A Window Seat...

An Art Ghoulery...

Its ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties this time of the year everywhere you look, except at my friends Don and James’s house!  They have an Art Ghoulery in their front yard.  It’s the most amazing site.  Some of the world’s finest art as you’ve never seen it before and will likely not see again!   But, truly you should see it! 

Each year they turn their yard into some Halloween spectacle with a grand theme.  They’ve had weddings and beach parties and even a slumber party to name just a few.  Their yard is transformed into whatever is needed to complete the theme.  There are skeletons galore, dressed in appropriate attire, and every imaginable prop!. 

These two spend weeks and months preparing for this time of year.  And then they invite all of their friends to join them in celebration.  The inside of the house is decorated with bugs and spiders and rats.  The staircase is lined with lighted skulls and upstairs you’ll find a ‘ghost’ carrying his candelabra in a darkened hallway.  The mirror in the bathroom in dripping in blood and a bowl of eyeballs is on the vanity!

Downstairs everyone is decorating some of the hundreds of sugar skulls they’ve molded.  The house is filled in nook and cranny with ones that have been decorated by themselves or family and friends.  Many have been donated to their collection and they proudly display them for all to see.

Then of course there is the food!  They cook for days and set a feast that is not to be missed.  James makes the best chicken mole in town!  There are cheese and crackers and ‘fingers’ to devour.  There are cake and sweets covered in spiders and bats!  This menu goes on and on.  I don’t know where they get the energy or the time to do all of this but I am sure glad they have it!  I wouldn’t miss it for the world.  Sit back, relax and enjoy the view from their window on the world of Halloween.

 

Trick or Treat...

That’s what yesterday all was about, trick or treat.  For those that joined us at Friends for the Oktoberfest it was all about the treats.  I will say there was a trick or two taught in each class though!  The fun part was the annual Trick or Treat in the Junction for all the kids.  There were many hundreds of them dressed in for terrific costumes as you will see.

This years Oktoberfest was another great chance for everyone to catch a couple of fabulous workshops, have a continental breakfast, get a ‘goody bag’, sit with friends over a sumptuous lunch, spend the afternoon in another workshop and then end the day with a drawing for a door prize!

The two morning workshops that everyone had to choose from was one taught by Jean Mendel and Sandy Huff and the other taught by me.  Jean and Sandy taught an open spine box that held a little book inside.  They used sheets of the incredible handmade Italian papers that you can find at Friends.  This paper is exquisite and affordable.  I know that several of those who chose this class stocked up on a few extra rolls for future boxes.  The patterns in these papers are to die for.

The afternoon workshops were taught by Rita Noble and Sarah Brighton.  Rita created a most clever little slide box covered in polymer clay.  It had a pull drawer and a cord for hanging.  I spoke with Kelly late last evening and she had hung hers already.  The creativity in this class was beyond beautiful.  They had geometric shapes and leaves and fish, pretty little fish.  They used PearlEx to color the black clay and added wire and beads for the finishing touches.  These boxes were amazing.

Sarah Brighton did a workshop of tag building.  The participants had tables of materials to choose from.  There were buttons, beads, sequins, yarn, collage sheets and row after row of papers.  They had three hours in which to create as many tags and they wished.  The tags be as simple as you wanted or and intricate and complicated as your imagination would take you.  She had loads of Halloween collage sheets with just some of the most fun items.  I was jealous!

My class was a beautiful book made with craft envelopes as its base.  The pages were covered and embellished.  I partnered with SEI for this workshop and used one of the newest lines in their catalog called Windsor.  This is by far the most beautiful paper collection I’ve ever worked with. Thank you SEI for creating this incredible line.

 Each student had 24 sheets of 8x8 paper, there were foils and shimmers and patterns and distressed as well as plain cardstock.  There were matching tags and small envelopes.  I added ribbons and brads and corner touches as well as gold and turquoise bling to make these papers pop just a little bit more!  I also added a beautiful brown ribbon that was recycled from a friends wedding this year.  It was made to be used in this book.  A nice little treat to add to the book.  I think I will make a book and give it to them!

