Well, things got off to a bad start (unhappy experience at the Minneapolis airport, cr rental problems and I lost my registration packet) and then quickly turned around (dinner with Fran and Dave on Monday night, fun shopping at SAS fabrics and Whole Foods on Tuesday afternoon and a good opening presentation Tuesday night).
I have been so busy with classes, visiting friends and enjoying myself, I've neglected to take many photos and I've barely been reding my emails, much less posting. I've had a day and a half of Photoshop class, a day and a half of working with resin, a day of doll class, Vendor Day and a gret presentation from Someguy about the 1,000 Journals project. It's all good. Well, it's all good, except for the quality of the few photos I managed to take.
Mike Jennings taught the Photoshop class and did a great job. He was very well organized nd he dealt with 12 people who were each at different levels of competence. I picked up some good techniques and am looking forward to working on some digital collages (ideas are dancing in my head).
Susan Lenart Kazmer taught Resin and Everything You want to Know About It. We made molds (I made right and left leg molds, shell molds, and some blobby things that didn't quite turn out as I intended). We cast our molds, and the hot Arizona air certainly speeded up the process. We put things in bezels. We covered dried flowers with resin (mine are a little too thick and look like malformed blobs, but may work as component parts in the future). We covered paper with resin. We used metal and tools and made some jewlery with our resin pieces. I have lots of incomplete resin bits and pieces and I completed one ring which I made from an Egyptian stamp I resined into a bezel (Susan demonstrated how to make an adjustable ring, which I think is a very cool idea).
Lisa Renner taught Oh My Captive Heart! A Mixed Media Art Doll. What a fun class! Lisa had prepared muslin doll bodies for us to dye/paint/draw on. We made polymer faces (had to apply make up on the doll faces - something I haven't done on myself for over 20 years) and learned a cool technique for a beautiful finish to the faces. Then, we made polymer shoulders and hands (I really need to work a lot more on hands) and wrapped fabric around floral wire for arms. Then we put it all together, added wool roving for hair, decorated the dolls and ended up with a wide array of really cool looking dolls. Plus, Lisa gave us bonus materials and instructions for making wings (my doll doesn't want wings, but I intend to make her some fairy sisters when I get back home).
Friday night, I had a delightful dinner with Fran Saperstein, Angie Platten, Martha Brown, Jennifer Whitmer, Lorri Scott, Leighanna Light, and Tracey Kazimer-Cree. It was great fun. In fact, it was so much fun, I forgot to take pictures (too busy eating and talking and laughing).
Saturday was the Shopping Extravaganza. All I can say is "purchases were made." Saturday night, Fran, Angie, Tracey and Andrea (a friend of Fran and Tracey) and I went out to dinner before the 1,000 Journals presentation. It was another fun dinner with pleasant people. The 1,000 Journals movie and following talk by SomeGuy was really interesting. He brought 20 of the journals with him and people got to look at them and add to them.
Today I will return my rental car and then I have a class tonight. I'm taking Glorious Papers with Jacqueline Sullivan (yes, I flew to Phoenix Arizona in August to take a class from someone who lives in Michigan). I've had classes with Jacqueline before and really enjoyed them, so I expect good things.
