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.

Comments

[Tanya]

hi diane!!!

it was great reading your ranger u story, as if i was there! hey! i was there! haha! okay! as if i were there again then!
we did have great fun, and our dinner and lobbyparties were soooo much fun, all part of the ranger family!!

i hope we get to see eachother again at ranger or somewhere else, who knows!
and belgium is a great place to visit and you are always welcome to my humble lodgings :-)

hugs, tanya

[tanya]

by the way you have a link om my blog
http://tanyawatts.blogspot.com

hugs, tanya

[milkcan]

That post definitely brought it all back! You got some great photos! It was so lovely to get to hang out at Ranger U.!