Art Camp 2016

Also known as my summer vacation!

For me, one of the best things that has come from me being part of the AJE blog team is that I have made so many lifelong friends despite the fact that most of them are thousands of miles away. For the past couple of years some of those friends have been kind enough to host and entertain me on vacations to the USA and I have just returned from yet another wonderful trip staying with Jenny Davies-Reazor in Delaware.

Holidays with Jenny, a trained art teacher are packed with creative and artistic pursuits and I always come home full of ideas and inspiration, which is why I refer to it as art camp. We've even discovered that if we have to drive any distance together we start bouncing ideas around that snowball so quickly I have to take notes while Jenny drives so that we don't forget them. On past visits Jenny has introduced me to many new skills including polymer clay techniques, handmade book making, felting and last year - bead embroidery, to which I am now completely addicted.

This year was no exception so I thought I'd share some of the highlights with you.

Our first trip out was to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore - a small museum crammed to the rafters with some incredible contemporary art and installations in all sorts of media. Photography is not allowed in the majority of the museum but I did manage to get some shots around the grounds.

Entrance to the AMVA and Jenny with a magic bus

Incredible mirrored mosaic egg by Andrew Logan

http://www.avam.org/

We were allowed to photograph this one particular exhibit and Jenny just couldn't resist a little interpretive art. If you're planning a visit I can also recommend the restaurant on the top floor for some great food and no, the food has no link with the exhibit!

http://www.avam.org/

The exhibit that both Jenny and I were struck by the most were by fibre artist Chris Roberts-Antineau and since I couldn't photograph them I have borrowed some images from her gallery with full credits given. I would so love to get to New Orleans to see more of her work.

Chris is a self taught artist and the sentiment of her artist's statement really resonates with me. I think it has great relevance for those of us who suffer self doubt about our abilities or validity as artists:

http://www.antieaugallery.com/

These pieces are worked in applique and embroidery and clearly have stories behind them. The detail is incredible and the each piece is so beautifully made... top of my shopping list if I ever (unlikely) have enough disposable income.

http://www.antieaugallery.com/art/sketchbook/

http://www.antieaugallery.com/art/swan/

http://www.antieaugallery.com/art/ascension/

http://www.antieaugallery.com/art/owl/

If you you like textile art and can get to a Chris Roberts-Antineau exhibition I would thoroughly recommend going.

Another great thing about visiting Jenny is that she lives close to the lovely Marsha Neal-Minutella so I get to hang out with her for a while too. These ladies have regular bead nights with a lovely group of ladies and they were kind enough to arrange one for when I was in town - good food, good wine, great company and bead projects...what could be better?

Jenny taught everyone how to make wonderful little beaded needle felt collages and Marsha has been making up kits of my Goddess bracelet with her ceramic buttons and leather. I haven't made one of these in an age and it was great fun all making them together.

Collage by Marsha Neal using one of my goddess focals, goddess bracelets by me, goddess bracelets by Jenny Davies-Reazor, Collage by Lisa Goodman with ceramic focal by Jenny.

Whenever I stay at Jenny's I try to make sure that I get some crab cakes in at some point and this year we managed that on a couple of occasions. This time around though we also got down and dirty picking crabs for Labour Day dinner....I always was a messy eater but at least this time I wasn't alone!

There comes a time in every vacation when you just need to slow down and relax a little and we chose to do this by staying home and hitting the seed beads. I managed to complete two pieces both of which were designed around ceramic cabochons by Caroline Dewison:

Jenny meanwhile was working on these two fabulous projects:

Then it was time for some more culture so we headed off to visit the Philadelphia Magic Gardens - the largest public artwork of award winning mosiac mural artist Isaiah Zagar:

'Spanning half a block on Philadelphia’s famous South Street, the museum includes an immersive outdoor art installation and indoor galleries. Zagar created the space using nontraditional materials such as folk art statues, found objects, bicycle wheels, colorful glass bottles, hand-made tiles, and thousands of glittering mirrors. The site is enveloped in visual anecdotes and personal narratives that refer to Zagar’s life, family, and community, as well as references from the wider world such as influential art history figures and other visionary artists and environments.'

