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Assemblage Classes include:
Attachment and Devotion - 2-days of Assemblage & Joinery
As artists we strive to create beautiful art, yet oftentimes we
experience both difficulty and frustration when it comes to
creatively joining objects to one another. attachment is an art
form in its own right and in this spirited 2-day workshop,
students will construct a devotional/shine from raw wood
and learn myriad techniques that ensure secure and flawless
attachments. you will also learn to hand-form a tin top in
either the "nicho" tradition or using found materials and to
embellish with grommets, rivets and eyelets, enhance and
texture the surface using combinations of paper, paints,
waxes and more and how to effectively incorporate your
objects and images.
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Who's Your DADA: Redefining the Doll (an on-going Series and the subject of our upcoming book)
most of us have played with dolls in our childhood. we play-acted
with and through them and for some of us, the experience helped
prepare us for adulthood ... (or not)! well, we're still playing
with dolls, but these are full of moxie and spirit and it's
that essence that we want to capture, express and share with you.
since they are too diversified to present in a single session,
we're excited to present them as individual workshops featuring:
a variety of substates including tin cans - wood - canvas - board -
box constructions - paper - metal mesh - gourds and more!
each combined with lots and lots of mixed media, utilizing myriad
surface and attachment techniques unique to the individual series
we're presenting. in any case, whatever the series, you'll find
all of our dolls to be wild, whimsical, non-traditional
and outrageously fun.
here's a few examples using various substrates:
Collage classes include:
Collage à Trois
think collage on steroids and prepare yourself for a fun workshop that really packs a wallop! Expanding on the
Family Tree metal collage project in our Metal Craft Discovery Workshop Book, students will explore color and composition and
create a truly unique metal collage using deconstructed tin cans, scrap metals, a tintype or cdv (carte de viste) and even a
few optional 3-dimensional objects as your palette. traditional canvas, paper, gel medium and brushes will be replaced with
a wood substrate, colorful tin cans, imagery, hammer, nails and lots of imagination! whether your tastes lean more towards
the serious, whimsical, or the surreal, this class will forever re-define collage.
Our Jewelry classes include organic, recycled & found materials
often pairing colorful tin cans with sterling silver, unique
etching techniques, fantastic patinas & lots of technique
and include:
our Bracelet Series:
"Tin"tastic: the Whole 9 Yards -
this workshop is a juxtaposition of everyday objects and
unusual materials as students construct a funky, chunky,
sterling silver link bracelet which incorporates a unique
array of hand-formed charms and unique mementos, using
various materials including colorful tin litho cans,
personal objects and found materials.
"Tin"tastic 2: Put the Pedal to the Metal (a completely
different and all metal version featuring an oxidized chunky
sterling silver bracelet with "tab" and "window" charms using
copper, silver, brass and colorful tin can sheet metal and beads.
the 3's a Charm Bracelet: combines hand-crafted colorful
tin cancharms, collaged, soldered glass microscope slides
& copper etched charms on a thick sterling silver bracelet.
The Flat To Stacked: Layered Bracelet
5 mixed metal panels riveted together, adding layers of texture
and loaded with techniques that include cutting, joining, using
a torch, riveting through acrylics & adding cabochons and bezels.
Glamour Under Glass: the Bauble & Bead bracelet that combines
beads, headpins and a soldered glass microscope slide focal piece.
techniques and demos include using a dual-sided glass cutting jig
and soldering and collaging a glass microscope slide.
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our Necklace/Pendant classes include:
Set In Stone: this class uses materials not often associated with jewelry making. we'll be working with concrete, vintage tin, handmade bezels, various sheet metals, papers and ink, to create rich "layered" patinated pieces like the ones we've become so well known for. techniques and demos abound and we'll attach our bezels by exploring both riveting and sweat soldering techniques and then we’ll fill them with concrete - yes concrete! a fabulous material that you can carve, color and embed objects into. we'll further explore the properties of concrete, ways to color it as well as working with it's "sister product", then create a chain that incorporates fragmented chain pieces, drilled beach stones and a sari ribbon wrapped bead or two.
Simple Metal Jewelry: Bent - Beaded & Balled
are some of the techniques used to create this simple yet powerful jewelry using copper, brass and nickel silver sheet metals, wire, metal beads, a torch, a few tools and your own imagination. we will focus on pendants, but everything can just as easily be adapted to earrings. you will learn to cut metal into shapes, bend and form it to fit your design, drill it, patina with a torch and draw bead, create dangles, embellish with beads, layer your metals and attach it all using both hot and cold connections. demos abound, including different techniques to etch metal and how to cut small windows without using a jewelers saw.
Simple Metal Jewelry: Sawn, Tabbed & Snagged: this class offers a variety of new techniques and works well with our other class: Simple Metal Jewelry: Bent, Beaded & Balled but is not dependent on it. focusing on pendant and pin forms, you will incorporate found and/or personal materials into your designs and learn the diversity of the tab connection. using a jewelers saw and bench pin, you will create tabbed substrates that trap and hold objects in place, a technique that exemplifies the beauty and simplicity of this particular cold connection. a jewelers saw & bench pin is an inexpensive must have great investment if you want to create interesting one-of-a-kind pieces without having to buy a lot of tools. Additional techniques include: making pin and wire rivets; patinas, using a torch and flexible shaft; bail and pinback options.
