Well, all I can say is WOW! What an awesome retreat!!!!! Art Is You was an incredible experience, and one I highly recommend to anyone interested in learning new art techniques and having a super good time doing it! Now, Art & Soul(VA) is good, but Art Is You (CT) is even better, and in so many ways. It’s smaller, and much more intimate, less expensive and closer to home.
Everything about this retreat was top notch – the hotel and its staff were superb and the food was fabulous, but what really makes this retreat shine is the strong feeling of community that works its special magic over everyone who participates, the genuine warmth and support of everyone I met there, the loving care that Ellen and Sallianne and take in planning the events during the entire year preceeding it, all the numerous and thoughtful goodie bag gifties you handed out in classrooms and at lunch, the awesome teachers and the knowledge they impart, the constant cry of “trade anyone?” and people just generally giving awayATCs, jewelry, ephemera goodie bags, without expecting anything in return.
And the people!!! They are all so wonderful and warm and interesting and approachable – I made a great many new friends there. I guess you already can tell, God willing, that I will most definitely be going back to this retreat again in 2010, when the theme will be The Wizard of Oz.
Classes run from 10:00 am to 5:00 (though most ran later) and the evening classes ran from 7:00pm to 10:00pm or later. Breakfast was included in the room rate for 5 days, tea and desert at 4pm and lunch was included for 3 days, and the food was absolutely delicious. Show and tell ran nightly between classes. I only made it to one the first day, but there were refreshments that included 2 huge 1ft wheels of baked brie, crackers and sodas and water. Gosh, it’s amazing that I actually lost a couple of pounds when I was there!!
One of the best things that happened during this retreat was that finally, after 4 long years of emails, I got to meet the fabulous, sweetly wonderful Lisa Kettel in person! Lisa is just an amazing person and fellow artist. She is so genuine and warm and fun, and she is definitely one special lady and one of my personal “heroes”. I feel so lucky to have her in my life. Lisa was there with her mom, and now I know where Lisa gets all her charm and sweetness!
I had 4 awesome, learning packed classes with Keith Lobue. I had not taken one of his workshops before, and what a delightful surprise! Keith is a wonderful teacher – patient, funny, easy to approach and he goes into great detail when he teaches – his classes are just superb. I also learned how to solder, and I found out that I have a natural talent for it so I will be making lots of soldered charms for my jewelry - and along with the new techniques I learned in Keith’s classes I feel ready to start creating found object jewelry that will incorporate my personal artwork and poetry into it. I also learned a totally neat way to transfer an image from paper onto aluminum flashing, thanks to Janette Schuster. Janette is also a fabulous teacher, and very generous with her artistic knowledge. Finally, I got to meet Taryn Reece (Naval Jelly Studios) and we made some great charms from laser cut wood. Here are some pics of what I made, with a small write up for each:
Day 1 – Etching – Keith LoBue
I learned how to transfer a laser copy onto copper, brass or nickel before etching it. This is an amazing technique – one I plan to incorporate into my found object jewelry in the future. First you transfer the laser copy onto the metal using acetone and then you agitate it in an etchant bath. Here, I used brass sheeting and copper sheeting (the pic of the copper sheeting is not real sharp, but it’s the only shot I have of it before I cut it up to use in the next day’s class, and it’s the only example I have of a transfer onto copper, so I’ve included it here). I think I perfer the warm tones of the brass to the copper, but each has it’s own uses when making an assemblage or a piece of jewelry. On these etchings, I did not remove the laser copy toner – doing that gives a whole different flavor. I liked these the way they were so I left them alone. Over time, the etchant continues to etch into the metal, and creates a gorgeous patina – you can see this on the sun face etching – a fine green verdigree is now popping up, just over a week later. I really love the effects you can get with this method so I will be incorporating it into assemblages and found object jewelry pieces.
Day 2 – Weathering & Distressing – Keith LoBue
I aged and distressed this small, $1 wooden box (found at Michael’s stores) in Keith LoBue’s weathering and distressing class. First we banged up, added insect markings, goughed, scratched and otherwise distressed the box so it looked very used and old, then we added an acrylic wash to color it. After that, we disassembled the hinges and aged them with black patina. I used one of the pieces I made in Keith’s etching class and attached it along with a brass lion faced pull to the lid. I still have to figure out a way to add a piece below the pull for it to latch onto and shut the lid.
Day 2 – evening – The Coronation of Queen ALice – (hat embellishing)
I went to the dining room on the second night to see what this was free gathering all about. There were about 70 people there and the the room was alive with activity. For a small supplies fee ($12) we were given carte blanche access to 5-6 tables of all sorts of ephemera, found objects, fibers, ribbons – you name it, and it was there. We were also provided with sobee glue, hot glue, scissors and water/soda/tea/coffee and a scrumptious desert table. What a ball I had making this – it was so much fun to just let whimsy have its way as I picked through the supplies and put together this funky, fun and colorful hat. It was such an enjoyable evening, with great camaraderie shared by all. Laughter and voices alive with creativity filled the room from start to finish. What a blast!! And my hat made it into a slide show that was shown on Sunday – and what a great slide show! It had a great sound track, and there were tons of pics of all the retreat’s goings on – and surprisingly I was in many of the pics!!