Theses images are from both the 'Gardens' and the streets around the area that are full of Zagar's work. The installation is rich in it's variety with homages to many great artists. It's also something of an assault on the senses - one of those places where you'll see something different every time you go back and never see everything no matter how often that is. Again - I thoroughly recommend a visit.

https://www.phillymagicgardens.org/about-us/about-isaiah-zagar/

https://www.phillymagicgardens.org/about-us/about-isaiah-zagar/

https://www.phillymagicgardens.org/about-us/about-isaiah-zagar/

Then it was back to the studio for more play time and because I miss my fur baby when I'm away Zoey and Oscar, Jenny's adorable dogs make sure I don't miss out on the cuddles and the laughs.

Zoey gets cuddly in her cone while Oscar keeps an eye on the road.

Next it was time to get on and learn some new tricks and this year it was print making. The only time I remember doing this in the past is with potatoes and poster paints at about the age of 5 and I was hoping I could do a bit better than that now.

Here you can see some of Jenny's hand carved plates and the resulting prints...and why she's the art teacher and I'm the student! That's me at the bottom trying to cave a simple leaf without slicing pieces out of my hand...It seems I have a tendency to put my fingers in harms way in most creative activities!

We actually took ourselves away to the beach for a day to carry on with these projects and I really did get into it. My designs need a lot more work which frustrates me because I always want to be perfect at the first attempt but that would make for a very dull life wouldn't it? I was really pleased with how the suns came out on the black paper so I'll be pursuing that further and I think I might be printing my own Christmas cards this year. Oh and I still have the requisite number of fingers!

We didn't get to spend too much time actually on the beach as the poor dogs were attacked by a swarm of black flies and we had to make a run for it. I did manage to pocket a few treasures though and Jenny gave me the wonderful big shell skeleton she found which will be great for both textures and as a photography prop.

And last but not least of course I had to do some shopping... A lot of beading supplies in the UK are imported from the US which means we pay a lot more for them and have far less choice. If we import ourselves we get hit with import taxes and handling charges on a ridiculously low purchase value. But none of that applies if you bring them into the UK yourself for personal use so it would have been foolish of me not to stock up on supplies while I was there wouldn't it? Quite a little hoard I bought home with me in the end.

So that's another vacation over then but I have so many things I want to do as a result of it that it'll stay with me for a good long while and I'm sure you'll be seeing the fruits of it on AJE at some point. I owe a big debt of Gratitude to Jenny and her husband James for hosting me and to everyone else who helped make it such a memorable time...I look forward to returning the favour sometime soon.

And if your holidays include your creative pursuits or people you've met through them we'd love to hear about them.

Vacation Inspiration

They do say that a change is as good as a rest and of course, the whole point of vacations is to provide us with a respite from the daily grind and help us recharge our batteries. Having just returned from  three weeks in the USA spent in the company of some of my fellow AJE team mates I can tell you that vacations can also be a huge source of inspiration.

My trip began in New Jersey With Diana Ptaszynski and the day after I arrived we set off for Bead Fest in Philadelphia - this was my second visit to the show and it was great to catch up with beady friends again and meet new ones. It's hard not to inspired amidst so much talent and so many gorgeous beads and of course I bought lots of them!

Tracey Seder Donaghe, Diane Hawkey, Staci Smith & Joan Miller, Maku Raku

Lisa Peters Russ was selling there for the first time and I was excited to meet her and get my hands on some of her work....I was not disappointed since she  had a huge array of beautiful ceramic pieces with the most gorgeous glazes.  I was particularly drawn to these stunning round cabochons but since they are bigger than anything I work with in my jewellery designs I was at a bit of a loss as to what I would do with them.

