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!

Sketching and Watercolor with Jane LaFazio

I'm back from the CREATE Mixed-Media Art Retreat in Somerset, New Jersey, and ready to tell you all about it!  I arrived on Friday in the late afternoon, giving me time to attend the Artists' Faire, where various artists and businesses sold supplies and original works of art.  I will share my experiences (and my purchases!) in my next post, but for now, I want to focus on my first workshop--a six-hour class on Saturday with Jane LaFazio, entitled "Sketching and Watercolor:  10 Objects 10 Ways."

Jane LaFazio, sharing one of the ten techniques we learned in her workshop.

We were a large group, but the room's big tables gave us lots of space to spread out our supplies and work.  Jane opened the workshop by introducing herself, and sharing the story of how she came to discover her talent and enjoyment for drawing and painting with watercolor.  She gave us each an opportunity to introduce ourselves and explain why we were taking this class, which I thought helped to build camaraderie that stayed with us throughout the day.  It also helped me make contact with two creative women who live very close to me!

Here I am at my worktable in Jane's workshop.

For the rest of the day, we would alternate between clustering around a table at the front to watch Jane demonstrate one of the 10 techniques she was teaching us, and us heading back to our work spaces to try out the technique for ourselves.  We drew with regular pencils and water-soluble pencils, regular pens and water-soluble pens, and watercolors.  We drew true to our observations and also created silhouettes.  We drew on watercolor paper, on text paper, and on tissue paper.

Jane made herself available throughout, offering encouragement and constructive advice.  I felt perfectly comfortable calling out, "Jane, help me fix this!" and she would come right to my aid.

A fellow student at work.  I enjoyed seeing the work spaces each artist carved out for herself.

Another fellow student at work.  Don't we all look content?

This was much more of a process/instructive workshop than a product workshop.  We didn't necessarily walk out with a finished piece of art, but we came away with ten different techniques for representing objects in our art journals or art pieces.

My page from my work in the workshop.

A pencil sketch from a piece of nature.

I love how Jane divides her page up into quadrants for each of the representations, using any remaining open space for a title or some other graphic element.  I look forward to trying out this approach in my own sketchbook.

A sample page from Jane's sketchbook.

I also love how she numbers the sections in different ways, using rubber stamps or stencils or some other interesting method.

A sample spread from Jane's sketchbook.

At the end of class, we all spread our pages out on the floor so we could look at, admire, and take photos of each other's work.

Student work spread out on the floor.

A little bit closer look and you can see the talent displayed over the course of the workshop.

When I was explaining why I chose to take this class, I mentioned that my art journal usually makes use of collage elements and a rather abstract use of paint.  I would love to be able to represent the things I see, that are relevant to my day or the subject matter of my spreads, using drawings that I have created myself, rather than "borrowed images."  This workshop has equipped me with ten different techniques for doing just that!  And best of all, the supplies are so simple and portable:  paper, pencil, pen, waterbrush, and small watercolor set.  Nothing expensive, nothing complex.

Jane is such an encouraging instructor, and an interesting person to talk to.  One of the greatest pleasures of my weekend was having a chance to chat with her over coffee on Sunday morning as we awaited the start of our morning workshops.  We talked about life and art, and she introduced me to her friend and roommate Helen Shafer Garcia, who was also teaching at CREATE.  (Her workshop "Negative is Positively Painterly" was on my short list when I was making my selections; hopefully, I'll have a chance to learn from her at a future retreat!)

I have so much more to share with you:  the Artists' Faire, my purchases and freebies, my other two workshops, and A GIVEAWAY!  So be sure to come back by soon to hear the rest of the CREATE retreat story.

Around Here

No one will ever accuse me of traveling lightly!

I am about to set off for Somerset, New Jersey, and the 2013 CREATE Mixed-Media Art Retreat.  I have a bag of clothing, a bag of art supplies for my workshops, a bag of art supplies for my personal use, and a bag of bathroom items.  That doesn't even include the mammoth purse that I'll grab on the way out the door!  Thank goodness I'm not going by airplane, so I can avoid all those tough decisions about what to take and what to leave at home.

I am putting all of my supplies for the workshops into this organizer tote from Michaels.  I figure it is easy to carry and easy to access the tools and supplies during the workshops.

Among the other items, I have a container of wipes, some latex gloves, and a couple of cloth diapers that I always use for dabbing my brushes when using watercolors.  Looking at my bag, it's a little tough to determine if I'm making art or diapering a baby!

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For the first time in a long time, I bought a bouquet of flowers at a local co-op, and used a few little clippings to brighten the windowsill over the kitchen window.  I am definitely going to have to bring flowers into my home more often!
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It's been a long time since I've posted about my progress in Index Card a Day (ICAD).  Here's a sneak peek, but I'll try to show the gallery sometime next week!

Have a happy art-making weekend!