seem especially well-suited to kaleidoscope and complex canes.  You can re-shape one of your favorite old canes into a 1-inch square log and slice it into inchies.  Recycle your old canes.  They don’t all have to be the same.  Pick designs you love and share your artwork with your clay friends. As with a surface design approach, each slice may be unique.  To get the most out of  your precious canes, you can slice them uber-thin and mount each slice on medium-thick slab to cut.
• Stamp & color might be an option, roll out a thick flat slab of a solid color, Skinner blend or ink design… whatever wouldn’t detract from the stamp pattern, then stamp rows of impressions that can be cut neatly into 1” squares.  From there you can dress it up (or not) using glitter, inks, paints, etc. assembly-line style.
• Create a surface design of some sort…  mokumé gane, alcohol ink designs, infused glitters.  You can cut out inchie squares from this slab where each one is different and each one is beautiful.  Surface affects like imitation gem-stone.  Anyone who has learned from Lindly Haunani’s books or tutorials might look back at her work for inspiration.
• Working from a flat slab, solid or skinner blend or patterned, you can work a simple over-all bas relief if you’re so inclined.  You can add small petals, leaves, cut-outs, etc, or stipple your heart away.
• Identify your pieces on the back.  We will supply labels that will fit on the back of your inchies.  Part of the appeal of inchies is to collect artwork and match the work to the artist.  People can associate a name with the artist and their style.

How to use your booty of inchies after the swap

The inchies’ being fairly uniform in size and style should make it easy to assemble them to create new art.  Make a Unique, one-of-a-kind, memento to remind you of your clay friends and your retreat experience.

• Picture frame
• Show us what you’ve done with inchies in the past.  Send pics of your inchie masterpieces.
• Mount inchies on display pages along with the names of the artists
• At the retreat, we will supply some findings and substrate for mounting inchies,
• We will provide ¾” x ¾” magnet squares with adhesive backs so your mounted inchies can be arranged (and rearranged) on larger magnetic surfaces, like the photo frames and fridge magnets

Magnetic Sheets to create Easy-to-Display pieces out of your Inchie collection

Using your inchies to create a visual memento would give purpose and inspiration to the swap.  Especially if we decide on a theme or style or color palette to tie the pieces together in some way.  It’s always interesting to see the amazing  diversity of approaches to an artistic project.  Give everyone the same materials to use, same construct, same theme, etc, and the results will vary from one end of the spectrum to the other, yet still hold together as a collection.

Jewelry Possibilities

I came across this pretty bracelet in another FB group.  Apologies that I did not note the author’s name.  The inchies could be used for bracelets, necklaces or  earrings, even matching sets if you collect enough of them.   The theme of color/style/pattern could lend itself to combining inchies into a cohesive design.

Leftover inchies after the swap

• Your leftover inchies can be donated to the auction in a little bag as loose pieces, or you can put a bunch of inchies on a slab together to create a “tile” of inchies or a coaster and donate that.  Your name will appear beside your artwork if you decide to donate it to the auction.
• We could create memento pieces from donated leftovers and auction off the assembled piece.
• An assortment of leftover inchies can be displayed for people to choose one to keep if they didn’t bring any of their own to swap.