Lisa Peters -Russ

Every time I passed Lisa's table they would pull me me back to look again until finally I was struck by an idea to use them in mixed media wall art with textiles and metal or maybe Polymer clay. This was a bit of a bolt out of the blue since I've never really considered myself to be a mixed media or a wall art person but how great is it to pick up someones work and have it generate completely random ideas in your own head?

There are literally hundreds of workshop at Bead Fest so while there I took the opportunity to take a class with Cooky Schock to learn how to make these lovely braided wire bangles.

I'm a big fan of all things wire as you may know and this techniques adds nicely to my repertoire but as you can see from my class attempt I need a little practice...it's not difficult but it does require some concentration to get an even tension but I will get there eventually.

The second week of my holiday was spent with Jenny Davies-Reazor  and was always going to be full of creative play... you can't stay with a talented artist and teacher like Jenny and not take the opportunity to learn something new. Jenny has been adding more and more bead embroidery to her work this year and since I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with seed beads I wanted to have go at bezeling cabochons. With Jenny's guidance I managed to create this pendant around a shell fossil and a Labradorite cab. It seems I like my beads to sit very close together - too close in fact so the edging on this piece puckered a little but for a first attempt I was pretty pleased.

Jenny also showed me how to make this beautiful 'Silk Road' bangle - another one of Cooky's innovative designs. I just love this - it's so easy to take the basic design and really make it your own by the way you embellish it.

Phot courtesy of Cooky Schock

It's rather fortunate for me that Jenny also lives close to Marsha Neal Minutella - a ceramic artist who has fallen in love with needle felting since she started working at Sarafina Fibre Art. I was hoping to be able to get in a Visit to Sarafina and maybe do some felting with Marsha and lucked out on both counts.

We went to see Marsha at Sarafina and I was just blown away by the work of artist and owner Sara Renzulli who not only creates incredibly realistic 3D sculptures but also in effect 'paints' with felt to create the most amazing wall hangings... How could I not be inspired!

Stunning work and way, way beyond my ability but when Marsha invited round for a pumpkin making session I was totally up for it - she made it all seem very easy and we had great fun picking out fibres and stabbing away watching balls of wool turn into these lovely little pumpkins.

Photo courtesy of Marsha Neal Minutella

I was so happy with mine and I think I may have found a new addiction. In fact I know I have as I made Jenny take me back to Sarafina's before I left so I could buy  just a few supplies...

Jenny and I also took some time out from our creative play to seek out inspiration elsewhere with  a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the 'Impressionists' exhibition - sorry, no photography allowed there but I did manage to sniff out some beads and some pottery that took my fancy.

We also visited the 'Torpedo Factory Arts Centre" in Alexandria - an amazing place full of artists studio's and galleries representing a diverse range of style and media.

And it didn't stop there...for the last leg of my trip Jenny and I hit the road to meet up with two more of our AJE team mates Jen Cameron and Karen Totten at Jen's house at Lake James, Indiana. It was a long 10 hour drive punctuated by frequent stops for coffee and, towards the end sugar but it was so, so worth it. Jen's house is in a beautiful location which in itself inspires...

We basically spent the labour day weekend sharing skills, bouncing ideas around and of course - playing with a few beads. Jen and Karen were also keen to learn how to bead bezel cabochons and I happily set to work on my second, more intricate piece using one of Lisa Peter's cabochons and some extra stitches Jenny taught me.

Another of Jenny's many talent's is making hand made books - she taught me one Japanese stab stitch technique last year and I've made several more since then. We were all keen to have a go this year and tis time Jenny showed us another technique using Coptic stitch. Everyone's books turned out beautifully and I will certainly be making more...

Over the weekend we also had a bronze clay session which Jenny wrote about in her post last week and with Cooky Schock's kind permission I was also able to  demonstrate the wire braiding technique for the bangle I made at Bead Fest.

On top of all this creativity, Jen's husband James spent the weekend literally catering to our every whim...meals, snacks, cocktails and all top quality. So we played, we ate, we drank - a bit, we laughed a lot and had a thoroughly good time and speaking for myself, the time I spent with these funny, warm and talented ladies was both a pleasure and a privilege.