In the three hours of this workshop the pages were flying around the table.  The book was held together with split rings.  I took the sample apart and everyone passed the pages to one another, giving them a sample to work from.  I also created a page layout cd of the class for each kit.  I had a few extra kits that I put together and they went flying out the door.  Nothing left!  In the sample I created I didn’t over embellish.  While I used a bit of everything I wanted each person to be able to make the book their own.  I left loads of room on the pages so that pictures could be added if they wished.  Room enough for notes too!  Every page had three holes punched and finished with eyelets so that the book could be handled without worry.  In the end everyone was still talking about what they planned to do with their books when they got home.  I hope that I get to see some of them!

The silly part of the day belonged to the throngs of kids that were all costumed and trick or treating the merchants in the Junction. There were tiny babies to adults all dressed up walking the four blocks and being loaded up with enough sugar to keep them going for months.  At 2PM there were dozens of ‘zombies’ dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  This dance was going on all over the world in celebration of 25 years of his song/album.  They were a hoot; the practicing had gone on for weeks.   I wished they could have blocked the intersection for the five minutes this event took so that everyone was able to really see it!  Being tall I was able to get a couple of pictures holding my camera high above a few folks.

The Oktoberfest ended with everyone receiving a door prize.  They did a bit of shopping while showing off their projects to one another.  I saw beautiful Italian paper boxes, loads and loads of fun tags, clay boxes I wanted and many beautiful books.  I think everyone had a great time and it’s always good to hear this.  I look forward to whatever Friends has up its sleeve for its next special event.  Oh I do know the next BIG thing on the calendar is Claire Hampton! She will be here all the way from England again in January.  One sample is already in the store and the other will be there soon!  Sign up early, you won’t want to miss a workshop or a class that Claire teaches.  She is the senior educator for Hampton Art and is just the best!  In the meantime sit back relax and enjoy the view from your window seat.

Ranger U...

What can I say about Ranger U? It was just the best experience.  Three days of non-stop techniques, 23 incredibly talented artists and me!  I left New Jersey tired and wanting more.  I would do it again in heartbeat!

I arrived on Thursday late in the afternoon, got my own personal shuttle from Newark and had a lovely ride into TintonFalls.  I called my ‘roomie’ Aimee when I arrived and she met me in the lobby, went upstairs and dumped the bags and off across the street to grab some food and drink!  I had only exchanged a couple of e-mails with Aimee prior to Ranger U and it was fun getting to know her.   As we sat in came a couple of others, one who looked a bit familiar to me.  Since the only other person I would know besides Tim Holtz was Leandra Franich owner of Paper Artsy, I hoped I was right.  I had met her on a couple occasions and took an all day workshop with her in Las Vegas.  They looked a bit like us so I said, Rangerettes? They laughed and came on over to join us for dinner.  The time went fast and we were all tired and wanted to rest up for the days ahead, so off we went to dreamland.  Dreaming of ink and paint and powders and wax seemed to be pretty common.

We all arrived at Ranger early Friday morning greeted by several employees as we came in the door.  Off to our classroom where Tim, Suze Weinberg and Claudine Hellmuth awaited.  It didn’t take long for things to get started!  After all the formal and informal introductions we did a tour of the Ranger facility.  We saw how the day to day operation runs, how they stock and ship; where they ‘mix’ the magic ingredients to make some of our favorite products and we all got our own bottle of Stickles right off the ‘line’.  Just prior to the tour as we entered the warehouse we were all assigned a table that held some very large boxes.  They contained everything we would be working with for the weekend.  We labeled them and off we went.   Oh yes I forgot when we chose our seats we had our own denim apron and were handed our ‘back stage’ pass!

 

Tim gave us a quick overview of what the next three days held for us.  There would be no ‘slacking’, the days were filled with everything Ranger.  We each had a 3 ring binder that had all of the techniques we would learn over the next  few days. Without skipping a beat he introduced Suze Weinberg and we were off and running.  Suze taught ‘melt art’ with her line that Ranger produces.  We completed nine techniques using wax, and dyes, and perfect pearls and her famous melt pan.  I know that I learned more about melting than the witch from Oz.  I long ago gave away my melt pan for a door prize because I didn’t have a clue what to do with it.  Thankfully the one I was using in class was mine to keep…woo hoo!  Suze gave us each a 12x12 black frame that we created a tile collage on using our completed objects.  

