On Saturday, March 7th, my sweet daughter (River, 9) and I will be traveling to beautiful Lake Toxaway, NC to teach the Bookmaking Bonanza! at the Earthshine Lodge.
In this workshop, we will make 5 mini books in 5 hours. Can we do it? Children ages 6 years and up are welcome to join us with an adult. This is a great workshop for mother/daughters, besties, couples and makers of all types. Please join us!
(Click the image below for more details and to register).
This past weekend, seven women gathered at the Floyd Center for the Arts for the Designing Artist Books workshop.
Group photo! All the amazing ladies that designed Artist Books with me this weekend!
Plus Grace, who had to leave early for the opera!
We explored many background paper techniques using wet-on-wet and dry processes. The end product was less important than the process. We learned to not judge what was made since the paper would be used as a piece and not as a whole. This can be a challenging concept for many people!
Using watercolors and rubbing alcohol to create unexpected results on paper
We made as many papers in 4 hours as we could. The participants could use any technique that they learned that day to make their cover paper.
MaryJo exploring art and science while creating her background papers
Spray inks are always a huge success! Being highly pigmented make them very attractive to students of all ages.
Anne LOVES her ghost prints!
Penny and Suzanne exploring spray inks…the possibilities are endless!
Using everyday items found easily, on the cheap or around the home make pattern easy to create.
MaryJo using handmade stamps on black and Kraft cardstock paper
Our books are 6 x 6” while our papers are much larger. Participants cut down their papers to he desired size. This leaves them with loads of handprinted scrap paper to use as collage within their books.
Pat using scraps of her handprinted papers to collage her pages
We had an AMAZING time creating in community. The great thing about these books are that you can add, takeaway, make pages in any size, put int ages, envelopes, pockets and fold out pages. This is a book that is never done…making it organic and endless.
An Afterschool Artist works on decorating her Smash Book
Riv proudly displays her decorated Smash Book
An Afterschool Artist explores color and pattern as she makes the cover for her sketchbook
An Afterschool Artist diligently folds her pages for Mini Photo Accordion Book
In Afterschool Arts, young Artists ages 6 years and up explore a variety of mixed media supplies and techniques including book arts, printmaking, fiber/textiles, 3D design/assemblage and more! This September begins my third session of Afterschool Arts and it is one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon. If you have a Creative Child in your life that loves to work with non-traditional art supplies and mediums and wants to explore techniques in a fun and supportive environment, this class series is for them!
It will never cease to amaze me the wonderful opportunities that are presented to me for being a Book + Paper Artist Teacher. This summer my weird skill set allowed me to attend Floydfest—a large outdoor music and art festival held annually in the beautiful mountains of Floyd, VA.
Rebecca, an art teacher from Roanoke, joins me for Mini Accordion Album
It has easily been 8 years since I attended any music festival. One thing that I forgot—music festivals are SO MUCH FUN.
A young Artist Friend joins me Mini Flower Fold
I taught two variations of mini handmade books—the Flower Fold and the Accordion Album. I had several repeat visitors. It was GREAT to see the interest that young Artists have in book arts!
When one Young Artist does it, the others often join in…
While the Mini Accordion Album can be a bit tricky for my younger Artist friends, once they get the hang of it, they love to keep adding more and more pages. Rainbow Accordions are always a huge hit!
We had a full house for Mini Accordion Session 2!
A dedicated future book artist joined for me Mini Accordion Album Session 2
After a weekend of teaching, the rest of the weekend was mine to enjoy! I danced into the early hours of Sunday morning. I came home with a stack of CDs from great new Artists, sunburned, exhausted and hungry. Decompression can be hard after such a fun-filled weekend of friends, art and music, but memories of spending my weekend teaching an old world art form that I love is absolutely priceless!
While teaching my ‘Rust Printing + Mark Making’ workshop back in April, one of my student introduced me to Gelli Plate printing. I had been looking into the process for awhile and after checking out her Instagram feed, I was HOOKED. I came home that weekend and ordered myself several plates and did what most artists do when learning a new technique—I obsessively scoured Pinterest for visual inspiration and watched YouTube videos until my excitement led me to my studio.
I tried multiple techniques and was not happy with the results. I tried cheaper, more fluid acrylics. I tried heavier bodied acrylics. I tried spray inks. I made a MESS. I threw many prints into the recycling bin.
Then I got SICK. Every few years, seasonal allergies will kick my butt. This was one of those years. My throat was raw, I had a persistent and painful cough. I eventually lost my voice (which is fun when you teach art to young children). And the best part—I got several tick bites that became swollen and a rash spread over my entire torso.
During the recovery process, I spent a weekend resting and took this time to play around with my plate. I made dozens of prints. Below are some of my faves…
It took a few days of rest but I did recover from both the allergies and the bites. I am looking forward to using these prints in a new body of collage work and covers for new mini booklets for my upcoming show in December.
