Little Houses Collage - Friends of a Feather - Creative Retreat

Mom and I hosted a 

Friends of a Feather ~  Creative Retreat 

this past Sunday.  The gals who joined us got busy right away preparing their frames before deciding what theme they wanted to make their "Little Houses Collage."

The possibilities are endless...I have an enormous collection of inspiring pieces of art to use in a project of this kind.  Everyone was enjoying "playing" with ideas...coming up with the perfect choice for them!

Each of the girls had the choice to add a few special embellishments 

to truly make it their own...using buttons, lace, 

bingo markers, old rulers, scrabble pieces...

Amy added some additional layers to her little houses.

Jennifer decided to use Paris themed art...with memories of 

her trip to Europe with her husband last summer 2009...

~ ~ ~

Mary and Debbie are two friends who joined us to share in the 

creativity...they enjoyed their girl-time making something together.

  

Everyone who participates in a Creative Retreat is given a 

"Friends of a Feather"

~ Friendship Token ~

For this retreat we made little tags to give the girls...

just a little something extra to take home with them!

As the girls finished their projects, we served little cheesecakes with 

fresh berries, almonds, raspberry tea and coffee...delicious!

You can sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of this blog...

so you won't miss our next Creative Retreat!

"Charm School" Soldering Workshop ~

Recently, I hosted my Charm School Soldering Workshop in my studio.  Kara Ward and Ali Gripp are amazing instructors who were taught by the well-reknown queen of soldering Sally Jean Alexander!  

The gals who participated in my workshop had a great time creating there own one-of-a-kind miniature collage to put under glass and make into their very own soldered art jewelry to wear!

The finished pieces were so fun ~ and so uniquely original!

Precious Metal Clay Workshop ~

The Precious Metal Clay Workshop was held last Thursday in my studio. Robin Macintosh was the instructor who showed us how to work with the amazing clay that has a 99.9% silver content that, once fired, becomes a silver charm!

It was as easy as working with play doh ~ but the finished piece was much more interesting! Each participant was able to make approximately 5 charms to be fired in Robin's kiln.

November in the Studio!

Thanksgiving Gathering

in My Studio

My studio was a very busy place this past November! During our family Thanksgiving day celebration, it has been a tradition for some years, that my kids ~ all grown up now ~ and I gather in my creative space to make an ornament for the upcoming Christmas.

This year was somewhat different in the fact that Sara, my oldest, is 7 months pregnant with our first grandbaby. She wanted to work on "letters" of the baby's name that she will decorate and put up on the wall in the nursery. She first modge podged old children's literature text to the letters to use as the background ~ we will see where she goes from here ~ since she didn't have time to finish it today!

Jennifer, my second to the oldest, had started on a Christmas garland a few weeks back in my studio. She wanted to complete her project up so that she could display it in her home this Christmas.

My youngest ~ Michael ~ seemed to enjoy making one of the Paper Mache' birds that I host workshops on periodically in my studio.

Soldering Creative Workshop

Another fabulous time in the studio in November was when a duo team of instructors, Ali and Kara, came to my studio to teach a class on soldering ~ they have taken a workshop from one of the best soldering artists in the country, and it showed as they taught this class. I took the class myself ~ I am always looking forward to learning a new craft!

We were first instructed to create a collage ~ a section of the completed collage would be used for our charm...

Kara and Ali were very hands-on instructors ~ they wouldn't let us "miss a trick!"

Placing the copper foil tape around the edges of the collage under two pieces of glass...

Soldering around the edges...not as hard as I thought!

Plenty of flux, and a clean soldering iron makes the solder adhere very nicely to your piece!

This soldering workshop will definitely be on the workshop schedule that I am developing for the long winter months! If you ever wanted to learn about soldering...these are the gals to learn it from ~ right here in my studio!

Miniature Keepsake Scrapbook Workshop

My mom and I hosted another Miniature Keepsake Album workshop in the month of November. Kaki was making her keepsake album for her husband who is a history buff, and has just been published ~ she plans to display old family photos in it for him for Christmas.

Laura participated in the workshop...she wanted to make the album for her Girl Scout leader for Christmas ~ she is a very sweet girl who seemed to "get" how to make the album very quickly!

Lisa had quite a selection of fabrics that she brought with her ~ it was hard for her to choose which ones to use in her Miniature Keepsake Album.

It turned out beautifully ~ we added a little embellishment that I had laying in my studio ~ a unique piece of old round lace ~ just to see how it could be finished off!