Tiny Tarnished Tomes with Kari McKnight Holbrook (and a Giveaway!)

Saturday evening at the CREATE Mixed Media Art Retreat in Somerset, New Jersey, brought me to the workshop, "Tiny Tarnished Tomes," with Kari McKnight Holbrook, known on her blog as The Backporch Artessa.

Kari McKnight-Holbrook

First, we had an opportunity to make our own molds for polymer clay, using a product called Knead-a Mold.  Then, the majority of our time was spent in creating the front and back covers for our tiny books, using countertop samples from the hardware store (think:  little rectangles of formica) and Sculpey polymer clay.  Kari provided us with molds and stamps to make impressions and designs with our clay.

The front of my finished "tiny tarnished tome."

The back of my finished "tiny tarnished tome."

We gave our covers an aged effect by using metal coatings in our choice of bronze, copper, or iron.  (I chose the copper finish.)  We then spritzed on a product to create the patina-ed look.  The brand we used was called Sculpt Nouveau.

Once our covers were bound and in place, we had only a bit of workshop time left to sew our pages into place.  I was new to the bookbinding process, and would have liked a little more time to learn what I was doing, and find out some more options for adding buttons and beads to decorate my spine.  Kari graciously stayed late with us, so that we were all able to complete our projects.

Kari gave us a couple of priceless tips regarding bookbinding supplies.  She uses hockey tape from a sporting goods store as a binding tape; you can imagine how durable it must be considering its intended purpose.  And she uses floss threaders (like you use when flossing your teeth!) with her thread and beads when she is binding her books.  Brilliant!

This workshop exposed me to some interesting new products, and showed me a new use for polymer clay.  I thought it was very cool to use it in the creation of a book cover.

As a further bonus, Kari offered a drawing for door prizes!  And I won!  I came away with some of her own polymer artist stamps, which are based on drawings from her sketchbook.  They can be used easily as traditional rubber stamps, but are also constructed with polymer clay and encaustics in mind.

My door prize!

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Because I registered for three workshops at the retreat, I received an official CREATE tote bag, filled with several fabulous and artful goodies.  There were two bottles of high flow acrylics from Golden, an amazing PITT artist pen big brush, a bottle of acrylic glaze from the Silks line of LuminArte, a pair of multi-purpose titanium scissors from Fiskars, a molding mat by ColorBox, a collage pack put together by Art Camp For Women, and a copy of PAGES magazine by Cloth Paper Scissors.  I felt like I was at the Academy Awards, getting my goodie bag!

On Sunday morning, as I munched on my croissant, I saw a group of women standing over a nearby table, and my antennae went up.  When I walked over, I saw that there were goodie bag extras available for people to take for free!  I thought of you, my wonderful readers, and knew that I wanted to offer you a giveaway opportunity.

Giveaway loot!

If you would like to win a copy of PAGES magazine, a molding mat for use especially with polymer clay, and a collage pack from Art Camp for Women, please leave a comment on this post.  In order to be entered into the drawing, please tell me what kind of class you would most like to take if you were attending an art retreat next week.  Would it be a sketch class, watercolor, art journaling, bookbinding, jewelry-making, oil painting, acrylics, photography, fiber arts?  Something else?  I'd love to know what you are most interested in exploring right now in your creative life.

Please leave your comment by July 31, 2013, and I will publish the winner on August 1, 2013.  Good luck!

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If you did not see my first post about the CREATE Mixed-Media Art Retreat, click here to read about my drawing and watercolor workshop with Jane LaFazio!

And come back soon for my final post, telling you all about the Friday night Artists' Faire, and my Basic Bookbinding for Beginners class with Seth Apter!