Looking back on my three weeks I can safely say that I enjoyed every minute of it and the people I shared it with and the places I went left me with a head full of ideas and a real hunger to get stuck into some new work. So what have I done about it since I got home a week ago..? Well unfortunately not too much since I'd barely set foot off the plane at Heathrow before I went down with an awful cold and throat infection...talk about post holiday blues! I have managed to do a bit more  bead embroidery though - I re-did the edging on my first piece (I'm a bit of a perfectionist) and started work on some new pieces....

Funny Face cab by Diana Ptaszynsksi, Lampork cab by Susan Kennedy, Ceramic feather cab by Caroline Dewison

Obviously these new found passions mean that I had to do a bit of supply shopping but happily that was easily done from my sick bed!

I'm on the mend now though and looking forward to getting back into the studio and using my vacation inspiration to kick start some new work. Do your holidays inspire you..who are the people and what are the places that fuel your creativity?

Bronze clay. In the beginning...

You have to start somewhere.

I have tentatively dabbled in silver clay twice. Once in a private class in San Diego over 10 years ago. The instructor was Jonna Faulkner; I was working at the Shepherdess. Then here in Delaware; my good friend Sara Teixido is a metal clay goddess, and I have used the medium under her guidance. But that's as far as I went...

Why? Price? Fear that I would love it SO there would be no turning back? My magpie-like love of all things shiny silver? Then there is the bronze, and the copper. I have had so many gorgeous pieces from my colleagues and AJE team mates. Still I hesitated. Carbon? Firing? Learning curve? Sintering?

Whee! Free rein to test out Karen's stamps! 

This Labor Day weekend a few of us from the blog gathered together for a mini "Art Camp".  With both Karen and Lesley there - Jennifer & I had masterful support to dive into bronze. This post is in no means a how-to! Just my excitement at trying... and succeeding... in a medium that I had longed to try for years.

One picture of me at work where my hands weren't a blur... LOL

First let me say - the stuff is HEAVY. you take a pinch of bronze clay, compared to a similar pinch of polymer or stoneware. Wow. Its dense and feels substantial. Working with it was as expected: lube up your hands and molds as needed. Don't dilly dally as it dried out rather quickly.

Layer after layer. Spacing things in the carbon/ 

Karen made loading the ceramic firing box make SO much sense. Totally demystified the process for me. And while things fired, we went to work with seed beads. ( I introduced them all to peyote stitch beaded bezels and bead embroidery. They may or may not be hooked! )

Cannot wait to see! 

I'M SO EXCITED. Doing a Snoopy dance in my head right now.

Freshly washed: Karen's, Jennifer's and mine all mixed together... 

Post firing? Lesley and great advice on sintering, how it sounds, how to test it...  Its worth it to try to break a piece to see if the clay sintered properly. And the metallic "ring" of your newly fired piece on the sink is music to one's ears! Again I was struck with the heft of the pieces. Sure, mine were a bit "sturdy" and could be thinner, but they feel "real". The image above shows the natural patina resulting in the firing. These were washed off, that's all!

At home now - brush and tumble... 

To tumble or not to tumble? To sand to a satin finish? To burnish high points to a high shine? How do you decide!? The goddess ( top left, below) was burnished with an agate burnisher. The group on the right was tumbled - I loved the subtle satin sheen they have now. The last two ( bottom left) were scrubbed with a brass brush. I think this batch is complete - reminding me of different finishes and possibilities.

The specifics... details and finishes. 

A perfect partnership. 

And this one? Its mine! A wee bronze charm stamped with a eucalyptus pod from San Diego - and my thumbprint apparently! This stunning cab was from Lesley, and the bead work was completed after a great weekend of friends, creativity, techniques... and wine. 

All in all, I think I love bronze. Now to try copper. I was lucky - I know one doesn't get every piece fired perfectly every time. But until next time... 

What new technique or medium are you eager to try?