We broke for lunch and what a great lunch too.  Deli sandwiches and salads!  No deli sandwiches like them here in Seattle I assure you.  We mingled and got to know someone other than our table mates.  A good time and we moved quickly though lunch and back to work.

The afternoon was spent with Claudine Hellmuth and her new line of paints.  Not knowing what was in our boxes we simply picked out the bag that was labeled, Day 1 Afternoon.   We had Gesso and Matte and Glossy Medium and nine jars of paint, all of us with a different color palette.  There were brushes and her new canvas as well. Claudine taught us ten separate techniques.  Each of these was completed on a shipping tag, the same way we would do Tim’s over the weekend.   After each technique was complete we had a label that would be placed on the back of the tag for quick reference.  Great to have the binder but the tags can hang on a ring right in front of me in my studio.  We got to paint on the new sticky back canvas in her line.  Great fun a loads of possibilities, even for me the non-painter!  Everyone received a ‘jewel’ case filled with dictionary pages, buttons and some ribbon.  We got to play with this and make a ‘home’ for our tags. We finished right after 5pm and went to the far end of the warehouse where Ranger had prepared a bbq just for us.  Alain and Justin (owners), their wives and kids and some of the other employees were there to talk with everyone.  The food was great and the wine tasty!  Loads of fun getting to know everyone, finding out where they traveled from and what they do.  We had stampers, scrappers, publishers, painters, storeowners, instructors, designers all together to complete our group of 24.  I felt very fortunate and quite honored to be among these folks.   It was late and I was tired, off to sleep I went.

Saturday and Sunday were non-stop.  Tim taught us 51 techniques.  That’s right, 51!  Hard to believe that you can complete so much in such a little amount of time.  Tim is a great teacher.  He paces himself well, makes sure that everyone ‘gets’ what he is trying to teach you then walks the room to see that you’ve gotten it right.  As we did with Claudine each of these techniques was completed on a shipping tag and finished with a label on the backside for easy reference.  Techniques were broken down by product/line.  We learned a lot of the science of the products which was really quite interesting.

 

We broke for lunch on Saturday and Mario had picked up these great Sicilian pizzas.  Can’t get them here either…L  Tim said we didn’t have to take an hour for lunch unless we really wanted to!  Who was he kidding, we ate pretty fast and got right back to the classroom.  When you’re on a roll you don’t want to stop.  Straight on through until 5pm and then we were done for the day.  Saturday found about 8 of us going to Redbank to have dinner and lots of great conversation about our impression of the last two days.  I was joined at dinner by Tanya (Belgium), Sue  (Spain), Jeanne (Utah), Aimeee (Ohio) and Michael (Arizona).  Just a great group of new friends!  We left  and went back to the hotel where we took over the lobby for a few more hours and were joined by Leandra and Lin (England).  I had said over dinner that we needed ‘graduation hats’ and there in the lobby we folded our paper hats and hatched the plan to get them decorated without the ‘teachers’ seeing them!  We actually managed to pull it off, God it was funny!  Its way late by this time and I needed sleep, but hey I stayed up to watch SNL and make a bracelet!

Sunday was a full day with Tim.  More techniques.  More tags. More ink and more mess!  Another quick lunch and back to work! The time went far too fast when suddenly we realized we were on technique number 50 and we had only one more to go… It was finished!  We were done!  A round of applause for the terrific education provided  to us by Suze, Claudine and Tim.  Another round of applause for the hospitality shown by everyone at Ranger and a special thanks to Mario and Patti who took such good care of everything!  We packed our things, broke for dinner and then came back for a Q&A. 

 

I can’t say enough about what a wonderful experience it was for me.  I learned so much and can’t wait to begin sharing these techniques in many upcoming classes.  My box arrived today and I have to rearrange my studio just to put things away!  I need an organizer!  I will remember this weekend always, meeting so many new friends, making plans and finding ways to stay in touch.    It was an experience of a lifetime, just the best.   Thank you ,Suze.  Thank you, Claudine.  Thank you, Tim and most of all thank you Ranger for creating such a wonderful program.

 

Next post I’ll tell you about Monday and my stop at  John BonJovi's house!  That’s another story…J  In the meantime sit back, relax and enjoy your view.