Our hotel is really nice (a 3 Star Best Western), as long as you don’t go into the lobby - which is part casino, part bar, all cigarette smoke, and part restaurant (in the bar). The food actually turns out to be ok, in spite of it all. We must be very hungry.

Our legs still work - which surprises us - and we trek off to the Convention Center, skipping the Fence Convention this time. Our plan is to finish the Art Materials and Craft Sections that we didn’t get to yesterday, and then head to Scrapbook and Paper Arts Land.

Anyway, there in the General Crafts section is the Polyform Booth, and there in the Polyform Booth, is my friend, Marie Segal - with her friend, Syndee Holt.

When I think of Polymer clay, I think of Marie. She has been such an innovator in the medium and was actually the one who developed what is now known as Premo. She is really excited about something new in the field. Really excited. In fact, she tells me there have been three times she has been this excited about polymer clay - when she first discovered it, when she finally perfected Clay Factory Clay (i.e. Premo), and now.

When Marie talks, I listen.

She hands me some clay that feels like a marshmallow. It’s SO light and white and soft. And then she hands me a really thin piece that has been baked - and it is SO flexible. And then a big chunk that has been baked - it is SO unbreakable.

Polyform seems to be marketing it mostly as an armature clay. Polyclay artists have been trying for years to overcome the problem of weight on larger beads and sculptures. This clay will make a lightweight base for all those types of projects. It’s so light weight that it actually floats.

Armatures and interior supports can be made of Ultralight, baked, and then thin layers of other clays can be applied and the piece can be baked a second time. The UltraLight will add strength to weaker clays like Sculpey III.

I have always loved working with the student grade white Sculpey that comes in a box - mostly because of its surface - and because my High Desert Polyglazes look so good on it. Also because it is so soft and hardly needs any conditioning. But, the major limitation has been strength. All pieces had to be mounted on some strong base - like a book cover or ceramic tile - and some cracking would still occur. Jewelry type items or stand alone tiles were out of the question.

So I am very excited to experiment with this and managed to score a little sample package to play with. And I will surely be sharing my findings right here. When the Ultralight is available, Marie will be carrying it online at her website: www.clayfactory.net along with the rest of her inventory of fun clay-related products.

Clay played a big part in our CHA experience. Three of the most exciting things we found were clays! And we’ll be sharing what they were and why they were exciting. Also a clever new clay-like trick done with a very old product.

One good thing about the scrapbook industry - they are always coming up with more cool ephemera. No wonder scrapbook pages seem so crowded.

I LOVE paper, but am feeling like I can’t tell one piece from another by now! Worst of all, I don't even want to see another piece of paper for awhile. This is not good for my artistic health!