Dream On - Art Journals

What drives the creative process, and what in particular sparks our inspiration?  We will discuss how we inspire ourselves to new creative levels, as we explore transforming the most unlikely materials in the creation of a journal to record our art dreams.  This class specifically highlights use of hardware store art finds and new pva fusibles, combined with the most commonly available materials to infuse your bookbinding and collage assemblage with new life.

Butterfly Dreams - a Haiku Journal

Explore the mystery and magic of the universal symbol of transformation, beauty, and elusiveness - the Butterfly.  This class explores transforming ordinary materials into richly textural surfaces, effective application of alcohol inks and pearl ex powders, innovative paper fusing, and how to give handmade art papers a three dimensional quality.  These extraordinary personal icons will have a small journal to capture fleeting haiku's, inspiring visions, or your innermost thoughts.

Faerie Fashionista

Faeries have long been known for their capricious, playful, and very precocious nature.  Fashion being what it is today (do I really have to state the obvious!), faeries around the world are in a complete funk~.  They are eagerly seeking new haute couture designers to cloth their elemental spirits in.  This design class focuses on sculpting, distressing, and manipulating art papers to give them the soft and natural look found in nature. Designers will discover useful tips for strengthening art papers, and colorizing papers with a variety of new art materials. Creative embellishments from dried flowers, pods, acorns, skeleton leaves, mosses, exotic ribbons, or personal objects found while visiting the magical and mystical world of our often unseen faerie friends can be incorporated.  We will explore numerous design books such as Faerie-ality, Good Faerie-Bad Faerie, The Gnome King, Fashion Ilustration, and the illustrated works of Arthur Rackham to get our creative juices flowing in the morning.

Offered at Art Fiber Fest, October 17th-21, 2007, in Port Townsend, WA

Once Upon a Time

Designing art dolls is a fun and playful experience for the child within all of us.  Create an art doll of your own imagination or pick one inspired by an imaginative fairy tale or myth as you create a personal story doll.  The focus of this technique and process oriented class is on making stunning textural art cloth incorporating a wide range of materials from natural mosses, ribbons, raffia, fiber roving, art yarns, skeleton leaves, and common household materials. We will explore the use of freemotion (optional), or straight stitching techniques with a sewing machine.  This class explores the effective use of watersoluble stabilizers, and innovative fusing techniques.  Requisite: Skeleton Woman

On Wings of Imagination

This class explores the effective use of color as a design tool through hand painting lace and ribbon, and imaginative and innovative uses for a variety of fusibles in creating art cloth.  Discover new ways to apply an assortment of fine art materials to cloth to add depth and sparkle to your fiber art creations, as you playfully design your own mixed media figurative art doll.  Each class member is encouraged to bring any items from their studio stash that personally resonate with them; pods, acorns, fibers, fabrics, found objects, family mementos, or photos (face photos measuring approximately 1 1/2" square.

Hina Matsuri

Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival) is celebrated every March in Japan to honor and bless young girls happiness, prosperity, and growth.  Throughout Japan elaborate doll displays are found in homes, and large public displays, all dedicated to peach blossoms.  With this in mind, we will focus on creating works of art that are imbued with individual blessings, hopes for the future, friends, or loved ones.  Each Hina will measure approximately 22" high and will have a base (if not made on pvc pipe).  This project and technique class explores traditional Japanese washi paper techniques, and innovative paper fusing techniques in the creation of dimensional one of a kind figurative art.   Techniques explored can easily be incorporated into two dimensional collage and assemblage artworks.  Participants will receive useful information on the history and culture of Japanese washi papers and cultural customs.

Peace in the Pod & Tranquility Cocoon

Explore the timeless and ancient art of wet felting with a modern twist.  Each participant can create up to two sculptural pieces, a Peace in the Pod and a Tranquility Cocoon.  Discover how fun and easy it is to sculpt felted objects, incorporate fine art materials with fiber, and fuse fibers together in a variety of ways.  Includes instructional booklet and all materials for project.

Skeleton Woman - Building the Armature