ad libitum

A FLUID ROMANCE WITH KARI MCKNIGHT-HOLBROOK

My third class at Art & Soul in Virginia was A Fluid Romance taught by Kari McKnight-Holbrook. Kari has a vast knowledge of the properties and character of fluid acrylics and mediums and gels; and she's a generous as well as knowledgeable teacher. Her class was a lot of fun. We used paints, modeling paste, clip art, drawings, photos, stencils, and all manner of embellishments.

Kari suggested we tell a story in our paintings by including images of a person, place and thing: an excellent creative touchstone. I came very close to following directions. I wanted my piece to portray the creation of a creative woman, so I used images of people and things. Below is the best photo I could get of my painting. The quote I wrote (which is partially obscured by light reflection) says, "not Eve, pulled from the parts of one who was incomplete, but Lillith, created whole."

LIFE'S A BEACH AND THEN YOU POST

The class I had originally sceduled (I'm at Art & Soul, Virginia Beach) was cancelled, so I spent the day spending way too much money on art supplies and taking photos at the beach.

Here are a few of my photos (no surprise, with a little bit of photoshopping).

 

ART UNRAVELED 2012

I forgot to post a class description and picture for my "Hello Dollies" class at Art Unraveled (Monday night 6:30 t0 9:30, August 6) in my previous post. So, here is the class description

Hello, Dollies

student level: all levels

Project workshop: students will leave with dolls they made in class.

Dolls have been with us forever, giving comfort, sparking our imagination, and pleasing our aesthetics. This is a class designed to explore traditional and not-traditional dolls, to sit down and make one or several dolls designed by you. I will provide materials and instructions for you to make paper dolls, flat fabric dolls and spirit dolls. Take some time to relax and create at your own pace. You can make paper dolls with traditional jointed arms and legs from scratch; use selected cabinet cards to make dolls to use as hangings; make coat pins or embellishments from fabric scraps and polymer faces; and/or make spirit dolls out of twigs and ribbons.

A kit fee of $5 covers class supplies of art papers, doll templates, brads and eyelets, jump rings, fabric scraps, polymer faces, embellishments (beads buttons, sparklies, pinbacks), glue, cabinet card images, heavy cardstock, magazine images, markers, sheets of snappy sayings, wire, twigs and found objects. 

Supplies to be brought by students: scissors, pencil, any personal embellishments that you may want to use.

 

 

ART UNRAVELED REGEISTRATION IS OPEN

Art Unraveled  July 30 - August 7

Embassy Suites, Phoenix-Scottsdale location

A fabulous list of internationally known teaching artists, some returning, some new to AU - many teaching workshops you haven't seen on the schedule anywhere else. (Can't get time off work? Join us for an evening!)

10th Anniversary Celebration Discount

In celebration of our 10th anniversary, if your registration is

• received prior to March 15th and
• workshop fees total $250 or more

receive a 10% discount from the total of your workshop fees*.

* Only workshop fees are discountable and must total $250 or more to be eligible for the discount.

Click here to see all the great things planned for this year's Art Unraveled. There are lots of great classes to register for (I'd love to see you in the class I'm teaching, "Hello Dollies" on Monday, August 6 , 6:30 to 9:30 pm); I'd love to see you in one of the classes I'm taking. ArtUnraveled is one of the highlights of my year.

 

A WEEK-END ART RETREAT

The Altered Sisters, a local art group I belong to, held an art retreat this past week-end. We decided we had talent in the group to tap from and that it would be fun to get together and hold our own workshops. We were correct on both counts. When we originally made our plans we had a venue at a large studio at someone's house; that didn't work out so we ended up meeting at my house, working either in my living room or dining room.

On Saturday, we started at 10 a.m. and made button bracelets (after spending an inordinate amount of time sorting through buttons, something that entranced all of us), had a communal lunch, made paper flowers and had a great chili dinner. We were finished around 8 p.m.

On Sunday, we started at 10. Our first activity was making a raku looking polymer clay pendant; we broke for lunch, had a short session of making pipecleaner bling and then made banners (there were 7 of us who could attend the retreat, so we each made 7 pennants and then exchanged so we each had a banner made by all of us). We all had a great time and are thinking of making this an annual event).

I can't explain the lure of going through the buttons, but we spent well over an hour sorting buttons.

Finally, after finishing with sorting, we got around to making button bracelets.

