I’m getting ready to take a little art pilgrimage to Colorado for Art Camp For Women and hope you’ll consider coming with me. We’re going to have an amazing week creating, bonding, playing and making artful messes in the beautiful mountains. This is my one chance to get together with like-minded women and MAKE to our heart’s content! There is still room, so grab a friend and book a room together. I’ve made a short video (above) so we can get acquainted and I can share a sneak peek!
We supply it all!
If you’ve always wanted to play with these art supplies, you’ll have plenty of opportunities. Art Camp is different. Don’t bring yours, play with ours! We’ll be using: silver plated spoons, old book text, waxed linen cord, dyed ribbons, painted fusible web, fabric foil, angelina, dryer sheets, alcohol ink, acrylics, watercolors, inkjet printed fabric, assorted ephemera, beads, fabric paints, fabric dyes, ultra thick embossing enamel, foam stamps, handmade stamps, paper beads, Shiva paintsticks, delicious glitter, oil pastels, sponges, brayers, bubble wrap, rubbing plates, stencils, freezer paper stencils, gold leaf pens, embroidery floss, deColourant, bleach pens, color wash sprays, gel medium and MORE! What a fabulous mess we’ll make, and at the end we’ll have piles of handmade artwork to admire.
More Goodies!
And MORE!
The margaritas are chilling and the hot springs are calling. You deserve a retreat for the soul–a chance to make art without fear, in the company of other women. This is a much more intimate adventure than the big retreats, with a cozy, limited class size that ensures plenty of time to get to know each other.
Being a very Jill-of-all-trades type of person, I can pretty much do anything I put my mind to. Once in a while though, I find myself trying something and becoming frustrated because I cannot do it the first time I try it.
Napkin fabric-paper - duds to practice free-motion stitching on
Often I just throw my hands up and give up. Such has been the case with free-motion sewing. I read Kelli Perkins blog, see her beautiful stitch paper and other projects and think, “Oh I can do that – that looks fun.” Or I read about the fabric-paper in Beryl Taylor’s book and begin a project, only to come to a screeching stop at the part that involves a sewing machine.
Last summer I was introduced to the Bernina Super-Machines and since then my excuse has been that my sewing machine sucks and if I had that $4000.00 model all would be well. Well, my dear, I would just like to say, “have you seen the machine embroidery coming out of Pakistan, Guatemala and other equally impoverished places?” I’m sure they are mostly using old treadle Singer machines.” (Yes, I talk to myself too.)
I have made a few pieces that involved a bit of sewing, mainly by muscling my way through, starting and stopping, using the presser foot on the machine. Then a few months ago I bought a free-motion sewing foot and have tried it three times. The last time, yesterday, I ended up pretty much in the same place as the other two times, swearing and frustrated with three or four broken needles. To add insult to injury, I am in the middle of a severe allergy/hay fever season, so my nose was running too.
Couldn’t I just follow the path of least resistance and be someone who doesn’t sew?
Epiphany? Insight?
I woke up early this morning and had an epiphany. This is a three-day, holiday weekend. No one expects anything of me, what if I apply myself to figuring this out. How about if for 10 minutes out of every waking hour I try to free-motion sew. Practice makes perfect – right?
First three sessions from the back.
And what about a plan. Instead of just jamming ahead willy-nilly, what if I work on something specific like perfecting making spirals and then other circles of various sizes. If it goes well I can try some other things.
First three sessions - front
What could deflect me from my chosen path this weekend? Well we could have disastrous weather and given the way the wind is blowing, we just might. Or the grand kids could come by – they are more distracting than the worst of storms – I should be so lucky.
Session 4 in which I started breaking needles again!
What else, well at the rate I’m going I could run out of sewing machine needles. “My dear, you have great coupons from both Michael’s and JoAnne’s you can get more needles.”
Well what if I do all that and still cannot make spirals and circles or anything else? I just have to say, that I will be better at it than if I don’t try – I probably couldn’t get any worse – so what have I got to lose? HA!
So as soon as I get dressed, it is now 5:45 am, and get through my exercising, I will begin. I will keep you updated. Coffee.
12 hours later
Now it is about 5:45 pm and here is the update – I am getting better! AND this is going to take more than a little bit of practice. At some point I started worrying about the upper thread tension and went to YouTube and found a tutorial that addressed the issue within 2 minutes!
What have I learned so far?
Session 4 - Front
1. Some things take more than one try. (Or more than many tries.)
2. Some things are worth working at over time.
3. I am a bit embarrassed to put these photos up.
4. This is fun, I like the look, even the kind of scrappy, primitive (i.e. bad) sewing.
5. I’ll be back at it as soon as possible, if not tonight – it’s my turn to make dinner – then tomorrow.
Gosh, my business partner is a master at art quilting and might disown me when she sees this post. Nah…
Appearing out of the mist of the enchanted forest of the internet, Kelli lures us into her spell with the subtle approach to her oh-so-unsubtle, magical, mixed-media art.
“During Art Camp, we’ll have plenty of time to veer off the beaten path to explore randomness in all its forms.” Kelli invites and then casually adds, “We’ll make random poetry, do some random art journaling, make some random marks with bleach, paint, stamps and foil, meander on our pages with random thread sketching and see what happens when we leave the safety of our comfortable art nest. We may just find that we can fly!”
“We will?” We all gulp incredulously.
“I can’t write!” cries one.
“I do not do random well at all,” says another with despair.
“And I don’t think I am up to this!” sighs another.
“How do you propose we go about this?” We all look hopefully to Kelli, the blue-haired goddess.
“On the first morning of the art workshops, we’ll weave wonderment by incorporating vintage text from old books into a variety of forms, creating a subtext of meaning that burbles below the surface. Sorting through lost words, we’ll let other voices speak in lines of random poetry we turn into art.” Kelli is so clever, soothing our anxious voices.
“And then after our (scrumptious) lunch, we’ll surprise ourselves by finding out we can turn a simple pen sketch into a glorious fabric surface.” With a deprecating shrug she turns away.
“But then what will we do?” We call after her. She turns to smile and wave, fading back into the misty internet, leaving us waiting to hear more from Kelli in our next newsletter.