Fe Fi Faux: which combines blue paper etched metal with a PVC
material that can be cut, drilled, riveted, carved, colored, sawn,
stamped, formed and so much more.
The Gererations Necklace: Creating a Wearable Shrine
working with copper, wire, images, mica and found objects,
you will construct a necklace complete with hand-made chain,
that is rich in symbolism and creative expression based upon
your personal mythology and collected small treasures, much like
our piece featured in the book: Crafting Personal Shrines,
which honors the women in my family. an old key, a token,
assorted small scale odd-bits, broken pieces of old jewelry
and chain, even a discarded watchcase ... all are fair game
and can be integrated into your chain design.
techniques will include torchwork to create our unique patina,
cutting our signature "windows" in copper
without using a jewelers saw, making a custom clasp using non-
traditional materials, various methods for connecting metal,
metal stamping and oxidizing, wirework and dremel use.
The Contemporary Artifact -
this class is a combination of both process and project as
you create unique assemblage/resin jewelry that marry different
non-ferrous metals (copper, brass, silver) with unusual
materials like tin can fragments, brass inlay, acrylic, paper,
bezel cups, bottlecaps, tiny tins and resin. students will
learn about different resins and various ways to age, color
and patina metal, so that the pieces you create will appear
to have been discovered during an archeological dig. your
selection of objects, text, hand-hammered words, etc., will
be all that's left to tell the story!
Gourd & Metal Jewelry: an Alchemical Marriage of Media -
this interesting jewelry workshop combines two of our passions:
gourds and metal and elevates them to more than the sum of
their parts. starting out with raw copper, techniques abound as
students oxidize, drill and empower the metal with hand-hammered
words. next, a gourd fragment will be incorporated and transformed
into your focal piece through various surface techniques.
Muses and Metamorphosis - patinas, rivets & bezels - oh my!
featured in our book Metal Craft Discovery Workshop .
students work hands-on with non-ferrous metal, using safe
non toxic household products to create beautiful patinas
and creative joinery, to construct a unique pendant
honoring your Muse, with an emphasis on diferent types of
riveting. you will also learn how to incorporate bezel cups
and cabochons and give your Muse a voice, by incorporating
text to make your statement.
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our Earring classes include:
Simply-ear-Resistible 1 and 2
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some examples:
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our Book classes include:
Altered Book Dolls - using the book as the body, this doll
is really something and was featured in Larks 500 Handmade
Doll series.
Another Fine Mesh -
in this innovative workshop, you will create and complete a
heavilly embellished, dual-sided, copper, metal mesh page,
accentuated in steel mesh, that can be used as a book cover,
journal page, wallhanging or when joined with multiple pages
even a complete book! we will take familiar materials of mesh,
cloth, tin, paper, embellishments and more and transform them
into a multi-layered collage. each 6"x9" page will have its
own unique qualities and there will be no limits as far as embellishments,
so bring lots of your favorites.
*NOTE* the Another Fine Mesh: All Bound Up workshop is 2 day.
It's a Book-It's a Doll: It's an Altered Adventure
this is board book altering at it's very best.
in the fall of 05, while conducting a workshop, we had
an epiphany and collage as we knew it was forever changed!
we discovered that really strong backgrounds, limited
foregrounds, an assortment of dimensional faces and a
variety of unusual edge treatments were the techniques
for ensuring success. you could actually stop at that point
and proudly declare your book done... but we won't!
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a few examples:
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Our Gourd classes include:
Alternative Surfaces: Creating a Gourd Book -
as its name suggests, in this workshop you will create a
miniature book (approx. 2.5" x 3.5") from a hard-shelled
lagenaria gourd. portions of the outer shell will become the
covers, while the inside pulp will be mixed with recycled mail
and transformed into unique gourd pulp paper that will be
used together with hand-made amate paper pages.
this "tiny treasure" will also have a smaller book, sewn
pamphlet style and a smaller yet, pull-out section, attached
to its accordian structure. various surface techniques
will be incorporated into the covers which will then
be embellished with wire, vintage bone & centerpiece.
Harvest Your Art: Creating a Gourd Purse
In this fun and unusual workshop, students will create
a wearable art purse approx. 10"H x 7"W x 4"D from a
hard-shelled Lagenaria gourd. The inside will be exquisitely
finished and several different forms of surface decoration
will be utilized, using a variety of techniques including
but not limited to: image transfers, woodburning and more.
Your purse will be completed with an interesting handle
constructed from vintage game pieces and beads. You will
leave class with a functional conversation piece fit for
any occassion.
Mask, Music & Myth: Creating a Gourd Mask/Instrument
In this workshop, you will create a mask that is also a
shaker/rattle that can be played by either shaking it or
slapping it like a tamborine.
From gourd fragments, you will create embellishments
that will be threaded around the outer periphery, to produce
sound when knocked against the gourd shell. You will learn
various techniques which will include pyrography (woodburning),
working with acrylic inks, dyes, stains and more.
You'll leave this workshop with an impressive wallhanging,
mask and instrument combined!
Ninkisi: Creating a Gourd Spirit Doll
this also falls under our doll classes
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a few examples:
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