ad libitum

MY SANTOS DOLL

Oops, I thought I had included my doll in my last post. So, here she is. I started another one yesterday.

MES AMIS D'ART RETREAT

Last week-end I attended Mes Amis D'art retreat in Hudson, Ohio. I met my friend Andi Hinkle there and we had a great time visiting and arting (and shopping and eating). Cyndi Duncan is the organizer of these retreats and taught all the classes. We made paper dolls from magazine photos; we made paste papers and decorated papers; we made books/journals from our papers; and we made Santos dolls (I just finished painting my Santos doll today).

Below is a picture of my paper doll - not exactly human; but I think she's the cat's meow...

Here is the journal I made - the binding is a bamboo skewer and a rubber band...

I loved making the Santos doll. She is made of floral foam and plaster  strips and is wearing a custom crown. I painted her with craft paints and then covered her with glaze.

 

ARTUNRAVELED ~ JANE LAFAZIO CLASS

i rarely draw, sketch, journal or use watercolors; so, imagine my surprise when I signed up for Jane LaFazio's class (10 Objects 10 Ways). I guess I wanted to dip my feet into the art journal pool and I knew Jane would be kind and encouraging. I am rather pleased with my accomplishments in today's class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HEADS UP, IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR ARTUNRAVELED

There's still time to register for ArtUnraveled (July 30-August 7) in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm working on kits for the class I'll be teaching," Hello, Dollies." It's a laid back evening class for making dolls (paper dolls, spirit dolls, word people, and pins) for weary art retreaters. As part of the kits, I'm providing a variety of doll heads/faces. I want to make sure people have choices, so I'm making a lot.

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.