Today we give you interviews with Seth Lee Saverik, Sarah Shriver, Maggie Maggio, and Maureen Carlson.

They have each told us a little about themselves, and something about the conference, which is happening next February in Baltimore, Maryland on the East Coast of the US. It promises to be an exciting event, so be sure to check out the class catalog at the NPCG's website.

Enjoy. This is a long podcast- an hour and 3 minutes. It may take a few minutes to download.

Watch today's video and see us demonstrate the use of liquid dye inks with polymer clays such as fimo, premo, sculpey, kato, and cernit.

Dye inks change the color of clay, are a little messy to work with, can be mixed into new colors, and are not the right inks to use with stamps. The color will bleed. But that quality makes them fun to use!

Listen to last week's podcast for more information about dye inks.

Dye or alcohal inks are just that- an ink that is made with alcohal as the solvent, and this type of ink does not lie on top of the clay- rather, it sinks in and actually transforms the color of whatever it touches. A great tool for creating faux stone or seaglass, for mixing into translucent clay to make really nice colors that light will shine through, and other special effects when you would want the dying effect. This is NOT the type of ink you would use to stamp with or create an image, because this ink bleeds or seeps away from where you put it.

You would use pigment ink, which we talked about last time (episode 4) for stamping or creating images on the clay.

Piniata and Ranger are two brands we have used. The Piniata inks tend to be bright bold colors, while Ranger carries inks in earthy muted tones. Both are great to work with, it just depends on what colors and effects you are looking for.

For News today, we want you to know that in our next podcast on August 24th, we will have 4 interviews with members of the National Polymer Clay Guild www.npcg.org, who will be discussing their involvment in the NPCG's conference, called Synergy, next February in Baltimore MD. So far we have talked to Seth Lee and Sarah Shriver, and they have had some wonderful things to say, so you won't want to miss it.

We also received a book from Kalmbach Publishing at the CHA show, and we want to tell you about it. It is called Polymer Pizzazz, and it has the Best of Bead & Button magazine's articles on working with polymer clay in jewelry projects. It is a very nicely done book with step-by-step instructions. If you are good at following written directions, you will enjoy this book very much. If you need a little more direction, or are very new to polymer clay, some of the projects might be a little challenging. However the great thing is that we have a forum set up especially for our listeners, so if you get into a bind while trying a new technique or can't figure out written directions, you can always ask in the forum and someone, either Ilysa or Kira, or one of our experienced forum moderators, will give you some guidance.

Thanks for listening! We have put together a great full length tutorial video on using dye inks, you can purchase it, and the kit that includes all of the materials you need to make a translucent votive holder, in our shop.

While at Summer CHA 2007, Ilysa and Kira met three of the polymer clay artists that we "knew" from other places- the forums at Polymer Clay Central, various places where clay, canes, and beads are sold, and Kira and Lynne Ann did a swap a while ago. It is nice to finally put faces to names. Lynne Ann and Tommie were winners in the Bottle of Hope awards, too. Enjoy, we did.

Thanks, you guys! You Rock.

For your viewing pleasure, here is part 2 of Amaco's Bottle of Hope awards, which we filmed at the Summer CHA show in Chicago.

Lisa Pavelka is the MC, and in this part of the ceremony she will announce the winners.