Talking Heads

I just got back today from Stamford, CT, where I spent 4 exciting days going to "art camp" with Art Is...You. Every day there were tons of classes to choose from. I'll have to report in on what all I made, but for now, I want to post my favorite thing, this "Talking Head", from a class by Doreen Kassel. When I saw her work, I knew I had to take this class. I'm not very experienced with working with polymer clay, but I learned lots of great new techniques, and I'm really pleased with how my Talking Head turned out. Lookie!

This little gal (I named her "Precious") stands about 6" tall. But the cool thing about Talking Heads is that the body and heads are separate, so you can change them up at will.

Some times,  Precious is just a little piggy.

We had such a blast this year at art camp. I am exhausted. 😄

More From Camp: Teeny Tiny Shriney

I was fortunate enough to take a class from Michael DeMeng last week, entitled "Teeny Tiny Shriney". He is the best! He taught us all about mixing paints to age and integrate parts to make a cohesive shrine. Here's what I made in his class, out of one of the tiny-sized Altoids tins. The sides were built up with Aves Apoxie Sculpt clay, my new favorite art supply! This clay was also used to adhere heavy and/or oddly shaped items, such as the rusty bottle cap, the typewriter key, and the small finial at the bottom of the shrine.

 

Most of the parts I brought from home, but I purchased the awesome "floating shift" typewriter key and the Japanese doll hand there. My friend Lora, who attended art camp with me, was nice enough to give me the eye, which really makes the piece. 

I have been saving that perfect half-circle rusty bottle cap forever. I'm glad it finally found the home it deserves.

Mixed Media Works from Art Camp

I recently went to art camp! It was actually an art retreat hosted by Art Is...You, and it was a blast! We took several classes and learned so much. The creative energy was contagious. It was like finding your people, all in one place.

One of my favorite classes was "Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously", taught by LorriMarie Jenkins. She was so fun and encouraging. The class focused on just having fun with your art. We had a six hour time period and we all made two pieces, both measuring 12" by 12". What?!? I am a plodder and a thinker! I need more planning time! But not in this class...I really learned to trust my instincts, and I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

Here's my first piece:

We layered each board with old book pages, then used lots of torn paper and fabric to add texture. Once we had a base collage, we added a copy of an old photograph and embellished it with ears or hats. This one has a mask because I accidentally ripped the image around her eye area. No problem; I just cut out some eyes from a moon image and slapped them down. Once we had the image of the woman on, we coated the entire piece with Mod Podge, and then gessoed everything except the image. I got way too heavy with the gesso on this one, but that's why we make two, to learn from our mistakes.

Once the gesso was down, we added in color using glaze, and then painted in details like polka dots.

Here are some details so you can get a better idea of the layers:

Burlap makes for great texture:

All that, before lunch!

After lunch, we started on our second work. On this one, I used more papers and less gesso. The text says, "the moonlight becomes her". In case you're wondering, that's Mrs. Grover Cleveland there. I hope she doesn't mind that I gave her a butterfly wing headdress!

Some details:

I may hang it in my turquoise bathroom, because the color really works with the wall color:

If you ever have a chance to go to an art retreat, do it! It was so incredibly inspiring. I have so many projects I'm dying to do now. Plus, I learned a lot of new techniques and worked with materials I'd never heard of, like the amazing Stabilo 8046 pencil, which outlines in a lovely dark black, but is water soluble, so you can feather a lovely shadow out from it. You can see this on the outer edge and around the images of the women in both of my pieces.

I have more to share from art camp. I'll try to get a few posts up this weekend.