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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.
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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:
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. 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. |
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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. 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! 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. 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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some examples:
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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. 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! |
a few examples:
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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. 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. 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! this also falls under our doll classes |
a few examples:
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