John Harrill
Our club is one of the oldest and largest clubs in Sun Lakes. We welcome new members who are complete novices to experienced artists. Our club-member volunteers teach people who have never “been handy” how to make jewelry and art objects they are proud to wear and show. Not only do our members make jewelry, they make polished fetish bears and bookends from rough stone, Ming trees, beads and decorated gourds. Qualified members can use all three of our workshops. One of our shops is located in each of the three Phases. Our club provides novice through expert craft classes. In addition, for those with basic experience to senior crafts persons, we offer year-round “open shop” hours to pursue personal projects in a safe, friendly environment. Our Open Shop Monitors are available to answer questions and instruct proper use of shop equipment. You will find our shops well equipped for you to learn new crafts or pursue old ones. They are all air-conditioned in summer.
All of the crafts that we offer are listed on our website, http://www.slrgs.com, as well as schedules of class and open shop times. We also provide informative pamphlets in each of our shops that are free to interested people. These pamphlets list the crafts that we offer and additional information about our club. Some of the more popular crafts we offer are Lapidary, Silversmithing, Lost Wax, Wire Wrapping, Decorated Gourds, Beading, Faceting, Dichroic Glass, as well as Precious Metal Clay (PMC) where clay-like materials are formed, kiln fired and become metal art or jewelry.
For socials, our club has an annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon at one of our country clubs for all of our volunteers, an annual club picnic each spring and an annual Christmas/Hanukkah party. We always have good times at these events. Over 80 members and guests attended our party last December.
You will be able to see many of our members’ projects on display at Art at the Lakes at Cottonwood Country Club on March 7, 2017. To learn more about our club, please come to one of our meetings. Our club is open to all Sun Lakes residents. We welcome and encourage guests at our meetings. We meet at 10:00 a.m. for our general meetings on the third Monday of every month (October through April). Before and after each meeting, we have sign-up sheets for forthcoming craft classes that will be offered and examples of what will be made in the beginners’ classes. We also have a silent auction with some good deals on donated supplies and equipment.
Our next meeting will be at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, March 20, 2017, at the Sun Lakes Country Club Navajo Room. We hope to see you there.
Consider joining our club; you will be glad that you did.