Day 3 – Soldering – Kecia Devaney
I have discovered that I have a definite affinity for soldering – learning how to do this came so easily to me, I must have done this is a previous life! As I was soldering it struck me that it was like painting with silver – it is so cool the way the silver solder flows from the tip of the iron onto the fluxed copper – and I absolutely love doing it. We started out small and worked our way up to the final (bottom) piece, which measures 2″ x 5″. I can see that in the future I will be making alot of charms for the jewelry – necklaces and bracelets and earrings – that I sell in my Etsy Shop, http://CookalasHouseOfCards.Etsy.com . You can see an example of this in the picture of the necklace I made – it consists of 2 charms (1×1 and 1×3) connected by soldered jumprings and a silver scroll. I got tons of compliments on the necklace when I wore it, and Kecia said my soldering work was awesome work for a newbie, which made me smile very large!
Day 3 – evening – Charm Making – Taryn Reece (Navavl Jelly Studios)
The main pieces are lazer cut onto thin wood, which you pop out. I then painted them and added embellishments before connecting them together with jump rings. By this time I was starting to feel very tired, so I only got 2 done. But everyone loved them, and so do I. The doll incorporates a crown, a bottle cap face, laser cut body and shoes (which I covered with paper and then painted), small brass hands and photo turns all attached with jump rings and ready for a necklace chain. The bird was made the same way – covered with paper and then painted before I added a brass crown, some beads and a lobster claw clasp – ready to become a zipper pull, or clipped onto a bracelet or necklace. It as great to meet Taryn Reece, and her husband, too – they are such wonderful people! – and I absolutely love the offerings of Navel Jelly Studios.com – just before I left I snatched up a digital camera lens that I’m planning to use in an assemblage, and they have the coolest found objects and ephemera, as well as tintype photos and cabinet cards.
Day 4 – Found Iconography class – Janette Schuster
In this workshop, I learned another way cool technique that involved transferring a laser copy to aluminum flashing by ironing it with a metal faced iron. You need to have fresh copies (like straight from the copier fresh) and certain copiers won’t work – and alot of the process of transferring the image is hit or miss, but the results are spectacular. After I got a good image to work with, I cut it out of the flashing and nailed it to a piece of white, distressed wood. Then I added clock parts, wooden bingo markers, a steel ruler, verdigrised brass wings and a copper medalion cut into sections to make a halo. I added a wooden folding ruler as a hanger and a rusty key hung from the bottom of the piece to anchor it. Janette is another superb teacher – constantly checking her students progress and offering great advice – and she’s friendly and warm and open. Her style of teaching reminds me alot of Keith LoBue’s. I cannot wait to take another class with her.
Day 4 – evening – Riveting Workshop – Keith LoBue
Well, by this time I was really, really tired, so I wasn’t as productive. I did manage to make some pretty good rivets out of rebar tie wire though. I practiced on riveting two metal washers together, and then started to rivet this filigree finding to a hammered brass bracelet – as you can see, it’s not exactly centered so I will have to redo it when I figure out how to snap off the rivet. I’m glad I took this class – riveting has so many applications, and it’s superb for permanently attaching things together! I can see where it’ll be very useful in making jewelry and assemblages.
Day 5 – Papering it Over – Keith LoBue
This was an awesome workshop – and a great way to end the retreat- and I left it with a new found appreciation for paper and of how to properly adhere different types of paper to different types of surfaces. I also learned some neat new distressing and aging techniques, and how to fashion a cage with rebar tie wire to hold a found object. Keith also taught us how to make a piece of paper so sheer by rubbing off it’s pulp that it can be used as a transparent overlay. You can see this technique in the bottom photo where the worded print runs along the right hand side of the piece. I have learned so much from Keith’s workshops – I can’t wait to take another. He puts so much thought and effort into his classes you cannot help but be impressed.
So, as I’ve already said, I had an awesome time at Art Is You and I cannot wait until next year to go again. So far, many of the artists that taught workshops this year will return, but I have also found out that they will be adding new artists – Michael de Meng (another of my favorite teachers) will be there as well as Keith LoBue, Kecia Devaney and Janette Schuster. There is a found object art doll workshop that I would love to take – the pieces made in that class this year were unbelievable so I’m hoping it will be offered again in 2010. I would also love to take another class with Janette Schuster – I’m hoping she will give her spoon workshop where you make art dolls from antique spoons and forks. I think they’re the funkiest, artsy things!
I came home exhausted but happy, then returned to work for my final 3 days. Yep, I am now officially retired – WOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I’m itching to start making art with all the new techniques I’ve just learned. I have several swap commitments I have to complete, and I’ve been asked to be a guest artist at the Creative Therapy blog here on WordPress (http://creativetherapy.wordpress.com) which will involve creating a piece of art and writing about “What does the future hold for me?” – but right after that I plan to get busy creating. I will make a post when Art Therapy publishes my artwork and article
Now that I am retired I will try to get back to semi-regular blot posts to let you know what I’ve been up to – and just as soon as I can establish some sort of a routine with all this new found time, I really want to get back into workshopping my poetry at PFFA again. It’s been far too long since I was active there, and by now you must know how dear that site is to my heart.
So, as has become my custom, I will close with reminding you to call your mom soon. Life is precious, and uncertain. make the most of it!!!!