I loved making the button bracelets so much, I kept making them after everyone went home. I sewed buttons (traditional and the polymer ones I make) onto elastic bands and I made bracelets by stringing elastic cord through the button holes. If I weren't planning on spending the day helping my husband to pack up and drive back to Missouri, working on an altered coat, and packing to go to Italy on Wednesday, I would be making more button bracelets today.

After lunch (a fun time sitting around the kitchen island, chatting and eating and laughing), we made paper flowers. I love making embellishments and I don't work a lot with paper, so this was new to me and I really enjoyed it.

Here are the paper flowers I made.

We started Sunday off with a lesson in polymer clay, making a raku looking finish. We all intend to do more of this.

After lunch, we had fun making outrageous pipecleaner rings and tiarras.

Our final project was making pennants for our own banner swap. I think it's going to be a great communal souvenir.

It really doesn't get much better than spending time with art friends.

ARTUNRAVELED REVISITED

When I was at AU, I took a class on fused glass inclusions with Peggy Krzyzewski. There was a kiln issue and she had to take our pieces home with her to fire. I just got my pieces back in the mail. I'm rather pleased with them.

As it happens, yesterday, I started a fingerweaving necklace project (which I learned from the C R Radding class I took at AU). Here is a photo of it in progress:

So, as you can see, I'm happily reliving parts of my AU adventure.

A DAY TO DYE FOR _ ANOTHER ARTUNRAVELED REPORT

Thanks to Glennis Dolce, I now know some Shibori techniques. I have to admit, my favorite part of the class was not a shibori technique, but a scrunching up technique.

Below is a photo of the pics I did piled up on the class table.

The moons are floating in an indigo sky. I plan to make a panel for each moon and make a series with them. The piece below my attempt at a solar explosion.

more indigo and four pieces of the scrunched up method.

over-dying circles and more scruched up pieces.

The techniques of the piece on the bottom right involves sewing and pleating up the threads and then dying.

Below are pieces of various techniques (sorry, I can't remember any of the names of the different shibori methods).

I brought some ribbon to dye in the class.

Below are more pieces of the scruched up method. I told you it was my favorite!

FINGER WEAVING

C.R. Radding taught a class on fingerweaving bracelets and necklaces. She's a patient and very knowlegeable teacher; and, she makes incredibly beautiful jewelry. Most of the class made bracelets; most of the class finished their projects in class. I made a necklace and had to finish it in my hotel room. But I did finish it and I intend to make more.

Fingerweaving in progress.

Ignore the double chin and concentrate on the necklace.

 

 

PICTURES OF PICTURES

My third class at ArtUnraveled was Altered Photos Explored with Karen Michel. Instead of my usual altering photos in Photoshop, this is hands on scratching, painting, stamping, writing on the photos. I have played with altering photos before under the expert guidance of Lorrie Granger Abdo, but I thought I needed a refresher class. This class was a delightful combination of excellent instruction, clever ideas, and play time. Here are photos of my altered photos.

FREE FORM SEWING AND A FUN, FUNKY FINALE TO CREATE

Well. The last three classes at Create were excellent. I intend to stay put for a while and work on all the things I've learned this month.

I made a cool ring with Jane Salley on Sunday (was that really only yesterday?). It was a short, fun class and I recommend it to anyone who has a chance to take it.

On Friday, I took Elin Waterston's Thread Painting Mini Quilt class. Thread painting is something I've been trying to teach myself and I was delighted to find a class. Elin is an excellent teacher. She started the class by telling us we could decide whether it would be a product or process class; she would accommodate us. And, she did. I chose process. I wanted to try techniques, so they won't scare me later. I made a sampler and two pieces (definitely process pieces, not finished products).

 

The first "piece" is my interpretation of some Roman columns in Jordan. I started with a sketch (Elin is very strict about having you start out with a drawing).

 

 

 

I decided to try making circles and freeform diagonal stitches to make a sunset.

On Saturday, I took Kelli Nina Perkins' class in Stitch Imagery. This turned out to be my favorite class of the whole CREATE retreat. I thought I would like it, I had no idea how much I would love it. Wanting to work on more Stitch Imagery projects may motivate me to unpack my things in a timely manner. We used a photo, copied the outlines from it onto watercolor paper (using the pencil rubbing technique many of us learned in elementary school), watercolored the drawing, free form stitched on the water color paper, made a copy on fabric of the imafe, and then painted, stamped, embellished and sewed some more. I was in Heaven!